Meek-natured aspiring actor Laura (Melissa Barrera) is shabbily dumped by her playwright and theatre director boyfriend Jacob (Edmund Donovan) while she’s recovering from cancer. To make matters worse, she learns that Jacob – the cad! – has recast the role that he promised her in his new musical. Then she discovers a terrifying but curiously dashing monster (Tommy Dewey) living in the closet of her childhood bedroom. And while the beardy, lustrous-locked Monster looks as if he sheds more hair than a golden retriever, and has a habit of lurching, uninvited, into Laura’s personal space, they get along rather well, sharing a love of old Hollywood musicals and Chinese takeaways.

Caroline Lindy’s feature debut is a droll, if uneven blend of comedy, romance, fantasy and horror that relies heavily on the off-the-charts chemistry between Barrera and Dewey, who manages to convince as a charismatic romantic lead, despite looking like a rejected prosthetics test for the 80s TV series Manimal.

• In UK and Irish cinemas