For almost a decade now, Gareth Edwards has been making blockbusters bigger than almost any director in Hollywood, but even the biggest directors have to start small. Such is the case with Edwards’ feature-length debut, Monsters. This 2010 monster (literally) movie gives you all the sci-fi horror goods that you need, but in fascinating ways that you might not expect going in. Despite working in the visual effects, TV, and movie industries for years, Edwards had to be crafty while making his debut. This meant taking over most aspects of production, from the conception stages of the movie to the final edit. If you want to see a blockbuster filmmaker operating on a similar scale, but doing so on a low budget, then you’d be hard-pressed to find a better debut than Monsters.
Gareth Edwards Directed Blockbusters ‘Godzilla’ and ‘Rogue One’
These days, Gareth Edwards has been sitting at the top of the filmmaking food chain for years. A little over nine years ago, for his sophomore feature, the acclaimed director was able to take the reins of a massive franchise and reboot Godzilla in the property’s second American production. That film showcased everything that Edwards had proven himself to be able to achieve with Monsters but done so on a gargantuan budget through a big studio. Edwards wasn’t just a kick-ass monster movie director — he could make massive, thrilling studio films that further propelled the names of intellectual properties.
The Gareth Edwards hype train was moving full-steam ahead, leading to his 2016 Star Wars spinoff, Rogue One. Whether you enjoy that film or not, you cannot deny the technical prowess that is on display there. Edwards’ ability to make enormous things like the Death Star or Godzilla look bigger than they ever have on-screen was his calling card, but he also showed that he knew how to sustain a fantastically gritty tone, and could direct gripping action scenes better than most others in Hollywood.
But before he would take over Toho’s biggest franchise or make a galaxy far, far away dark and gritty, Gareth Edwards would be leading a tiny production for a British indie monster movie. He entered the movie industry initially working in visual effects departments but knew he would have to get back on track with his dreams of directing a movie himself. What resulted was Monsters, a film that he designed to pick up where other monster movies leave off. The film follows Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) and Samantha Wynden (Whitney Able) as they have to travel through Mexico’s “Infected Zone” in order to get back to the United States. In this mysterious “Infected Zone” are all kinds of sinister alien creatures and, you guessed it, monsters.
How Did Gareth Edwards Make ‘Monsters’ On a Low Budget?
Now how does one achieve making a film like this independently? With a plot like that, you’d typically expect this movie to be produced by a big Hollywood studio. Instead, Edwards had to get crafty with working his way around the production, and he had the perfect background to do so. In a 2010 interview with Collider about Monsters, Edwards stated, “I wanted to shoot it realistically, opportunistically and guerilla, but that wouldn’t mean it would look horrible because of these 35 mm adapters that connect to low-budget, very cheap, high-definition cameras, so it can still look cinematic. And then, on top of that, I did my special effects very cheaply.”
Moving forward, he would end up taking over almost every aspect of production. Edwards is credited as the director, writer, cinematographer, production designer, and visual effects designer of this movie. Instead of hiring too many crew members and having a huge crew to keep track of and direct, he took most of these facets on for himself. In an interview with Cult Projections, he said that there were a couple of extra people on set making Monsters, like a sound man, driver, the cast, and someone who could speak Spanish for the crew. Compared to other productions, that is ridiculously small — even by indie standards! What resulted from this practice did not look like the kinds of random, low-budget, schlocky sci-fi movies that you stumble across on streaming services. Throw Monsters on in front of someone without telling them that it was a low-budget indie movie and ask if they think a studio made it. (Spoiler alert: they will.)
By the end of its production, Monsters‘ budget stacked up to be more than $15,000, though Edwards said in the above interview with Cult Projections that he doesn’t have a specific number to report. But according to Box Office Mojo, the budget was $500,000. Most of the budget went towards paying actors and what little crew he did have on-site, as well as booking flights and motels for everyone. That’s right, the very little amount of money spent on this movie wasn’t primarily put into visual effects or props or anything, it was mostly just to hire everyone, get them to set, and give them a bed to sleep in. Incredible.
Gareth Edwards Brought What He Learned From ‘Monsters’ to ‘The Creator’
13 years later, Gareth Edwards has his fourth directorial effort hitting theaters — The Creator. This is his first original film since Monsters and tells the story of a war taking place between humans and AI. Meanwhile, an ex-special forces agent has to protect an AI in the form of a young child, while also hunting down the Creator of the AI that threatens humanity’s existence. Sounds like a massive movie, right? Well, this time it is. The Creator is a big-budget science fiction epic that’s being distributed by 20th Century Studios but was filmed with the same small crew sensibilities as his debut. The film was shot on a Sony FX3, a full-frame, mirrorless camera that you can buy at Best Buy, that can also achieve IMAX resolution. So basically, we might have a pretty significant entry in movie history with The Creator, depending on how many other blockbusters take on Edwards’ production ideas.
If you’re excited about The Creator or are just a huge fan of Godzilla and Rogue One, you need to check out Monsters. It’s a pretty fantastic sci-fi horror movie that’ll have you ducking your head beneath the covers over and over again — a truly underrated genre picture from the 2010s. Most importantly though, it’s proof of what artists can achieve with little amounts of money, and by thinking smarter, not harder. Hopefully, more artists and studios take notes from Edwards moving forward and make wiser economic choices with their productions. He put it best when he said, “The most exciting thing is that you really don’t need loads of money to make a film that looks like you had a lot of money. No matter what happens, I can do something like Monsters again. That was one of the happiest experiences I’ve ever had.”
The Big Picture
- Before The Creator, Gareth Edwards made his feature-length debut with the low-budget indie film Monsters, showcasing his ability to create sci-fi horror in unexpected ways.
- Edwards took on multiple roles in the production of Monsters, including director, writer, cinematographer, and visual effects designer, proving his ability to work on a smaller scale.
- Despite its low budget, Monsters managed to achieve a cinematic look and feel, demonstrating that a film doesn’t need a big budget to appear high-quality.
