Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘The Monster’

Written by Scott Edwards

Broken homes are not out of the norm these days, in fact you seem to hear much more about them than ever before. It is sad to see a family get torn apart and while sometimes it is for the greater good, if there is a child involved, it can ruin their lives. I have been fortunate in that my family has not had these issues since my parents just celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary and are still going strong, but I have several friends that have had to deal with it. Although they seem fine, you can see that it has left a scar there when you ask how the parents are doing.

The time has come for Kathy and Lizzy to get on the road and get young Lizzy to her father’s house before the night settles in. Not ready for the trip, Kathy sees that her daughter has taken care of all of the packing for them both and is very impressed.  Lizzy has grown into a strong young woman and even though she might not have had much to do with it, Kathy is proud of her daughter, but needs to find a way to show it.

Stopping on the long drive to get some gas and steal a smoke, Lizzy has given the direction to push through the night and get to her father’s house, so she can sleep in her own bed. Even though Kathy is getting tired, she will do whatever her daughter asks and do her best to get Lizzy home in the fastest time possible. Taking a shortcut through the woods, the car gets run into by something that is not seen, and all that Kathy can remember when waking up from the crash is that she hit a wolf. With the car’s electrics going out, the two have been marooned out in the middle of nowhere, but help will be on its way as Lizzy has been able to contact the authorities. 

Seeing the dead wolf in the middle of the road, Kathy is curious about what really happened and while investigating the body finds a large fang in the wolf's gut. Knowing that there are all kinds of creatures in the forest, she has never seen anything like this before, but does not want to frighten her daughter. As the tow truck shows up before anyone else, the two young women are greeted by the driver, but Lizzy does not want to have anything to do with him, much less let either of them get out of the car on this stormy night. Even though Kathy knows that there is nothing to be afraid of, seeing a torn and battered tow truck driver crawling back to his truck after being mauled by an unseen creature, the truth about what Lizzy feared has come to life as they are now next on the menu of the monster that trapped them in the woods in the first place.

You know, when I saw the previews for this movie, I thought it looked a little bit different from a normal monster movie and I was right. With more suspense than gore, the story really follows the relationship between a former abusive alcoholic in Kathy and her daughter Lizzy, who only wants her mother to get better. With flashbacks about how their relationship declined while Kathy was boozing it up and seeing how much hatred Lizzy had for her mother, it was nice to see that they both still pretty much loved each other when the spit hit the fan. I really liked the underlying story that was being told about the monster that was hunting them down and while so many people complain about the ending of this movie, I think that they did an overall good job in delivering the message. Stay Scared.

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