The Monster

Another gym movie - woo!  This one may have been a little bit of a mistake as it is a pretty dark, as in lighting, film, and gyms tend to have very bright lighting, but I made it work.  "A mother and daughter must confront a terrifying monster when they break down on a deserted road."
I liked The Monster from the outset, I wouldn't say it's the most original story ever, as it does follow an old chestnut of a story, but it's very well done. 
Saying that though, it takes the story of a single parent who doesn't get on with their kid, and gives it this massive twist of a flesh eating monster.  Oh, and it also uses the old story of breaking down in the middle of nowhere, and again, throws in a monster. 

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From the get go, I was into the characters, I was into the story, and I was so excited when they broke down - in a nice way I mean, and not as weird as it sounds.  I just knew that as soon as they broke down, that's when the fun began.  Before they broke down, it was the normal tension and fighting between parents and children, but as soon as they broke down, you knew it was going down.  And it builds and it builds and it goes down, and takes any innocent person down with it. 

The Monster is just a stressful and impending doom feeling film.  Kathy and Lizzy fight the whole damn time, and you know it is not going to get much better as you know the monster is going to pop up.
The monster does take its sweet time coming though, but that is in no ways a bad thing.  I felt it gave a Jaws/Alien feel, when you don't get to see the creature until right at the end, and it really racks up the tension.  In The Monster, you only see teeny weeny snapshots of the monster, and that's great, because if I am honest, seeing the monster takes away some of the tension...  
That might just be me, but monsters don't tend to scare me, and so actually seeing it, lost tension for me.  I did enjoy the film after that, just as much, but it did lose some of the fear as you've already seen the creature and it wasn't that scary.  That was one of the only cons of this film, along with the actual ending.  I actually did not really like the ending, I don't know why, I just wasn't feeling it.  I am not going to say how it ends, you should know me by now and that I don't spoil, but I just did not love the ending. 

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Overall, The Monster is good, pretty damn good actually, highly entertaining and very fresh.  It has its cons, but so does everything!