Somewhere along the line it becomes painfully clear that writer and director Stuart Simpson really had only enough of a screenplay for a movie that could have lasted forty five minutes. And instead someone asked him to extend it to seventy five minutes. And he did. By filling it up with padding and exposition, all of which are utterly disappointing. The movie clearly only has so much energy within it to fuel a movie that's a little under an hour, but Simpson stretches it out in to an exploitation film that has so much damn potential from the starting gates and loses its luster mid-way. Simpson begins on a very high note starting the film off on a black and white canvas where we meet our psychotic femme fatales Snowball, Blondie, and Beretta. Clearly Simpson seeks to pay homage to Russ Meyer by including many beats these characters take from "Faster Pussycat!" to the point where they're led by a strong brunette and dance to music whenever they feel up to it. The film then completely dive bombs in to excellence by splashing color on to the audience with the gushing of blood as they slice the necks of two hapless male do gooders who stop on the road to help them. From that point I had nothing but high hopes.

There are countless sequences devoted to their past murders and mutilations and a lot of exposition demonstrating their egos and personalities. Simpson doesn't seem all too confident in the characters through this function and it shows. Granted, Kate Watts, Karli Madden and Nelli Scarlet are just absolutely gorgeous, but there's only so many ways you can show us their murderous ways before it gets boring. When all is said and done, the monster of the film doesn't actually appear until the final fifteen minutes of the story. The first hour is devoted to a lot meandering and padding with protagonist Hannah seeking freedom through these women, and the women just partying it up and doing whatever they please. The final monster battle is pretty disappointing to say the least. When the monster rears its ugly head, it's not very eye catching and the battle only for five minutes. "El Monstro Del Mar" has so much damn potential and a lot of talent behind it both in the acting and directing departments. I wanted to love this, but there's just not enough narrative to keep audiences awake through the entire seventy five minutes.