The Kaiju genre has experienced a serious boom in recent years. Films like Godzilla, Pacific Rim, and Kong: Skull Island have done phenomenal jobs of making movie monsters scary again, and modern technology has made these silver screen icons as popular as ever. However, these monsters are far more malleable than they get credit for, and Anne Hathaway's upcoming film Colossal will take Kaiju films firmly into the comedy genre. Check out a trailer for the undeniably weird film below.
That trailer pretty much spells out everything that you need to know. Colossal centers on Gloria (Anne Hathaway), whose life has pretty much fallen into complete and utter disarray. Her boyfriend has left her, she has no money, and she has been getting blackout drunk. One day she wakes up from a bender to find that a giant monster has emerged and is running loose somewhere in the world. This world-changing event is made even stranger when she realizes that the monster mirrors her every move, and that she actually is in complete control of the giant beast. What follows is a journey to get her life back in order and tame the creature before it hurts anyone else who happens to be in its path.
Anne Hathaway is clearly the star of the show here, but it is worth mentioning that Colossal has definitely enlisted some stellar acting talent. In addition to Ms. Hathaway, Colossal also stars Jason Sudeikis, Dan Stevens, Austin Stowell, and Tim Blake Nelson.
Of course, in a grander sense, it's fairly obvious that the giant monster in this movie has a more metaphorical significance. It appears in Anne Hathaway's character's life during a tumultuous period where nothing seems to be going her way, and her mastery of the monster will likely lead to her vanquishing it once she manages to overcome her personal obstacles and personal demons. In a certain sense, this actually feels somewhat reminiscent of the recent Australian-Canadian horror classic The Babadook -- which similarly framed the central monster of the film as the embodiment of the heroine's grief, anxiety, and psychological struggle.
Granted, Colossal looks like it is not going to embrace many pure horror elements of the creature. There are plot details that remind us of The Babadook, but this is a far more lighthearted movie at its core.
Colossal is currently slated to hit theaters later this year on April 7. Stay tuned for more details!
