Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise) stars as a disgraced journalist who has holed up in her strikingly lovely house to record a podcast that seeks to unravel a mystery around a series of strange, seemingly otherworldly black bricks that people from all over the world have acquired through bizarre circumstances. The closer to the truth she gets, she begins to discover that she herself is actually tied to the story in a more personal capacity that she ever believed possible, reaching back to her childhood. Just what are these black bricks and where do they come from?

Right out of the gate, I feel it necessary to give major credit to the success of this film to Lily Sullivan. This is the very definition of a tour-de-force performance with her being the only on-screen character for the entirety of the film. While we do occasionally witness her conversing with people on the phone and listening to recordings, the weight of the narrative rests firmly on her shoulders to carry us through a film that grows more strange and obscure as it reveals its hand. Unlike many puzzle box thrillers that lead us to the big ‘Ah ha’ moment, Monolith is not afraid to let the viewer try to figure it out themselves. The film is an unsettling, slow burn mystery with subtle supernatural trappings that very deliberately applies tension little by little as we move along to the point that, by the end, when the film takes a turn into the truly unfathomable, it’s all we can do to catch our breath before it goes into full tilt bonkers territory. Also contributing to the effectiveness of the film is the chilling cinematography that relies a series of static medium shots to build ambience with an occasional fluid tracking shot. The location scout should be congratulated because the house nearly the entire film is shot in is a perfect location with its abundance of natural light and high ceilings reflecting Sullivan’s characters isolation amidst beauty. The film is all the more remarkable given its humble origins as part of a “Film Lab: New Voices” program instituted to in southern Australia to workshop scripts and provide a very modest budget (about $320k total) to first-time filmmakers to make the script selected. The results are a very polished, well-paced and fascinating sci-fi/horror thriller worthy of being more widely seen.

The HD transfer for this blu-ray looks quite nice and clean, showcasing the gorgeous cinematography really well. The film has a lots of grays and blues that could come across as airless and dreary with a muddy presentation, but it never feels that way, with a very crisp and clean picture. The close-ups in particular have a very nice level of detail that showcases the clearness of the image. The real star of this disc though is the excellent DTS HD 5.1 surround sound mix. The film is primarily driven by its podcast premise and as such relies heavily on sound to propel the narrative, complimented very well by the subtle and tense score by Benjamin Speed. The immersion is near complete in putting us into the shoes of Lily Sullivan’s Interviewer and is a great example of how you don’t need big summer blockbuster explosions to show off a good sound mix. The extras on the other hand are a bit on the slim side. The primary inclusion is a commentary track with writer Lucy Campbell, producer Bettina Hamilton and director Matt Vesely that meanders a bit but has some good info on the production of the film and the director’s and writer’s insights on certain baffling scenes (if you watch the movie I’m sure you’ll know what I’m talking about). The disc also includes a basic press kit “Behind the Scenes” featurette that mostly gives a little insight into what drew Lily Sullivan to the project and a trailer.

While the extras are a bit skimpy, Well Go USA has given us a very nicely mastered disc of a truly engaging, fascinating film that is well worth seeking out for those who like a tightly wound single-person thriller that isn’t afraid to get weird.