"Monster Summer," an upcoming adventure/fantasy film directed by Catholic actor and producer David Henrie, is set to release on Oct. 4, 2024.
Henrie recently starred in the 2024 biopic "Reagan." However, he is most known for his role as Justin Russo in Disney Channel's "Wizards of Waverly Place," and is currently working on the series reboot, "Wizards Beyond Waverly Place."
"Monster Summer" focuses on a group of young teenagers on a little league baseball team in Martha’s Vineyard during summer vacation.
After Ben goes to the beach to meet a girl, he nearly drowns in the water after a sudden white light appears. He is rescued but isn’t the same, walking around with a haunted look on his face. With the help of Gene (played by Mel Gibson), a retired detective, his friends band together to investigate what happened. Together, the group takes on the task of defeating the monsters, in pursuit of saving the whole town.
Here's the "Monster Summer" movie trailer below:
On the September 16 episode of Jonathan 'Bearded' Blevins and Katie 'MrsRuvi' Ruvalcaba's podcast, “Is THIS for Kids?", the pair reviews Henrie’s movie, "Monster Summer."
As an intro for the podcast, Blevins states, “Most media geared toward children is pretty toxic."
At the same time, Ruvalcaba notes, “The point of this podcast is to help parents know what’s in a piece of content so they know what they want to shield from their kids, [and] what they can talk to their kids about."
It can be difficult for parents to feel comfortable taking their children to the movies in today’s culture, given the increase in graphic content in films, which has been passed off as the new “normal.”
It is hard to dodge sexualized themes, vulgar language, and extreme innuendos, even in movies geared toward children.
However, Blevins and Ruvalcaba do the hard part so we don’t have to. After seeing the pre-release, they came away with positive feedback on the film to share with parents.
“This could be a good intro movie to a good moral scary movie,” Blevins says.
“This is very scare not scar… there’s no blood, there’s no gore, nobody is getting shot or stabbed or anything like that, no drinking, no drugs," Ruvalcaba adds. "There’s some mild swearing, maybe one or two. The kids are mildly disobedient to their parents if that is a mild concern. Not a lot to shield from.”
The pair said "Monster Summer" reminds them of classic family films: "E.T.," "The Sandlot," and "The Goonies."
“This was a really fun nineties throwback-style movie. Parents are going to enjoy the baseball scenes. Patrick Renna, 'Ham' from 'The Sandlot' is the umpire. I thought it was such a fun movie to share,” Revilcaba says.
“This is a fun story where kids have actual hobbies: they go out and do fun stuff," Revilcaba continues. "None of these kids are staring at their phones. There’s something to be said for modeling that.”
“I can’t think of a movie that has young child actors in it where they’re not doing that the entire time," Blevins adds. "We live in a culture now where parents aren't really letting their kids go outside past their lawn.
"When I was ten I was going on bike rides around the neighborhood, so I think it's good to show that to kids and it’s good for parents to see that stuff to make sure that they’re letting their kids have a little bit of fun.”
In an interview with the National Catholic Register, Henrie stated:
“Catholics need more entertainment like 'Monster Summer,' films that are appropriate to watch with their families. “It’s all about ‘Does evil exist, and would you believe it existed if everyone says that it doesn’t — and would you do something about it if no one believed it?’ — I think it’s a powerful theme and an interesting one.”