Murder Me, Monster is a late 2010 arthouse police drama-come-horror film, with a deeply crawling & often grim pace.  From time to time, we get sparks of quirky humanity & shots of landscape grandeur underfed by rising ambience- these dart through the films thick & tarry flow- like flares suddenly bursting in a pitch-black starless sky. Here from Anti-World Releasing- those seekers of cinematic curios - is a Blu-Ray release of the film- featuring on the disc is a commentary track, a few other extras, and a glossy inlay booklet.

Murder Me, Monster (aka Muere, Monstruo, Muere) is a 2018 Argentina France Chile production. It was written & directed by Mendoza, Argentina-born Alejandro Fadel.  He has eleven director credits to his name-  including two features- these go from romantic comedy Love -Part One (2005), and teens escape from reform school drama The Wild Ones (2012).

The film opens with the sound of baying sheep over a black screen- as the picture comes in we see the herd of sheep, as a female figure stagers into the frame her throat is ripped open- and she is trying to keep her head from completely falling off.  We then switch to a distant nighttime short of a small holding as the cops pull-up. Inside we see the authorities interviewing an older man with ragged grey hair & one cloudy eye- he  is seemingly the woman’s husband. He mentions a man who has been on their land several times, and is  living in an abandoned building deeper into the wilderness.

One of the offices on site is Cruz( Víctor López) a middle-aged, plump, and gruffly-voiced man- who becomes the films lead. He’s first sent out to look for the woman’s head- which he finds near one of the sheep- it has strange tripping yellow liquid around its severed stump. The next day he’s off on horseback through the mountainous snowy landscape to find the man who has been accused of the murder- finding him in the basement of the large abandoned building. This is David( Esteban Bigliardi) a raggedly bearded & balding man in his late thirties- he’s taken into custody, and seems very shaky & subdued- though in time he starts talk about repeatedly hearing the words ‘Murder Me, Monster’.

As the film slowly but surely unfolds he seemingly escape- and a few more women line up missing their heads. Is it David, or someone/ something else? And really that’s about all I can tell you plot-wise

The film runs at the one hour and forty-nine minute mark, and as mentioned in my introduction it crawls along- and  I mean crawl!...even by arthouse standards it’s a slowly-paced, and largely very glum film. It features lots of scenes with characters looking either despondent, weary, or troubled in half lite spaces or out in the countryside. Other than the mystery of who/ what is carry out the decapitation- the pull here are moments of playful behaviour from the characters or the wonderfully shot landscape- example of the former is when López suddenly starts doing a quirky dance routine with his arms.

I certainly appreciate the glum focus of the film,  and the mystery/horror tropes at play here. But really this is more of a mystery crime investigation- on downers. I’d say if you like the idea of literally crawling along  Scandi noir in a dark arthouse setting, then this could well appeal-but for me it was just too drawn out for its own good, with not enough feeling of tangible dread or fear to keep me held in for it’s near two hours run length- which felt more like three hours.

On the extras side, we get a commentary track- this features writer & director Alejandro Fadel, and eight other members of the crew. This is in Spanish with English subtitles, initially, it felt somewhat overwhelming with so many people talking- but in time this passed, and there is certainly worth/ interest to be found here. They begin by talking about how the film was funded from numerous sources- hence the amount of logos in the credits. We find out the woman with the ripped neck is the film's producer. They talk about  filming in the mountain locations, and the issues filming there- we find out they locations were spread out over three hundred miles. They talk about the bassy/ guff tones of actor Víctor López, and we find out the dance scene was improvised. They discuss the use of zoom shots in the film, which were influenced by the western genre. Later on, they talk about the cast wardrobe- and how they created/ aged the police uniforms. So all in all- it’s worth a play, if you enjoyed the film.

Otherwise, on the extras side, we have El Enigmatic Element(41.14) this is a very atmospheric/ heady short set in the world of Murder Me Monster. We get lots of shots of the mountains & landscape, backed with often a beat-bound moody score- at a point three mountaineering characters appear. It features a fair bit of overlaying/ trippy effects. It’s ok I guess- but very much of a mood piece.  We get eight deleted scenes and an un-filmed animated scene. The release is finished with a glossy inlay booklet- with loads of stills, texts, and a write-up about the film.

In finishing I’d say if you enjoy very moody & crawling-paced crime mysteries with horror undertones then Murder Me, Monster may well appeal. And as we’ve come to expect we get another well-presented & curated release from the folks at Anti-World Releasing. I wanted to give this two & a half, but as we only do whole marks I've gone for three