Film

The Monster

Name: The Monster
Genre: Horror, Drama
Released: 2016
Cast: Zoe Kazan, Ella Ballentine, Aaron Douglas, Christine Ebadi, Marc Hickox

Other titles called The Monster: the 1925 film.

Monster horror
Very dark

A creature-stalked night on a deserted road becomes a pressure cooker for a mother and daughter forced to face each other while something ancient hunts them. It's tense and intimate, balancing visceral horror with the pain of a relationship that's already broken. For viewers who want their scares braided with real emotional stakes.

TMDb rating

2.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like horror that works through a fractured parent-child bond, where the creature matters less than the silences and bitter history sitting inside the car with the two leads.

Skip it if you want a monster movie with steady scares and brisk escalation; this one spends long stretches on tense, talky friction between its two characters before the genre machinery kicks in.

What it asks of you: It runs about ninety minutes and stays mostly in one cramped, dark setting, so it asks patience for slow, emotionally raw conversation before the frights arrive.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

A Quiet Place2018

A family surviving in silence while creatures hunt by sound. Delivers the same throttled intensity—maximum threat, minimal dialogue, every breath a decision. Brilliant mechanics and genuine dread.

But The plot is relatively thin once the premise clicks in place. If you need story texture beyond the survival concept, you may feel shortchanged.

It Comes at Night2017

Claustrophobia, paranoia, a family imploding from within while something worse waits outside. Slow-burn dread that trusts your anxiety more than jump scares. Beautifully made and unsettling.

But Deliberately vague about what the real threat is. Some viewers find ambiguity frustrating; others find it cowardly.

The Descent2005

Women trapped in a cave system with creatures and each other. Uses darkness and confined space to wrench out both horror and raw character conflict. Visceral and psychologically sharp.

But Graphic violence and gore. If body horror is your limit, this crosses it without hesitation.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Monster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Ginger Snaps2000

Both films weaponize female relationships—using supernatural threat as the crucible where intimacy and terror become inseparable. The monster is less important than what it forces the women to confront in each other.

Canadian werewolf film that's actually about sisterhood and adolescence. Two sisters bound by blood and strangeness; one transforms into something feral. It's horror through a female lens—funny, furious, and heartbreaking.

But Low-budget effects show their age. The werewolf isn't seamless; you'll see the seams, especially in later scenes.

Under the Skin2014

Alien predator stalking isolated victims through mundane landscapes. Hypnotic, unsettling, and deeply strange. Scarlett Johansson in a role that inverts everything you know about her.

But Glacially paced and deliberately oblique. It does not explain itself. If you want plot clarity, you will leave frustrated.

Goodnight Mommy2015

Austrian nightmare about children and a mother, where something is fundamentally wrong and dread accumulates in the ordinary spaces of a home. Genuinely disturbing on psychological and visceral levels.

But The twist is brutal and divisive. Some find it shattering; others think it undercuts the film's atmosphere for shock value alone.

You're Next2013

Home invasion becomes an arena for a sharp, intelligent woman to fight back. Genre-savvy, wickedly funny, and doesn't insult its audience's intelligence. Fast-paced fun.

But Tonal whiplash between horror and comedy. If you want consistency, you'll feel it lurching around.

The Babadook2014

Australian psychological horror where a mother and son are hunted by a thing in their house—which may also be the thing in their heads. Grief dressed up as a monster. Haunting and human.

But Relies on ambiguity and metaphor. Viewers wanting straightforward supernatural explanation will find it evasive.

Hush2016

A deaf woman alone in a house, hunted by an intelligent killer. Real tension from isolation and vulnerability; the film respects both the character and your attention span.

But Home invasion is a worn premise. The setup is effective but familiar; execution is what carries it.

The Gift2015

Psychological thriller about a couple visited by someone from the past. Morally unsettling, deliberately uncomfortable, and refuses easy sides. Joel Edgerton is mesmerizing.

But Slow to unfold. Takes patience to build its dread, and some find that patience unrewarded by payoff.

Come True2020

Both crater into relationship trauma—but Come True externalizes it as surrealist nightmare rather than creature feature. Same emotional engine, inverted mechanics. The thing hunting isn't external; it's the fracture itself made visible.

A homeless girl enters a sleep study and begins to haunt her own dreams. Dreamlike, gorgeous, profoundly strange. Less jump-scare horror and more psychological unease. Visually stunning.

But Experimental structure and ambiguous narrative. If you need clarity and conventional story beats, this will frustrate you.

Tusk2014

Like The Monster, it traps two people in a nightmare they cannot escape—but Tusk is body-centered rather than relationship-centered horror. Both ask: what do you do when escape is impossible? The difference is Tusk asks it while something impossibly horrific is happening to flesh.

Body horror fever dream where a man is surgically transformed into a walrus. Kevin Smith's strangest work—grotesque, darkly comic, utterly committed. It should not work; somehow it does.

But Revolting and deeply uncomfortable. If graphic surgical mutation scenes make you leave the theatre, absolutely skip this. It's designed to disgust.