The Monster Is Real
That's gotta hurt!
The Monster is Real is a 2014 animated gun safety PSA from the organization States United.
Advert[]
The PSA starts with a young boy peeking at something in a drawer, looking nervous. He then runs away, slamming the door shut (it reopens slowly, though). The boy's mother then comes in, and tells the boy to come out under the bed, but the latter refuses. The mother picks him up, and the boy says that he saw a "monster" in the closet. The mother says that there is no such thing as monsters, but the boy says that he saw it, feeling a bit sad. The mother then closes the door.
The next day, while playing with a ball, the boy looks into the nearly-open door and encounters the monster before running away to his bedroom. As time passes, the mother calls his husband, named Jeff, to come upstairs. The boy is then seen with a flashlight and under the blanket. The boy's father then pulls the blanket away and tells him that it's time for bed. He then takes the flashlight away and turns off the lamp. The boy then sleeps peacefully.
The next day, the boy is seen chasing a dog (who is presumably the family's pet) and encounters the closet again. This time, the boy is brave enough, and turns on the light, revealing that the monster is a suitcase on a drawer with a top hat on top. He then goes up to open the suitcase, eventually finding a gun inside. The boy slowly looks at it, while scared. Eventually, he smiles. But, as he puts the gun back to suitcase, he accidentally pulls the trigger, killing himself in the process. We then cut to the outside of the house, where Jeff is mowing grass, as if nothing happened. We then see a black screen with the text "THE MONSTER IS REAL", followed by "1.5 MILLION U.S. CHILDREN ARE LIVING WITH UNLOCKED, LOADED GUNS". We then see the States United logo with its URL below.
Why It's Cursed[]
The comparison between a gun and a monster seems a bit farfetched, rendering it unable to take seriously. The PSA also ends with the boy (unintentionally) killing himself while blood splats on the walls, scaring some viewers.