Season 4 Episode 5 Review "Monster Movie": Too Cheesy?

The Synopsis

Season 4 episode 5 of Supernatural takes place in Pennsylvania where people are dying of what seems to be supernatural causes.  Sam and Dean investigate the deaths of several people who happen to have died from vampire, werewolf, and mummy attacks.  The only problem with this none of the attacks match the correct lore from the Supernatural universe but actually matches the lore for urban legends and Hollywood films.  Sam and Dean learn the real monster behind the attacks is actually a confused shapeshifter who shot by a silver bullet at the hands of the woman he “loved” (kidnapped).

My Review

Supernatural’s season 4 episode 5 is called “Monster Movie”. This episode is definitely a monster of the week episode is much more humor driven than its predecessors.  This is apparent in the atmospheric framing for the episode, the actors’ portrayal of each character, but also when the monster’s back story is revealed.

This episode does well in keeping its atmosphere clear and memorable.  It feels fun and reminiscent in the opening as the viewer sees the Warner Brother’s logo and hears the old timey horror music.  Immediately the viewer is reminded of old monster movies (fun coincidence right?).  The entire episode is filmed in black and white also maintaining the nostalgic atmosphere.  Nostalgia may be the best way to describe the atmosphere because of the way it re-jogs viewer’s memories such as when the ‘welcome to Pennsylvania’ sign appears.  The word Pennsylvania mirrors Transylvania, the home of Dracula and the music that is use supplements this thought.

When Sam and Dean interview a witness, Brewer, I noticed that the way in which he acted was far different from the way their usual witnesses respond.  Brewer first starts off with the cliché of him being a laughing stock but becomes overly animated as he continues to give his statement. Brewer even goes as far as to imitate the way Dracula holds his cape in the films. The emphasis he places on the attacker being a vampire is very comical and over done in a purposeful manner.  Additionally, when Sam and Dean examine each victim’s body they react minimally such as when they examine the werewolf victim.  Another instance similar to this in the comedic role of the actors was when the pizza man interrupts Dracula as he is about to electrocute Dean.  This is an obvious joke scene that has nothing to do with the plot at hand.  I think they could’ve done a better job with integrating this scene so that it doesn’t seem like a pointless comedic conversation placed only for the sake of comedy.  For instance if it were Sam who had called the pizza delivery boy to distract the shapeshifter it would make more sense and be even funnier.

When the shapeshifter’s back story is introduced the viewer begins to feel sympathetic for him.  Possibly even more so as the heavy comedic nature of the episode leads the viewer to not take the villain so seriously.  Though in retrospect the shapeshifter did in fact kill three innocent people.  I myself did not want Sam and Dean to kill him.  It left me with conflicted feelings because I was left thinking he didn’t deserve to die since his origins were so tragic yet at the same time he has killed three people and kidnapped a woman.  Perhaps if it wasn’t his “love” that had killed him I wouldn’t have felt as bad.  Overall the negative feelings that arose from his death only lasted 5 minutes in whole 55 minute runtime.  This solidifies the amount of sheer comedy in this episode.

“Monster Movie” was a very comedic monster of the week episode for Supernatural.  It had its fair share of humor so much so that the moments of sadness were almost glossed over.  This episode does well in setting the atmosphere, character portrayals, and giving the monsters background to ensure the episode’s humor.  All of these things were done intentionally to bring me to this conclusion:

“Monster Movie” was written to be funny and over the top because that’s the way we currently see old monster movies.  We see them as nostalgic, dramatic, cheesy and funny relics of the past.  This episode was a tribute to the end of the age of supernatural based movies and it definitely succeeds.