OCTOBER 29, 2020
GENRE: BREAKDOWN, MONSTER
SOURCE: STREAMING (NETFLIX)
It's been a long time since I watched a proper "the car breaks down and now they're going to die" movie (assuming I haven't forgotten to use the tag, the last one was a revisit of 1000 Corpses over a year ago), so I was happy for the reminder that I never saw The Monster when it hit VOD a while back. It was an intentional skip at the time; after being so disappointed with Mockingbird I didn't want to be let down by Bryan Bertino again so soon and figured I'd give it a while (and maybe some good word of mouth) before risking it. And then I just forgot it existed! He has a new film coming out called The Dark and the Wicked and I honestly thought it was his third, not fourth. Sorry, The Monster.
Luckily it's a return to form; not AS good as The Strangers but in the same wheelhouse and offering the same kind of tension. Just as Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman were going through an awkward rough patch (she had just turned down his marriage proposal while they were staying in an isolated cabin), Monster offers us Kathy (Zoe Kazan) and her 12ish daughter Lizzy (Ella Ballentine) who are never more than a muttered insult away from practically killing each other, due to the former's lacking skills as a parent. So lacking, in fact, that she is actually driving Lizzy to live with her father for the foreseeable future, seemingly for both their sakes, as Kathy is a drunken mess, mildly abusive (more verbally than physically) and the young girl is tired of having to take care of her instead of getting a chance to be a normal little girl. Flashbacks give us some low-lights of their relationship over the previous year, including a shouting match that has them both bellowing F bombs at each other until Kathy drives off, leaving Lizzy alone at the house and still needing a ride to her own school play. I mean, oof.
In other words, as with Strangers, it might have been a pretty tense and interesting movie even without the horror stuff, just to see if these two can actually make it to the dad's house without killing each other (Kathy's smoking habit is a constant source of contention). But then they have a blowout AND swerve to avoid an animal (a wolf! Nice change from the standard deer!) which causes Kathy to lose control and spin out, breaking her wrist and the car's front axel, stranding them in the obligatory middle of nowhere. They actually have cell service, but another accident is clogging up resources and the road to get to them, so it'll take a while to send the tow truck and ambulance... and there's a damn monster to boot!
Bertino doesn't spring the beast too soon, opting for a more gradual and subtler reveal. First they notice that the wolf has some injuries that are seemingly from a fight with another animal, then the corpse just disappears from its spot on the road. It's not until Lizzy goes looking for the corpse that we get a shot of the title character, and it's in the dark/blurry area behind her. The full reveal eventually comes, and it's not exactly the scariest looking monster in the world, but it IS a practically done one (in fact there's even a quick goof where we see the creature performer's human hand), so it's forgivable. And in fact it's probably intentional; the idea here is that kids can't always trust their parents, whether it be when they tell you that you don't have to be afraid of monsters or just because they might be shitty people, so giving it a sort of "child's drawing come to life" appearance, while perhaps not great for out of context still images, works for the film as a whole in a thematic way.
Naturally, if it's just the two women and nothing else this would be a largely event-free movie, as even by applying horror movie logic there's only so much of a chance they can possibly stand against the thing, with one being injured and the other being a child about half its size. The tow truck eventually arrives, driven by Aaron Douglas from Battlestar Galactica (nearly unrecognizable with long hair and a beard), so you can guess what happens to him. And later on the ambulance shows up, with two paramedics, some much needed supplies (I'm guessing Kazan grew to truly hate the tiny blood pooled bandaid she had to wear for most of the runtime), and a new vehicle for the monster to wreck. Between those diversions and the flashbacks (one of which features Speedman making a quick cameo as one of Kazan's jerk boyfriends) the film is never dull, despite the minimal plot and cast.
Over 90 tight minutes we see Kazan learn to finally be the protective mother she should have been all along, coupled with the irony that because of her lapses as a parent, her daughter had generated the survival skills she might have otherwise lacked. It's a great two hander setup, and both actresses pull it off wonderfully. The final flashback is downright heartbreaking, and I think it's key that these memories are never clearly identified in time nor are in any particular order. As much as they scream at each other, they ultimately have that bond that nothing can break, and so these flashbacks - some tender, some horrible - all could have happened in one day for all it mattered. Had they never encountered the monster, that love/hate relationship would likely ping-pong back and forth for the rest of their lives. And by keeping the dad confined to the other end of a phone instead of showing up to save the day (or get killed as well), Bertino never loses focus on how it's their bond that is driving the film toward its conclusion, with no other distractions.
Apart from a rather silly contrivance about the tow truck (the dude locks it up in the dark and pouring rain, as if anyone else was around to steal it?), everything works quite well here, and ranks as one of the better "trapped in a car" type movies. And more importantly, it got me excited to check out his new one after feeling equally unsure about it (I skipped a chance to see it at Beyond Fest this month); in fact it's coming to Shudder soon, and while I can't guarantee it'll be a day one viewing, I PROMISE it won't take me literal years to get around to it, either. Hopefully it'll be another win and I can be assured that Mockingbird was just a sophomore slump kind of thing. And if not? Well, he'll still have a minor slasher/survival classic and a really solid monster film on his resume, which is double (or more!) what many other genre directors can ever manage. No one hits it out of the park every time, but if you can pull off two wins? That's someone to keep an eye on for the long haul.
What say you?
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