October Horror Challenge 2022 #66: "The Monster (2016)"

This is a movie I'd never heard of before until Amazon recommended it to me. It's about a mother and her very headstrong preteen daughter who have to go on a surprise road trip one night to see the girl's dad. It's a dark and stormy night, and they have to drive through deserted streets in the creepy, stormy darkness when they have a shocking collision that leaves them in a dead car, unhurt but stranded in the night. As they try unsuccessfully to get help, they realize that they are not alone. There is something evil out in the dark woods that doesn't want them to leave alive.

The daughter in this movie is a real piece of work. She's such a brat that it'shard not to want to reach into the screen and smack her. Luckily, once they'rein danger after the collision happens she gets easier to deal with. Plus as the movie goes on we see more details of their life together that shed some light on why the daughter is such a little jerk. The mother clearly has her own problems to deal with. As the night drags on and they continue to await a rescue that doesn't seem like it will ever come, the storm closes around them, things are dire enough before anything otherworldly even happens.

Whatever the monster is it's never fully clear because the thing is always at least partially in shadow, which is good, because hiding in the unknown makes it scarier. What we do see of the monster makes it look like a cross between Venom from the spider man movies and the werewolf from An American Werewolf in London, which is plenty creepy. The poor mom and daughter are definitely put through the wringer by this thing too. First the car crash, then a tow truck comes, then an ambulance, but no one seems to take the threat of a monster seriously so they venture out into the night and get eaten, leaving mom and kid to fend for themselves against the monster lurking in the shadows. The kid is pretty resilient too, I'm impressed with how she defends herself against the monster when she has to. Way to go, kid. This is a pretty good little monster flick and I'm glad I checked it out.