Tino Tonitini Hear A Monster Calls

Weekenders Hear A Monster Calls is another Weekenders

Plot
Conor O'Malley (Lewis MacDougall) is a young boy who tries to deal with his mother's terminal cancer (Felicity Jones), his grandmother (Sigourney Weaver), and the attacks by local school bully Harry (James Melville).

One night, seven minutes after midnight, Conor encounters a tree-like Monster (Liam Neeson). The Monster tells Conor that it has come to tell Conor three true stories, after which Conor will tell The Monster his own story, the truth behind his nightmare. The Monster continues to meet Conor, almost always at 12:07 am or pm, to tell its stories, which all involve other times The Monster was summoned. Ultimately, Conor faces the truth behind his nightmare, which is that though he does not want his mother to die, he understands that it is inevitable and something he must accept. After this, Conor's mother dies seven minutes after midnight, and upon returning home with his grandmother she gives him a room of his own. In the room he finds on the desk his mother's old art book which depicts the characters of the stories that have been told.

The first story
An old king who's lost his entire family save a young grandson and remarries a beautiful young woman. He dies before the young prince has come of age, and many believe she poisoned the king. Not wanting to hand the kingdom over to the prince in a year, she plots to marry the prince and remain queen. The prince, who is in a popular relationship with a farm girl, runs away with her. They stop and sleep under a yew tree (the monster), but in the morning he finds the young woman murdered. He tells the villagers that the queen, a witch, must have done it, and they rally to overthrow the queen. At this point, the monster awakes and joins the mob. Enraged, the commoners rally around the prince to storm the castle, and the monster follows. Before the commoners can get to the queen, the monster arrives to snatch her from the fire and carry her away to a far off land where she lives out the rest of her life in peace. Though she was indeed a witch, she did not kill the girl or the old king. The prince had murdered the girl under the yew tree in order to inspire his people to back him into overthrowing the queen.

The second story
An apothecary follows the old traditions and beliefs, using herbs and brews to cure ailments. The apothecary's business becomes less and less popular as a local parson tells his congregation not to accept the apothecary's old ways. When the parson's own two daughters become very sick, the parson goes to the apothecary and asks him to save the lives of his two ill daughters after all other resources are exhausted. When the apothecary asks why he should help a man who has turned people away from his skills and denied him the yew tree, his best source of healing ingredients, the parson begs. The parson promises to give him the yew tree and deliver the parishioners to him as customers. In response to the parson's promise to revoke his beliefs and give up everything if only his daughters are healed, the apothecary says that he cannot help him and the girls die. The monster awakens from the yew tree to destroy the parson's house and raze it to the ground as punishment. While the apothecary was a greedy man, he was a healer and would have saved lives, including the girls, if the parson had simply allowed him his way of life. The parson, however, was a man of belief, but was willing to throw his beliefs away when they were in the way. The healing traditions followed by the apothecary require belief in order to work; without the parson's, the apothecary was unable to treat the two girls. Belief is half the cure.

The third story
There was man who was invisible because no one ever saw him. Tired of this, he summoned the monster to ensure people would take notice. The monster made them see, but now they looked and saw something wretched.

The fourth story
Conor must confront his nightmare to tell the fourth story, or face his end.

His mother has been pulled to the edge of a cliff by a sudden collapse of the ground and Conor must hold onto her hand to save her from falling into the pit. Eventually, his grip fails and his mother falls. The monster forces Conor to confess the truth: he loosened his grip on purpose. While he could have held on longer, he let go in order to stop the pain of having to hold on.