Movie Quote Monday: When A Monster Calls

“Of course you are afraid. It will be hard. It will be more than hard. But you will make it through.”

“A Monster Calls” is film that was released in 2016 and is based on the book of the same title. The interesting thing I love about the book is that it was written for children in probably late elementary school and middle school but the topic is heavy. It is written so a kids can understand but the topics themselves are still very dark. It was cool to see a book and film breach such heavy topics but still leave you feeling hopeful. They show a good way to handle pain as a child or an adult honestly.

The story follows a young boy named, Conor, who is dealing with the fact that his mother’s cancer has returned and everything is changing. His grandmother is starting to watch him more as she fears Conor taking care of his mother all the time. Conor does not have the best relationship with his father so he feels alone. Because of this, a monster “comes walking”. He comes to Conor to help him process what he is feeling and to also get Connor to admit his greatest fear by telling him a story. The film is very compelling and the monster is voiced by Liam Nesson which adds an epic and eerie feel to the film.

As the story progresses, the monster tells Conor stories to help him get over his fears. I do not want to spoil too much of the film as it really is a gem. I just was sitting at home at night with my good friend and I saw the cover and was intregined. Little did I know it was going to send me on an emotional roller coaster, but it is so worth a look. I wrote down so many quotes from this movie, but my favorite is when Conor finally faces his greatest fear, the monster tells him

“Of course you are afraid. It will be hard. It will be more than hard. But you will make it through.”

A simple concept we often miss. Sometimes I think we encourage each other by making situations small. We will say stuff like “ well it could be worse”, “you don’t need to be scared of that”, “ It’s not that big of a deal”. All of these make us feel ashamed of how we feel. I love this quote because it forces us to be honest. Life is hard. Some situations suck and there is no getting around that. Truth is we do not need to find a way around certain things, we just need to push through.

It’s okay to be afraid. It’s okay to dread something because you know it is going to be hard. Pretending fixes nothing, in fact it can make things worse. Yet, somehow we make it though. One way or another, despite how hard things are, we make it though. Conor makes it though his struggle at the end of the film. Anyone can empathizes with this kid because it reminds you of a hard time you faced, but when you look at your life, you made it through.

Like I said, it’s a simple concept, yet we complicate it all the time. We try to mask and belittle situations before trying to deal with them. Well, some stuff is just hard. Things do not make sense and we are terrified. Yet, we will make it though. I pray whatever hard situations you face today or the ones that are to come, that you conquer them head on and remember you will come out on the other side.

Stay Excellent,

Megan O’Neal