Dylan O’Brien stars in Love and Monsters, a  thrilling adventure delivering epic action and laughs. After monsters take over the world, Joel (O’Brien, The Maze Runner) and the rest of humanity are forced to live underground. Believing he’s lost everyone he has ever loved, Joel finds his high school sweetheart Aimee (Jessica Henwick, Game of Thrones) living just 80 miles away. Alongside a stray dog, “boy,” he picks up along the way Joel must face unknown dangers that stand in his way in order to discover his inner hero as he makes the impossible journey across a monster-infested land to be with the girl of his dreams.  

Filming in Australia in 2019, MPC partnered with production on set through to post-production to realize director Michael Matthews’ post-apocalyptic vision. Working closely with VFX Supervisor Matt Sloan, the MPC team delivered 463 shots across both the Adelaide and Bangalore studios. 

Matthews wanted to create an easily accessible post-apocalyptic experience that immersed the audiences into larger than life interactions with these giant monsters with a healthy dose of humour. Many of the  creatures featured in the film pay homage to creators/fellow monster lovers including Ridley Scott and Ray Harryhausen.  

MPC worked hard on bringing nine giant, full-CG creatures to life. From the initial sculpts all the way through to performance, the aim was always to imbue the creatures with individual characteristics and unique personalities. The ideas was that each creature, good or bad, has a soul and a history which influences the way they interact with their environment and how they interact with our hero and his faithful canine companion. 

Each creature presented interesting challenges to the performance team at MPC. One of the most challenging sequences was the final stand off where Joel and boy face off with a giant crustacean creature on the beach and must quickly find a way to save themselves and a colony of humans from imminent death. Integrating the performance of a live action animal, alongside an actor in a fast paced, creature heavy action scene (on sand) was not only extremely challenging but tremendously fun for the whole MPC team to work on 

From interactive FX, slime, saliva, blood, good, sand, water, earth you name it the Mr. X team go their hands dirty on Love and Monsters.