The Monster (2016) Review
Ten-year-old Lizzy (Ella Ballentine) lives alone with her alcoholic, nicotine addicted mother Kathy (Zoe Kazan), her father Roy having left them both. Kathy is supposed to leave in the morning to drop Lizzy off at her father’s, as it is his turn for custody. Lizzy often having to take care of her drunken mother and has made it abundantly clear that she wants to live with her father permanently. However Kathy sleeps in delaying their departure till late afternoon. Whilst driving through deserted country roads on a stormy night Kathy hits a wolf damaging her vehicle and injuring herself.
Now stranded in the middle of nowhere Kathy does the right thing for once and calls emergency services. As mother and daughter await the arrival of both a tow truck and an ambulance the body of the wolf mysteriously disappears from the road. The tow truck arrives first and its amiable driver Jesse (Aaron Douglas) starts repairing their vehicle in the heavy rain before suddenly disappearing. Venturing out of their car Kathy and Lizzy discover Jesse’s severed arm on the road before seeing a monster drag the bloodied mechanic back into the woods. Will the twosome be rescued? Will either, or both, escape the creature that lurks in the darkness closeby?
Folks reconnecting through adversity has become a rather tired plot device and here it is again in writer/director’s Bryan Bertino’s creature feature, and it’s not the first time he’s employed this plot device. Bertino injected a similar dynamic at the core of his loose remake of the superior French film Ils, The Strangers. Whereas the lead couple in the French film were happy with their lot in life, Bertino’s loose-retelling chose to eject that dynamic opting instead to saddle us with a couple suffering relationship issues.
To illustrate my point were the family in the original Poltergeist glum and suffering relationship issues? Nope, they were a normal family and that made them easier to relate to and empathise with. Were Mina and Jonathan blighted with fall-out issues when Dracula popped into their lives? Nope! Did Laurie and her buddies have a massive barney before Michael Myers took to slicing and dicing them in Halloween? Nah! See! It can be done! And it makes for better viewing too! Aside from the tired relationship dramatics The Monster sustains and builds the tension nicely, complemented by Tomandandy’s (47 Meters Down, Sinister 2) unsettling score .
However once the beastie is unveiled the tension dissipates rapidly. This is a common issue with monster movies. It’s very rare that the creature delivers and it’s the same here. Less is definitely more, and I think we see too much of the monster to ensure that it remains scary. The Monster also follows a well-worn path when it comes to lining up victims and/or potential scares. You just KNOW that anyone that comes to our leads will prove to be incompetent and end up as excuses for another messy killing. The Monster is a mixed-bag that had it retained the tension, rather than pander to by-the-numbers plotting, would have made for a more satisfying viewing experience. There’s really nothing new here. Shame!
