3 Short Paragraphs: The Monster

2016, Bryan Bertino (Mockingbird) -- download

David, stop downloading movies that would be a great choice for Days of Halloween 2017 !! Too late, but I also have Pet but maybe I can distract myself for another 7 months before viewing it? Anywayz, The Monster and no, not Trump. I realized this morning that I didn't have enough current events references in my blog-posts-not-movie-reviews and that would require constant connections to The Orange One, Ctrumphlu.  Maybe not.

Anywayz!! The Monster is a small pic, an isolated horror movie that takes place on a rainy night, on the side of a road, mostly in a broken down car. Kathy and her daughter Lizzy are on their way to Lizzy's father's place, to basically dump Lizzy on the guy. Kathy is a drunk who probably should never have had a child, and she struggles with that every day. And Lizzy is blatantly aware, but as all lost little girls do, she still loves her mom. When the car breaks down, instead of rescue by tow truck or cop, they get a monster whom Kathy has to do everything in her power to keep from killing the two, or at the very least, her daughter.

This is an ambitious movie, that constantly tries to have us relate to the parentally challenged Kathy via regular flashbacks, interspersed with the alien-bear-like creature lurking in the rain on the side of the road. We are being led to understand the protagonists, not the antagonist, as Kathy is being led to understand her own capabilities. The monster is just that, a monster. There is no mythology, just a mom tenaciously defending her daughter. Skipping most of the cliches, but never reaching the maternal instincts height it wants, this was a mostly successfully small horror flick.