Tom DeLounge’s comedy thriller film, Monsters of California, revolves around paranormal activities and mysteries. Starring Jack Samson, Gabrielle Haugh, Jared Scott, and others, the film centers around Dallas and his friends searching for his father, who suddenly vanished while on a secret mission. Government officials who do not want secrets about outer space to be unearthed are trying to bring their quest to an end. Monsters of California has primarily drawn its inspiration from films like The Unseen, MK Ultra, Skyman, and others. It explores both the supernatural and the extraterrestrial, providing the audiences with a wide scope to ponder over unexplored realms. Will Dallas and his friends be able to discover what really happened to his father? We are sure to find out through the events occurring in the film!
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What happens in the film?
The adventurous trio of Dallas, Riley, and Toe seek to find the unexplored in a haunted house. Their thirst to explore the supernatural is quenched when they go into the house along with all their spirit-detecting gadgets and end up encountering a spirit. They somehow manage to escape the place and run for their lives. We see the scene shifting to Dallas’ place, where his family is visited by Officer Myers, who seems to frequent their house to help them find his missing father. He helps them out with shifting some of their items to the garage, and we see him planting a secret mic there to keep track of the family’s knowledge of the disappearance. Dallas tries explaining his experiences at the haunted house to his family, but they do not believe him. His mom tells him that she wants him to stay away from all these things, as he has been chasing such occurrences since his father’s disappearance. He is extremely rational, while his family is more on the religious end. The three friends gather in Dallas’ garage, trying to summon his father through a planchet; their failure to do so proves that he is still alive. They discover documents on the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program and realize that his father used to secretly work for the mission. They also find a device that displays coordinates that will help them track the UFOs and learn that the program director was Dr. Eric Walker. Dallas approaches Myers, hands over the documents hoping for his help, and tells him that everything he has known about his father is a lie. Suspecting that Myers was trying to hide things from him, he keeps the device to himself.
Dallas meets Kelly for the first time at a coffee shop where he was working, and they end up going on a date. He shares with her that his father was working on a secret mission before his sudden disappearance. Dallas later looks up the location tracked on the device and finds it to be the location of a camping site with a lot of mysterious activities going on there. As they decide to head out to that location, Myers’ team decides to track and follow them. They also take Kelly along, and the four set out to find the truth. On reaching the camping site, they explore a cave, only to be chased out by Bigfoot. The monster follows them and tries to kill them, but they are saved by Dr. Walker. He tells Dallas that he and his father used to work together, and then Dallas hands him the GPS. He explains that he was in hiding because he wanted to explore the extraterrestrial and was being stopped by the secret Government agency. He gives them his hiding location, making it easier for Myers to track him.
What Do Dallas And His Friends Experience As They Reach Dr. Walker’s House?
The next day, the four friends again set out to go to Dr. Walker’s place. Upon reaching the place, Walker asks them if they have seen any suspicious vehicles following them. They tell him that they were clear, and then Walker goes on to explain that during the 1940s a new life form was discovered, which was neither human nor spirit but something very advanced. Lately, there were a lot of sightings of those creatures, and Dallas’ father might have seen them up close, and that is when he disappeared. He says these otherworldly creatures were always teaching them something new about different subjects, helping us advance. He tells them that the story they were seeking was clear and right in front of their eyes.
As Walker explains all these things to the others, Riley notices secret agents approaching the house. Dr. Walker tries to destroy all his findings and experiments before running out with the group through a secret tunnel in his basement. They are, however, arrested and taken to the RAM site operations facility. It is revealed that Officer Myers was a part of the secretive government agency that was keen on hiding extraterrestrial activities from the common man. He interrogates Dallas about the device and wants to know about the next location of the UFO landing. He tries manipulating him by saying that Walker was misleading them and that Myers cared about his father as a fellow colleague and friend and wanted to find out the truth of his disappearance. He also tries persuading him by saying that the unknown creatures are bigger than anyone and could cause them harm.
What Happens In The End?
Dallas seeks answers from Walker about the disappearance of his father on Myer’s provocation. When Dallas questions Walker, he answers that the agency does not want the common man to know anything and feels that only the elite have a right to know about the extraterrestrial. This was where the opinions of Walker differed from those of the agency, as he wanted everyone to see reality. As the group tries to flee, they experience weird things in the biocontainment facility. Toe actually witnessed an alien in one of the rooms, making it clear that the facility was conducting secret experiments on them. On trying to flee the scene, they made a mess and hit a spacecraft that was being examined by experts. They somehow manage to escape the area in a military van and reach the spot of the next UFO sighting as per the coordinates on the GPS.
During Monsters of California’s ending, Dallas spots a UFO and is suddenly transported inside it. He shares his experiences through a monologue, saying that every possibility is layered with various energy waves, and our minds help us understand its reality. He adds that if things are happening on top of each other, then natural forces might cause them to bleed on to each other. Choosing love over hate and calming one’s mind helps them connect to the right frequency. Our religion does not really matter, or it doesn’t even hold significance, even if we call ourselves dreamers, as it puts us in boxes and we miss the main point. Later, Dallas is rescued by Myers and his team, and Myers asks him to keep his experiences a secret. As Dallas hugs Myers while engaging him in an emotional conversation about his father, he sneaks out a pendrive from his pocket and keeps the evidence to himself. This brings to light the fact that he would not be quiet about the occurrences and his experiences and would shed light on the unknown someday. It displays a constant fight between the whistle-blowers and the secret agencies trying to keep humanity in the dark.
Final Thoughts
Dallas wanted to live up to his father’s dreams of blowing the whistle of knowledge about the extraterrestrial to all humankind. We learn that there are a lot of aspects that we are kept in the dark about as common men. We should be able to know the entire truth and co-exist with it, as we have the right to knowledge. Despite providing us with a beautiful outlook on the blind spots in our lives, Monsters of California does not have a well-knitted plot. I believe the film could have explored more of the extraterrestrial occurrences rather than diverting our attention by including supernatural elements in the very beginning. A question that keeps lingering throughout the film: who are the real monsters, the bigfoot, the aliens, or the secret government agencies? As per my opinion, I believe the humans who try pushing their own species into a limitless hollow of a lack of information are the real monsters.
