Sullivan performs an unnamed journalist who has fallen from a lofty perch in her business after a scandal that is still tantalizingly unclear. There are references to her not verifying one thing and glimpses of an electronic mail inbox with a number of hateful topic traces. She made a mistake, and that units her up in a weak place, somebody who not solely desires to imagine however desires to get the story to convey her again into the highlight. Even with that set-up, she’s not precisely thrilled about becoming a member of the over-crowded and journalistically questionable world of podcasting, main a brand new mission referred to as “Past Plausible,” a kind of podcasts that tells seemingly not possible tales.
Her life adjustments when she receives an nameless electronic mail with a reputation, the phrases “the brick,” and a telephone quantity. When she calls it, she begins a journey down a phenomenally conceived rabbit gap that sounds precisely like one thing one would stumble onto on-line in the midst of the night time. The temporary model is that some folks on the market have “obtained” — how they got here into possession of them stays disturbingly imprecise, including to the thriller — black bricks that appear to have some kind of supernatural energy. They’re often preceded by a terrifying imaginative and prescient — one man sees his brother who died years earlier whereas one other speaks to the kid who by no means knew him — and so they’re often adopted by what might be referred to as an awesome sense of dread.
Our protagonist is hesitant at first, however she begins to suspect there’s one thing to this brick story as her podcast numbers proceed to rise. Author Lucy Campbell is cleverly taking part in with a number of concepts right here, together with what might be referred to as audible virality, the sense {that a} story takes on extra fact because it’s repeated. It is fascinating that the movie continues to be referred to as “Monolith” as an alternative of, effectively, “Brick,” because it permits interpretations of the monoliths of journalism, podcasting, and viral tradition.
With out spoiling, Campbell and Vesely are additionally taking part in with privilege on the subject of some late twists involving why this story is being advised. A few of it is a little underdeveloped, however I don’t thoughts Campbell’s strategy, which is to embed among the morally thorny questions on podcasting and journalism in a sci-fi creeper. And Vesely makes use of his restricted area very effectively, using close-ups to boost stress whereas additionally using manufacturing design and a blue coloration palette that provides the entire thing a chilly, foreboding power.
And “Monolith” does get legitimately creepy. A few of our heroine’s decisions because the movie raises the stakes really feel a bit unbelievable, however that may be forgiven given the single-setting, single-performer restrictions of the piece. Ultimately, the objective was clearly to lure us within the more and more fractured thoughts of a single one who more and more believes what’s past plausible. Mission completed.