Girl vs. Monster | Retro Review
A teenage girl learns she descends from monster hunters and must take on a monster known as the Eternal One in the 2012 Disney Channel Original Movie, “Girl vs. Monster.” The film follows Skylar, a 15-year-old girl with no fear. But when her parents try to keep her at home on Halloween, she accidentally sets up a situation where the Diamante, the Eternal One, gets loose and it’s up to Skylar to defeat her, save her parents and her friends.
This is a solid film for anyone who wants to watch a kind of spooky, but not scary film. It’s directed at kids and will go a long way to entertaining them. While it did little for me, my son seemed to enjoy it and he’s the right age for the demographic Disney Channel was targeting with this film. The CGI is meh and the story is cheesy, but it’s exactly what it needs to be to appeal to kids between the ages of nine and 14.
While the story may be cheesy, the lead girl has talent. Skylar is played by Olivia Holt who I know best from her role as Dagger on the Marvel show “Cloak and Dagger.” While that show was aimed at teens rather than the broader audience Marvel normally courts, it still had some good acting along the way. It also had some bad scripts that good acting can’t really cover. But Olivia Holt was one of the better parts of that show and she’s the best part of this film. She’s a pretty good singer and a pretty good actor which is exactly what Disney shoots for with its teen stars.
Is this my favorite DCOM? No. Is this my favorite DCOM in the Halloween collection? Also, no. I was well beyond the target demographic when this was made, so I have no nostalgia for it. But it wasn’t bad.
Rating: 2.5 stars
What did you think of “Girl vs. Monster?”