The Monster

This minimalist horror film mixes elements of Cujo, Alien and Ghostbusters. I include Ghostbusters because the title monster looks a lot like a greasier version of the demon dog Rick Moranis transformed into in the comedy classic. There’s nothing funny about how badly a road trip goes for Kathy (Zoe Kazan) and daughter Lizzy (Ella Balletine) when they have a blowout on a rainy night in the middle of nowhere. Their car hits a wolf, a bloody wolf, and Lizzy makes the keen observation that something it was fighting must’ve driven it in front of their car and into harm’s way. She’s very right. There’s a monster in the woods, and it wants to not only eat them, but anybody that tries to help them. Writer-director Bryan Bertino (The Strangers) has made a decent creature feature here, one that is as much a mother-daughter drama—there are plenty of flashbacks showing their troubled times—as it is a flick about a monster. Kazan is damn good here, and continues to be one of the more under-appreciated actresses in movies today. She needs to get some higher profile roles. Balletine is every bit her match as a daughter who has much more common sense than her mother. The movie clocks in at 91 minutes, but it feels long due to some stretches that are drawn out just a tad. Still, enough of the movie works to qualify it as yet another decent movie in a resurgent horror genre. (Available for rent on iTunes, On Demand and Amazon.com during a limited theatrical release.)