The Most Underrated Sci-Fi Gem of 2022 Is a New HBO Chart Climber

Summary:

• The platform’s chart is now conquered by the 2022 film, following a journalist building her conspiracy theory about the objects of unknown background.
• It perfectly blends science fiction and horror elements.

Science fiction flicks are now rare guests of the platforms’ charts that are conquered by action and comedy movies. However, one film managed to enter HBO’s Top 10 and take the seventh place in it, even though it had been seemingly forgotten since 2022.

Its plot revolves around a disgraced young journalist, known only as the Interviewer, who starts hosting a podcast about the unsolved mysterious and true crime cases with the hope to revive her career. She invites the witnesses of various supernatural events to phone in with their stories, but nothing seems to really interest herself.

It all changes when one person tells about a strange black brick appearing in their house, and then others start to report the same happened in their lives all of a sudden. The Interviewer is quick to build a conspiracy theory regarding the backstory of these bricks, which immerses her more and more as she collects proofs to it.

The most interesting aspect of the movie is that the leading actress, Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise), is the only on-screen actor here, while other performers are only presented by their voices. It makes us associate ourselves with the heroine and investigate the case of the bricks together with her, trying to grapple with her own mistakes.

As the plot progresses, the movie literally traps us in the mind of The Interviewer, who starts to believe more and more in the things that are beyond believable. Thus, we start to doubt that all of it could ever take place in the movie’s fictional reality.

Apart from its sci-fi aspect, the film is much of a horror flick, with its suspenseful dark atmosphere, the sense of claustrophobia and the fear of a conspiracy appearing to be true. It becomes truly reminiscent of such horror-thrillers, as Profile (2018) and Broadcast Signal Intrusion (2021), also featuring the conspiracies’ explorers.

Titled Monolith, this movie deserves much more attention from the audience, and it’s proved by its decent score of 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. It deserves as much hype as other sci-fi horrors of 2022, like Jordan Peele’s Nope, massively popular at the time.

Check out this must-watch, as Monolith is available on Apple TV+ and Prime Video .