Review of The Monster (2016) by Jon C — 07 Oct 2017

My review: this movie is about a mother and daughter on the road on their way to the father's house. It is a pretty well executed metaphor for alcohol addiction mixed in with an actual monster. I really enjoyed the Ella Ballentine as "Lizzy" the daughter and Zoe Kazan is decent as a mom struggling to maintain sobriety while juggling caring for a child that has clearly lost a lot of faith in her mother's skills. They play off each other great most of the time. And the emotional torment of their relationship is believable due to decent acting. So that's good considering there aren't a lot of other people in this movie outside of this duo.

The story moves along fairly well. It jumps back and forth between present and past memories so the viewer can have an understanding of how the characters were brought to feel the way they do as well as their individual motivations. Most of the flash backs were decent but not all of them necessary. Too me, it was to reinforce the addiction issues of the mother as a monster in its own right. The actual monster in this is.... alright. There's a few jump scares in this which are cheap and bleh. You do get to see the monster a few times and I gotta say, to me, meh. It looked alright but I would've kept it more mysterious until the end for a finally reveal. It reminded me of a chupacabra but larger dipped in a vat of oil.

I enjoyed the first half of this movie as it was kinda unique and spooky. But once you see what's happening with the monster, as well as the inane actions of the other characters who serve nothing more than monster fodder, along with the ridiculous final act, this movie is mediocre at best. Which sucks because I was really enjoying it.

Good things:

1. Good acting from both of the protagonists.

2. Solid music throughout which never takes anything away from the scenes but rather adding a spooky sinister feel through out.

3. Decent metaphor using the mother's personal issues as a monster in its own right, making it scarier than the actual monster.

Bad things:

1. Plot holes. There's a few that are real head scratchers.

2. The monster. While this movie does well act portraying the mother's person demons as a monster, the actual monster in this movie kinda blows.

3. Jump scares galore. Cheap way to scare someone. Hate them in everything.

4. None of the other characters matter.

5. Without spoiling the end to the movie, I'll just say that it's pretty fucking stupid what the mom decides to do in order to escape. And the very end scene is also kinda meh.

6. The special effects were... I mean I like that it's all real, like no cgi, but it just wasn't all that scary to me. Really saw too much of this monster which is obviously a guy in a suit which just takes me out of the fantasy of the events.

Overall, I'll give this a soft 5/10. The acting is great, especially from the girl portraying "Lizzy" and the relationship between her and her mom is interesting the story really falters outside of that. Nothing all that memorable. ??

5/10.