Bryan Bertino's The Monster is a horror film which tries to hard to be something it's not, attempting at all costs to provide a thematic deconstruction of the coming-of-age story, a decision that seriously hurts the overall effectiveness of its lean, suspenseful, horror structure. Set on a dark and dreary road in the middle of nowhere, The Monster details the battle of survival between a divorced mother and her headstrong daughter, a young girl whose frustrations with her careless mother has reached a boiling point. Early on in the film, The Monster makes it very clear that the typical roles of mother and daughter don't apply to this relationship, exhibiting how the young daughter is the responsible one, tired of her mother's drunken antics and carefree nature. Oscillating between flashbacks of past abuse and the present predicament these characters find themselves in, where they fight for their lives against a terrifying creature of the night, The Monster juxtaposes their home problems with this battle for survival, attempting to bridge the gap of this flawed mother-daughter relationship. Unfortunately the filmmakers have laid on the abuse of the mother far too quick, making it hard for the viewer to relate to this woman, as I found myself wishing for a swift death due to her negligence and overall poor demeanor towards her child. The daughter herself is by far the most compelling character in the film, but unfortunately the whole genre exercise comes off quite predictable due to the film laying on the fractured relationship between daughter and mother too think. In its foreseeable conclusion, The Monster seems to want the viewer to acknowledge the mother's sacrifice for her daughter, giving up her own life in a last ditch effort to show how much she cares. Her sacrifice is supposed to prove her love for her child, but the film doesn't realize it's too little too late to deliver a strong emotional core, with the symbolic nature of the killer creature itself representing the harsh reality of life being far more interesting. Unfortunately, none of the dramatic beats of this story work particularly well, with these characters motivations and desires being presented in a way that is always didactic and overly sentimental, making most of the film's emotion fall very flat. From a technical standpoint, The Monster checks most of the boxes in what I look for in a horror film, being a film that wholly believes in the 'less is more' concept, focusing more on mood and atmosphere than violence to create its suspenseful tale of survival. Featuring practical effects and a voyeuristic lens, The Monster exudes horror and uncertainty for much of its running time, delivering an atmosphere that is dripping with tension, but unfortunately I never found myself caring much for these characters, almost rooting for the creature to eviscerate them due to the screenplay's didactic approach. While The Monster's use of practical effects are very welcome in the world of horror these days, The Monster's stripped down, simple, suspenseful narrative feels wasted due to the film's thematic and dramatic concepts falling completely flat in the end.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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