The Monster

Might just be me getting tired of the new wave meta-level horror, but if your monster is an analogy for alcoholism and child neglect, guess what? It's not scary, it's just sad. So instead of Horror you get drama, which doesn't function properly because of a plastic muppet out in the woods. This way even the actors are cheated out of their good performances. And for fucks sake, someone help that towing guy!

Can we stop with the allegory horror movies? Only Babadook did it right. This is an uncomfortably, tasteless mash-up of serious issues and schlocky monster horror (which barely measures up to monster costume design from the 70s no less!) The only thing that made this trainwreck remotely watchable was the little girl's fucking dropdead good acting.

It's about something, that makes it new and fresh, apparently

Metaphooooor

As with many modern horror films, this is at its best in a very tense first half, as the unseen creature stalks its prey on a dark and stormy night -- while the set-up is hardly original, Bertino stages some genuinely nerve-wracking suspense set-ups, and Kazan and Balentine are both terrific as the mother-daughter team. Unfortunately, once the monster is revealed, much of the suspense drains away, and lapses into pretentious, esoteric symbolism, which doesn't quite fit with what has come before.

Nice performances from Zoe Kazan and Ella Ballentine playing alcoholic mum Kathy and old-beyond-her-years daughter Lizzy. A brooding atmosphere on the deserted road and backstory flashbacks of familial tension were also plus points. Unfortunately, the bargain basement retro 80s monster design and Ripleyesque moments toward the end just didn't work.

The visuals for the films were good and the monster was kind of cool but the pacing was too slow and it cared nothing for the main characters.

Family drama between daughter and mom harped on through too much of the film. It was succesfull in setting the relationship, and that is good, but it spent way too much time on that fam drama aspect which undermined the horror of the film significantly. Theres a sweet spot, too little you dont care about the characters, too much and its irritating, boring and in the way. Especially when it has no direct relation to the horror. Otherwise an entertaining, junk food ish monster flick.

God this dragged. Loooooong stretches of nothing happening that were probably supposed to be tense but were actually just really boring. Felt like a short film padded out to feature length.

Tries to be more than just a horror story by adding a poorly written and over acted deep dramatic backstory. It results in the movie being neither competently dramatic or scary and mostly just boring.

I tend to really like Bertino's approach to contemporary horror, but this one feels like a huge misfire to me. Despite the nice two leads -- specially Ballentine --, the Ripley/Newt-esque mom and daughter dynamics never land as expected -- even with that amount of informative flashbacks -- and this monster design is kinda boring -- Venom, to be fair.

Nothing happens. It should have been titled 'Inside a car while it rains and then scream a little bit'

Boring... and boring.... and boring.... and then the film develops its thesis and ends, Scott Speedman... five seconds on screen.

okay movie

As in Bertino's debut feature, The Strangers, two people with an effectively dead relationship are brought back together by a deadly threat in the night. In this case, strong performances, believable characters and eerie atmosphere are hampered by an uninteresting monster and a minimalist plot painfully stretched out to feature length (the monster conveniently spends a lot of time just chilling off screen).

Only watched this for Zoe Kazan. So the monster is supposed to be a metaphor, but you actually make it a "real" monster in the end that actually kills people....but it isn't real. Or is it? Someone should tell the director to put down the bong the next time he's writing a script.

Creepy premise, shaky follow-through.

The real monster here, of course, is having to grow up too soon because your mother is an addict who can't even take care of herself. The metaphor sits heavily on the roof of the movie, but good performances and a tight scenario still makes it work.

Cujo with metaphors. While it rises above this due to two very good performances, the film is more sad than scary. The atmosphere is great while the rest kind of feels like work.