Monitor Review
Amid heavy headliners like Ready or Not 2, They Will Kill You and #horrortok sensation Obsession, the directorial debut feature from Matt Black and Ryan Polly entered the SXSW 2026 lineup as a modest horror indie and parted as a frightening festival favourite. Monitor follows Maggie (Brittany O’Grady), a young woman working through her own grief by spending her daily 9-5 in a dingy basement with her fellow content monitors. She combs through videos circling the dark web and while sifting through the endless sea of blood, terrorism and snuff films, Maggie finds herself face to face with an insidious video, one that seems to look right back at her.
Unnerved, Maggie blocks the content from being published… but not before showing her coworkers, unknowingly passing off the curse it holds. Similar to The Ring, each of them are soon haunted by the supernatural entity from the video. Maggie must fight to keep the demon from breaking free from its technological prison, while simultaneously battling demons of her own.
Monitor proposes a thought provoking question about how technology and social media can act as a fast path in delivering the evil that festers in other humans right to your fingertips. Not only does it highlight atrocities that wouldn’t normally make it past the censorship barriers of the internet, but it also explores a timely metaphor about the dangers of social media.
It holds up a mirror and forces us to ask: What are our darkest secrets? Our guiltiest pleasures? What are the most vile and inhumane people in the world doing online? What are they uploading? What are the incels researching? What are serial killers recording? What are the trolls hating on? What are they typing in your comments? Are you one of them? Are you hiding behind your keyboard, assuming physical distance will keep you safe from the horrors you see online? What if the screen you hide behind suddenly became a window?
Horror is often regarded as a genre with the unique capability to convey a wide spectrum of emotions from its audiences. A brilliantly crafted horror movie has the potential to make audiences terrified one minute and laugh the next, while also injecting moments made to make us scream angrily at the screen or even shed a few tears. Monitor is no exception. With deeply layered secondary characters, it explores the different relationships each character has with the screens in their lives.
Claudia (Sara Alexander) is a mother, giving us a horrifying sequence surrounding a baby monitor. Hazel (Camila Bejarano Wahlgren) is a video game streamer, serving up one of the most unnerving sequences in the entire film. And don’t even get us started on the projector scene—an absolute masterclass in crafting a terrifying, action packed set piece fuelled by a deeply unsettling and palpable dread.
Packed with powerhouse performances and hair-raising suspense, Monitor is a movie that serves the genre valiantly. With the freshness of an indie horror and the scares of a studio juggernaut, Monitor promises to satiate horror fans of all kinds. The film feels innovative and experimental, proposing a smart and capable female protagonist with a relatable internal battle brought to life by a brilliant performance from O’Grady, who grounds the film with her sensibility and charisma.
We’re impatiently waiting for Monitor to hit theaters so we can, once again, have Black and Polly terrorize us once more.
Rating: ★★★★⯪
Monitor had its world premiere at SXSW 2026. A theatrical release date has not yet been announced.
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I’m Jurgen, also known as The Part Time Binger! You can either find me at red carpets, movie premieres, celebrity interviews or on my couch… binging the latest and hottest movies and series! Currently based in Vancouver. Proudly Canadian.
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