The Monster: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
A divorced mother (Zoe Kazan) and her headstrong daughter must make an emergency late-night road trip to see the girl’s father. As they drive through deserted country roads on a stormy night, they suddenly have a startling collision that leaves them shaken but not seriously hurt. Their car, however, is dead, and as they try in vain to get help, they come to realize they are not alone on these desolate backroads — a terrifying evil is lurking in the surrounding woods, intent on never letting them leave.
Movies such as this one tend to fly under the radar. Mainly because they don’t have much marketing or they don’t have huge stars attached. It’s a shame because people often miss cool gems such as this film. I like that is has a very basic and simple plot. A mother and daughter (who aren’t exactly loving towards each other) get stranded on the side of the road with a creature (or monster) on the loose. They take that plot and create an interesting horror film but with an underlying message: No matter how dysfunctional the mother and daughter’s relationship was they still loved each other deep down and they would die/kill for each other. The film did something that you don’t see very often. It hid a lot of the creature elements of the film with darkness and that made it seem way more dangerous and scary. I can understand why they went this route. A big animatronic/suited monster wouldn’t be as scary in brighter areas and the darkness kept a level of mystery to what the protagonists were fighting against. My only complaint about the film is the fact that Kazan looks too young to be believable as a mother. She is in her early 30’s but her “look” is that of a 16 year old. It wasn’t a dealbreaker but it did take away some of the believability for me. For an indie horror movie I think that it’s one of the best that I’ve seen in a while without it going the cheesy route with bad CG. This is a definite must watch in my opinion and is an interesting creature feature to boot. Go pick this one up! 8/10
Special Features:
“Eyes In The Darkness” Featurette – The usual Behind The Scenes feature that also gives a better look at the monster itself.
