Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

The Monster Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 21, 2017

Anyone who has experienced the scourge of alcoholism or other substance abuse issues scarring their family dynamic will probably agree that those under the sway of such forces can often act in horrifying ways. It’s possible, then, to see a bit of subliminal meaning in the title of The Monster, for while the film does in fact posit a terrifying beast of some sort running rampant on an isolated country lane where a mother and daughter find themselves stranded, the real subtext of the story is the dysfunctional relationship between Kathy (Zoe Kazan), a divorced mother struggling with substance abuse problems, and Lizzy (Ella Ballentine), a young girl who, like so many kids purportedly being raised by a troubled parent, is in fact often the “adult” in the relationship. The Monster rather quickly and efficiently sets up this fraught relationship, showing Lizzy pretty much taking care of herself while her mother sleeps off another bender. It soon becomes obvious that Lizzy would understandably much prefer living with her father, and when it ultimately becomes clear that Kathy is intent on delivering her offspring to her ex-husband, there’s a certain unspoken finality to the situation, as if both mother and daughter realize they’ve come to, well, the end of the road. Unfortunately, the end of the road for this pair turns out to be a detour on the way to Dad’s house which quickly turns into a calamitous accident and then an increasingly bloody interaction with a largely unseen entity which does a good deal more than simply go bump in the night.

Writer-director Bryan Bertino made a considerable splash with The Strangers several years ago, and like the horror in that home invasion film, there’s a deliberate vagueness as to why the menacing force in The Monster is out to snack on various living creatures who wander into its territory. Rather similarly to The Strangers, The Monster posits two people holed up in a claustrophobic setting (in this regard, The Monster is considerably more confined than even The Strangers), doing their best to muster through an onslaught by an ominous threat that they can’t define, let alone contain. While The Strangers introduced at least a bit of dysfunction between its two focal characters, The Monster makes this aspect one of the defining elements of the story, at least if one reads between the lines.

When Kathy has to depart from the main highway on the way to her ex-husband’s place, she encounters a couple of figurative roadblocks, including what she and Lizzy initially think is a wolf they’ve run over. The wolf’s strange wounds seem to indicate something more than a mere car was involved, and Lizzy especially seems to sense there’s something sinister lurking in the rainy woods surrounding the car. The film already is ratcheting up the anxiety levels without too much overt delineation of the film’s titular being, and that circumspection actually helps to establish what is The Monster’s real achievement, a palpable sense of dread and an undeniably foreboding overall mood.

Initially at least Bertino seems to want to forego a number of horror tropes, including letting the pair be able to “reach out” to help in the form of a tow truck driver. It probably goes without saying that Jesse (Aaron Douglas), the tow truck driver, is in need of a little roadside assistance himself by the time everything plays out, but this fracas at least definitively determines for Lizzy that there is in fact some marauding creature lurking just out of sight (for the most part, anyway), waiting to wreak havoc at any given moment. At this point, The Monster tips over into a somewhat more formulaic enterprise, though the well delineated relationship between Kathy and Lizzy continues to inform the proceedings and gives the film some of its most distinctive content.

One undeniably trite but still incredibly effective moment involves a “comfort toy” of Lizzy’s that ends up causing chaos, but interestingly Bertino diverts attention from this hoary element by having still other potential helpers arrive on the scene. Without posting too much spoiler material, there’s an increasingly bloody body count which accrues, even as a seeming weakness afflicting the monster is revealed. The focus slowly shifts from the relationship between Kathy and Lizzy to Lizzy herself in the film’s closing moments, though the entire story is linked inextricably to the roiling dynamic between the mother and daughter. In fact one of the most visceral things about The Monster is how clearly it shows that years of a fractured relationship can be at least partially mended when there’s an external threat facing former combatants.

My colleague Brian Orndorf had some issues with what he termed the film’s “glacial pace” as well as the lack of actual screentime for the titular beast (you can read Brian’s review of the film, which was published during its brief theatrical exhibition, here). I agree with Brian in terms of the pacing issue, for the film is repeatedly interrupted with admittedly revelatory flashbacks that detail the various family dysfunctions, but which tend to sideline momentum at regular intervals. I was less bothered with the absence of an actual monster in The Monster, though I really wish the film had played up the psychological ambiguity that has been used so effectively in other horror films featuring children, notably The Babadook. Lizzy is a near perfect sort of character to have “imagination issues,” and the film might have been even scarier if the audience were left to wonder whether what was happening was real or simply the dissociative fervor of an extremely troubled little girl.

The Monster Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Monster is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. I haven't been able to track down any authoritative data on the film's shoot, but despite the fact that the vast bulk of the film plays out in nighttime, with torrential rain a regular feature as well, shadow definition and general detail levels are appealingly high throughout the presentation. A lot of the flashback material, as well as some of the introductory sequences, take place in daylight or at least better lighting, and the palette understandably pops better in these moments, with detail and fine detail remaining convincing throughout. The film is intentionally opaque at several key junctures, with a lot of the frame shrouded in darkness, something that is utilized to up anxiety levels quite effectively Very minor yellow splotchiness attends some scenes that tend to be somewhat in the middle of the lighting regimen (see screenshot 17 for an example).

The Monster Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Monster's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is a study in contrasts, with several longish sequences deriving a lot of surround activity out of "simple" elements like the wash of rain across the forest, only to suddenly be interrupted by more traditional startle effects as various carnage begins to unfold. The "contemporary" nighttime sequences regularly exploit ambient environmental effects to quite effectively recreate the sounds of being stranded out in the woods, while a lot of the flashback material tends to be more dialogue driven (though occasionally that dialogue is on the fierce side, due to the family dysfunctions on display). A moody if sometimes formulaic score by tomandandy also spreads through the surrounds quite winningly. Fidelity is fine and dynamic range quite wide on this problem free track.

The Monster Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Eyes in the Darkness (1080p; 7:32) is a pretty standard issue EPK, but it does have some better looks at the monster than the actual film does.

The Monster Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's a little funny (and maybe more than a little misleading) that the cover of The Monster gives a much more fearsome view of the titular creature than the film really does, and so for those looking for another Alien or Predator, my personal advice is to keep on looking, since this film doesn't really exploit the monster angle as much as its title might seem to indicate. The film's real resonance comes from the relationship between Kathy and Lizzy, and with excellent performances from Kazan and little Ballentine, those moments are what give The Monster whatever emotional tether to the audience its able to muster. The film has some narrative hurdles to overcome, including a lot of flashback material and somewhat lethargic pacing even aside from the flashbacks, but it manages to evoke some good chills while peeling back the layers of a mother-daughter relationship that is fraught with peril even before things start going bump in the (rainy) night. Technical merits are generally strong, and The Monster comes Recommended.