Gertie and the Mold

We open on Gertie, 9, fighting the Germans of the first World War in the trenches. It’s playtime for Gertie and her imaginary friend, Danny. When her dad snaps her back to reality, she is on a military base with her family. They’ve just moved. Her mom and dad are going through a rough time and their frequent arguments don’t go unnoticed by Gertie. When Gertie goes off to her first day at her new school, something monstrous starts creeping around the house. It steals a box cutter from Dad and leaves a trail of green goo behind. Later it spies Mom crying over a toddler’s t-shirt. We find out that Gertie’s imaginary friend, Danny, is actually her brother who has passed away.

Ever since the monster came in contact with Dad, he’s been having flu-like symptoms. Gertie walks in on Dad vomiting violently in the living room, but when she tries to tell her mom, she sees that Mom has the same green goo on her mouth that Dad had previously. They are both ill and Gertie vows to take care of them, but she quickly reverts back into a pretend world with Danny. After playing and eating brownies, Gertie brings her parents soup and stumbles upon a MOLD MONSTER sucking on Dad’s mouth. Shocked, Gertie runs to the other side of the room as the Monster flees. When Gertie tries to tell her parents what she saw they don’t believe her. Galvanized to discover what’s going on, Gertie finds a metal grate in the garage with goo on it, convincing her that the monster is real and inside the grate.

Grandpa shows up and Gertie tries to explain to him what is in the house. He tells her to get her imagination under control. They go into the attic to look around for signs of mold and Gertie finds an old notebook with a story about a Mold Monster, the steps for how to defeat it, and a bunch of signatures in the back. Later Dad and Grandpa have a tense conversation, while the Mold Monster looks on, wearing Danny’s old clothes.

At night, both parents are looking thin and ill. Gertie disappears into her pretend world to try to find a solution in the attic notebook. She discovers that the Mold Monster does not like sunlight. When Danny tries to get Gertie to talk about her birthday, she gets annoyed and walks away, snapping back into the real world. Determined to stop the Mold Monster, Gertie lays a trap in the garage and captures the monster in a dog kennel. She tries to show it to Grandpa, but all he sees is something that looks like a scotch egg with hair and goo. He tells her that she is out of control and grounds her to her room. When Gertie goes upstairs, the egg in the kennel starts humming and attracting crickets.

While Gertie is grounded upstairs, she sees a flashback of the dog attack that ended Danny’s life. She goes to his room in her fantasy and Danny tells her that he is leaving soon. Unable to accept that, Gertie tries to focus on the Mold Monster. The old notebook shows drawings of multiple mold monsters emerging from an egg to take over the Earth. Outside the house, the egg is growing bigger and bigger until small mold monsters appear. They go into the house.

When Grandpa sees one in the bathroom, he finally believes Gertie. They both arm themselves with blunt objects to try to save the day. But the monsters get Grandpa and he tells Gertie to run away. She runs to her parents' room and locks the door behind her. Both Mom and Dad look near-death. Gertie screams for Danny, but when he appears he tells her that he has to go. But before he leaves, he instructs her that the only way to get rid of the Mold Monsters for good is to go down below and defeat them where they come from. Gertie leaves Grandpa with her parents and she runs off to the garage, now covered in mold.

Gertie sees Danny one last time before she ducks down into a tunnel. She lands in a monster’s house, covered in mold. When she uses her crowbar to open the door, she finds herself in the flashback of Danny’s last minutes. It’s there that the ultimate battle between Gertie and the Mold Monsters finally takes place. Just when things seem done for Gertie, she turns to the Monster and says: “I see you.” Once she faces the Mold Monsters head-on, they decay and dissipate.

In the final pages, the family finds peace, all members are healthy, and they are communicating better than ever before.