"The Monster Who Came to Tea"

7 March 2025

2 mins 10s

A lot worse than a tiger.

This part-animated, part live-action film for Woman's Aid uses the reading of a bedtime story to express the horror faced by victims of domestic abuse. As mum reads 'The Monster Who Came to Tea' to her daughter, it swiftly become clear this is no fairy tale, and the titular similarity to Judith Kerr's classic children’s story is a clever piece of misdirection.

When we first meet the monster at the front door, it has blue eyes, good manners, and a wide and toothy smile. Once inside, it becomes a snarling beast that gobbles up food and spits out abuse as a red haze seeps through the house on the page. Off the page, Mum struggles to voice the antagonist, as if she's already heard it all in real-life.

The girl's shaken by what she's heard, and it only gets worse when there's a knock at the front door. Fiction's no escape for mother or daughter—they live the events of the book every day, and the bad guy always wins. The advertised charity wants unhealthy relationships to have different endings, but it needs help to ensure 'The Monster Who Came to Tea' becomes out of print.

UK

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