For the Love of Monsters

A soft-spoken Nigerian girl and her American-born cousin must reconcile their differences in order to defeat the monster living under their beds.

One day, I was talking with my best friend. It was one of those existential crisis conversations, and she said to me: “I remember one day I was playing with a friend at school. She told me what her uncle was doing to her when no one was there. I told her what my cousins were doing to me. And we went on playing.”  For The Love of Monsters is about that moment. Better yet, it’s about the circumstances that lead to that moment. The behavior, the environment, the action and inaction that allows something so traumatizing to be reduced to playtime banter between two little girls.

For the Love of Monsters is a suspense thriller that interrogates how we protect and feed toxic traditions because they are a part of culture and we believe they should be defended. We follow the girls on a harrowing journey to learning that they can’t rely on the adults in their lives and the only way to secure their freedom from oppressive cultures is  to work together and stand up for themselves. The story is told from the point of view of a Nigerian girl, a specific and unique perspective, but by utilizing the universally recognizable idea of a monster under the bed to portray the villain, the film is able to appeal to a global audience and gives room for people to attach whatever their monster is to the creature and show that, sometimes, we, ourselves, invite the horror into our homes. 

The project received the Alfred P. Weisman Grant in 2020.

Role: Writer/Producer