{"id":37534,"date":"2025-10-02T14:31:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T18:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/?p=37534"},"modified":"2025-10-05T12:57:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T16:57:43","slug":"film-review-of-monsters-within-directed-by-devin-montgomery-2025-greggwmorris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/film-review-of-monsters-within-directed-by-devin-montgomery-2025-greggwmorris\/","title":{"rendered":"<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Film Review of Multiple Award-Winnng MONSTERS WITHIN<\/span><br><small>Buffalo 8 releases the film on digital platforms tomorrow, premiering on Cineverserms. It premieres on Cineverse&#8217;s Screambox November 7 in time for Veteran\u2019s Day<\/small>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MONSTERS WITHIN may not satisfy the lust of every patron of <em><strong>t<\/strong><\/em><strong><em>he WORD<\/em><\/strong> gasping for fear and terror to distract from them from those real-world terrors stalking them. But those open to a character-driven, crafty and savvy thematically layered experience, it&#8217;s a must-see. The <em>monsters<\/em> aren\u2019t just in the woods; they\u2019re in the scars of memories, the silence between family members, and the compromises of small-town survival \u2013 just to name a few.<\/p>\n<p>Director-Writer-Actor Devin Montgomery blends figurative reality with a no-holds veraciousness of bleak reality to tell a tale of a military veteran who, after years away from home, returns to reconnect with his sister who has Down syndrome. His destination home, Cooper, Texas is a land of decaying buildings and disintegrating infrastructure, the kind where everyone knows everyone else\u2019s secrets but no one dares speaks them aloud \u2013 and probably doesn&#8217;t give a damn.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZWHJj4P6N7E?si=FR4ZoRLBFSoxwHxO\" width=\"1000\" height=\"560\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe>bsp;<\/p>\n<p>MONSTERS WITHIN was executive produced by Curtis Gardner and also stars Kendall Cavener (The Last Rodeo), Skeeta Jenkins (Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, Jakob&#8217;s Wife, Satanic Panic), Daniella Montgomery, Brandon Stewart (Sovereign) who was also the DP, and Samuel French (Killers of the Flower Moon, Fear The Walking Dead) in his final starring role <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/samuel-french-killers-of-the-flower-moon-actor-dead-at-45-1173\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">before his tragic death. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>French won several Best Supporting Actor awards for his intense performance in MONSTERS WITHIN and the film is dedicated to him. The character of &#8220;Elle,&#8221; the the main character&#8217;s sister and the heart and soul of the movie, is played by Devin Montgomery&#8217;s actual sister Daniella Montgomery. She has performed at several events for the Down Syndrome Associations and Special Needs choir in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<p>The story of the bond between a brother and sister, with one having special needs, being portrayed as authentically and as real as cinematically possible was very important to both Devin and Daniella Montgomery.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This award-winning film has screened at numerous film festivals including:<\/strong> WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival \u2013 WON BRONZE for BEST FIRST FEATURE FILM, Edinburgh Independent Film Festival &#8211; WON BEST LEAD ACTOR (Devin Montgomery), Stockholm City International Film Festival &#8211; WON BEST ACTOR (Devin Montgomery), Cowpokes International Film Festival &#8211; WON BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (Samuel French), Bare Bones International Film Festival &#8211; WON AUDIENCE CHOICE FOR BEST FEATURE FILM and BEST ACTOR (Devin Montgomery), Red Dirt International Film Festival &#8211; WON BEST FEATURE FILM, Indie Vegas Film Festival &#8211; WON BEST HORROR\/THRILLER FEATURE FILM, Massachusetts Independent Film Festival &#8211; awarded an OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT FOR FIRST FEATURE FILM, among many other festivals.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7155\" style=\"width: 110px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7155\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-7155\" src=\"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/gwm-700x700-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"150\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7155\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><strong>the WORD<\/strong><\/em> Editor, Gregg W. Morris<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Picture left, Director-Writer-Actor Devin Montgomery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/film-review-of-monsters-within-directed-by-devin-montgomery-2025-greggwmorris\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":37566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2269,2301,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2269","category-film-news-2025-2026","category-film-tv-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37534"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37645,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37534\/revisions\/37645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}