The Monster

Loris Roberto Benigni is a part-time mannequin handler at a department store who hopes to learn Chinese to advance to an assistant manager position. He lives in a building where he hasn’t paid the rent in months and owes money to people around town, a detail that casts a shadow over his daily life.

At a party, Loris hears about a nymphomaniac who will sleep with anyone. He approaches the wrong woman, who runs away and reports him to the police. Because of his odd behavior, he becomes the chief suspect in a string of rapes and murders, and the chief of police, Laurent Spielvogel as commissario Frustalupi, is determined to trap him “red-handed.” An attractive police officer, Jessica Rossetti, Nicoletta Braschi goes undercover as his roommate, and is directed by the chief and the police doctor, Paride Taccone, Michel Blanc, to dress provocatively to entrap Loris.

After a few days living in his apartment, Jessica begins to doubt Loris really is the killer. Paride, however, is convinced that Loris is on the brink of committing his next crime. Paride visits Jessica’s apartment under the pretext of fitting Loris for a suit. He performs all sorts of medical tests while Loris remains clueless, thinking he really is being fitted for a suit. The Chinese instructor, Franco Mescolini as il professore di cinese, appears in this sequence through the eerie thread of a little Chinese good luck charm that Jessica spots.

Later, Loris goes to interview at the Chinese company. His teacher gives him a little Chinese good luck charm, and Jessica sees this. Loris bombs the interview, unable to answer the very first question: to tell his name.

Jessica is about to give up on the case when Paride brings her a Little Red Riding Hood costume and says the chief orders her to put it on in order to unleash Loris’ erotic urges. Jessica does as instructed but Loris remains unmoved. Jessica is back at the police station when they get news that the killer has struck again. At the crime scene, Jessica finds the good luck charm and connects it to Loris’s Chinese instructor. She goes to the instructor’s house, where she finds both Loris and the teacher. She instructs a uniformed officer to release Loris, then she calmly directs the real killer to a squad car. The film concludes with Loris and Jessica kissing and then walking off into the sunset.

Last Updated: October 05, 2025 at 12:44