Jurassic World Rebirth not only takes inspiration from the previous movies in the Jurassic Park franchise but also from movies in Gareth Edwards’ own directorial history. Over the last 15 years, British filmmaker Gareth Edwards has become one of the world’s most well-known directors of science fiction. His fifth feature film, released on July 2, 2025 – Jurassic World Rebirth marks the most recent installment in the titular 32-year-old franchise – but Edwards made his debut with a 2010 independent monster movie developed on a shoestring budget.
In Jurassic World Rebirth, Gareth Edwards introduces a brand-new cast of characters, including Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), a pharmaceutical representative who hires Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), and Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) to travel to a dinosaur-infested island to collect DNA samples for a revolutionary heart disease treatment. Rebirth’s storyline is something new for the franchise, and the visual effects are better than ever before. This is a signature of Edwards’ style that can be seen even in his very first feature film, 2010’s Monsters.
2010’s Monsters Was Gareth Edwards’ Directorial Debut
Released on December 3, 2010, Monsters marked Gareth Edwards’ feature film debut, though he’d previously directed 2005 TV movie End Day and 2008 short film Factory Farmed. Edwards got his start as a visual effects artist for shows such as Nova, Perfect Disaster, and Heroes and Villains, and his VFX background bled into every moment of Monsters. Scoot McNairy starred as photojournalist Andrew Kaulder, who is tasked by his employer to safely escort his daughter, Samantha Wynden (Whitney Able), from Central America to the United States through a treacherous alien-infected quarantine zone.
Through the quarantine zone covering most of Mexico and on their journey into the United States, Andrew and Samantha come face-to-face with alien life – brought to Earth on a crashed NASA probe. They cross the epic border wall separating the US from the quarantine zone, but witness devastation and catastrophe on both sides of the wall, and their journey ultimately doesn’t have a happy ending. Monsters was a masterful debut for Gareth Edwards that put his VFX history front-and-center, and set the standard for his subsequent movies.
Monsters’ Shoestring Budget Made It An Even More Powerful Sci-Fi Movie
Monsters was conceived when Gareth Edwards saw fishermen bringing in a net, and imagined a monster inside. Monsters was produced by Vertigo Films, though Edwards had complete creative freedom, acting as writer, director, cinematographer, and visual effects artist, producing every moment of VFX with off-the-shelf equipment. Monsters was developed on a minuscule budget of only $500,000, and this made the 2010 movie so much better. The aliens and setting were grounded and realistic, every sign, piece of graffiti, fictional landmark, and scene of destruction was created digitally to the highest level.
Additionally, most of the extras in Monsters were real people already residing in filming locations who were persuaded to act in the movie with improvised lines and off-the-cuff dialogue. Filming took place in five locations: Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States, even though Edwards didn’t have permission to film in some of them, and the crew was limited to just seven, including Edwards, McNairy, Able, a sound operator, a line producer, a fixer, and a driver. This made Monsters feel raw, real, intimate, and quiet, despite featuring such a far-reaching and world-changing narrative.
How Monsters May Have Inspired Jurassic World Rebirth
Monsters‘ 2010 release garnered a total of $4.2 million at the global box office, so was seen by only a few in comparison to Edwards’ most recent movie. Jurassic World Rebirth has already grossed $318.3 million as of July 6, 2025, on a budget of $180 million, which spells good news for the franchise’s future. While the earnings of Monsters and Jurassic World Rebirth couldn’t be more different, the latter might have still been inspired by Gareth Edwards’ work on the former. Most notably, both see a group of people enter a quarantined area full of deadly monsters.
Jurassic World Rebirth was the first franchise movie not to feature any animatronic creatures or puppet dinosaurs, which was a trademark dating back to Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park movie in 1993. Edwards put his VFX talents to the test again in Rebirth, just as he had done in Monsters, Godzilla, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and The Creator. With its use of mutated dinosaurs and genetic mistakes, Jurassic World Rebirth felt more like a monster movie than previous Jurassic movies, which made the movie far more reminiscent of Monsters, and proved Edwards’ love for the genre.
What did you make of Gareth Edwards’ directorial debut in Monsters? Let us know in the comments!
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