Paul Oh, Humza Ghani, Vishnu Yogendran, Allie Meadows, Sahrish Rukhsar, Stefan Wroblewski, Dozie Oguike and Saad Javed will present a short horror film Monster made by UMBC undergraduate students. The film is six minutes long and revolves around a young college student being confronted by her friends about her abusive relationship. Monster’s surreal plot pays homage to the horror films of John Carpenter, known for They Live and The Thing. Taking a post-modern approach of the horror film genre, Monster utilizes the conventional aesthetics commonly found in these films and moves towards an alternate conclusion. These aesthetics include dim lighting, moody sound design, and hand-held filming. The dialogue was all improvisational from non-professional student actors, resulting in a quirky style of interaction among the cast. Filmed over one evening, Monster is the result of team collaboration with each member voicing their opinion into the creative process. With the inevitable arrival of the protagonist’s abusive spouse, the film’s ending contorts the audiences’ expectations into absurdity. Monster is a self-aware narrative that questions the definition of horror in scary movies.