This is a movie that could easily have been either just another fun goof of a creature feature or a ScyFy channel level piece of garbage. Instead what you get is a tense drama about the purely toxic relationship between an alcoholic mother and her preteen daughter and a savage encounter with an unknown beast in the woods. I havent seen a film this gripping about a disturbing parent/child relationship since the excellent Babadook. The acting was astounding, the pacing was perfect and the monster was a wonderful piece of practical effects.

An abusive neglectful mother is taking her daughter to live with her father, realizing that her child is completely fed up with her and that she herself is an unfit mother. They hit a wolf while driving and are left stranded late at night on a lonely road in the woods waiting for both a tow truck and an ambulance. Needless to say they are not alone in the woods. Though you understand their relationship withun the first scene it gets fleshed out in flashbacks that are peppered throughout the film which detail not only how awful things are for two of them and yet give tiny glimpses of the burried connection between parent and child. With the situation becoming one of survival the protagonists deep feeling of love for one another rise furiously to the surface as they fight to live through this horrific encounter with an unknown creature.

The acting and chemistry between the leads is superb, and made my heart ache for this broken family. What should have been a generic monster flick is instead a master class on drama, characterization and cinematography. Though the monster is a man in a rubber suit the director gets the most out of it with an athletic performance by the creature actor and perfect use of high contrast lighting, letting us see enough, but not too much of the beast. The attacks by the monster are nothing less than savage! It was akin to watching the mauling DiCaprio suffered in The Revenant and all done without any CGI as far as I could see! It could be that the monster is a metaphor/dream induced by the crash as it seems to be driven far more by rage than appetiite but ultimately that is for the viewer to decide for themselves.

I am beginning to think that I need to start reading more reviews.
I think that this movie could have been good if the movie actually showed more filming locations other than the damn car.
Remember the movie Cujo, where the dog was rabid and trying to get to the woman? Well this movie is kind of like that. They get out of the car just a few times and its always a pretty stupid decision. I'm not going to give too much away, but it just really sucks.

My second dislike is that the age of the mother and daughter should have been a little different. The mother only appears to be about 5-8 years older than the kid. It just didn't fit.
I could reveal more but I have this thing against revealing spoilers.
My recommendation is if you want to waste your time, be my guest but I won't watch it again.

I can't understand all the poor reviews for this movie. I liked it, and I'm a horror freak. That's not exactly what this movie is all about though. The "monster" lurks in the shadows of course, but this film is more about examining the monster that lives in both of the main characters. The story unfolds and develops at a good pace to increase understanding of their relationship. The monster in the woods is incidental. I think it represents the ugliness in life and the challenge we all face to maintain control of our darker side. This is about the complex and often brutal relationship of a seriously flawed mother and her seriously damaged daughter. And how their lives float on a thin veneer of both hate and love. I couldn't figure out if it was dubbed or if the sound track was just way off. I think the later, because the vernacular is absolutely current and convincing. It's not high budget but it IS thought provoking, and there is a good dose of pathos thrown in to substantiate the title and satisfy those who merely want to watch a scary movie. Again, I liked it.

This was a good horror film, I rather enjoyed it. The premise, while simple, definitely held my attention with good scares, atmosphere, and the tremendous skill of the two leads. There were, as many critics and reviewers pointed out, more depth to the film than a simple monster flick, as the relationship between the two leads figured a lot into the plot.

Taking place almost entirely on a dark, rainy road deep in the forest, the movie centers on a mother (an abusive, alcoholic woman by the name of Kathy played by Zoe Kazan) and her daughter, choosing to permanently live with her father (the daughter is 10-years old and named Lizzy, played by Ella Ballentine). While driving her daughter through the forest, Kathy hits a wolf. Kathy is injured in the collision and the car damaged and the two managed to call an ambulance and a tow truck.

Things get worse from there, for in the dark rainy woods there is a far worse thing a wolf, and soon everyone involved is in a fight for their lives (with multiple people dying). To say much more is spoiling, but the fight against the monster also involves repairing the relationship between Kathy and Lizzy.

I liked the monster, the atmosphere and tension were first rate, and Zoe Kazan and Ella Ballentine did excellent jobs (especially Ella); if they had not been good the movie wouldn’t have worked anywhere near as well as it did. It was literally and figuratively a dark film and in both senses of the word really worked for me. Watch it in a darkened room if you can! Preferably on a rainy night!

The acting was excellent. The story very involved. SPOILER. It's only my opinion; however I believe the monster was a dream sequence. The child had a hideous childhood with her alcoholic mother and felt powerless to change things. She had feelings of rage so intense she almost murdered her mother with a butcher knife. The hatred and animosity permeated the scenes that portrayed the relationship between mother and daughter. It was highly toxic. Almost at the end of the movie, right after she slays the monster and loses her fear; the scene switches to when she has awoken from a dream. Her mother was by her side upon waking and they spoke. The scene was oozing with motherly love and a crying daughter as they spoke about how they did not really hate each other and the love between the two was evident. So, I may be out of line and reading too much into the movie, but I believe the child had "slain her dragon" and that her "monster" ceased to exist when exposed to the light because the light represented the truth: the deep feelings of love that existed between the mother and daughter. Those feelings were buried deeply, but when faced with the "monster" that love was exposed when they tried to protect each other; even if it meant sacrificing their own lives in the process. Anyway, that's only my opinion.

The portrayal of the "monster" was fantastic. It looked like no monster I have ever seen before. It had to have been made of the same stuff that only nightmares are made of.

I gave it a five for the outstanding performances by the actresses who portrayed the mother and daughter. Their acting was fantastic!

I apologize for the spoilers. I do not like to include them in my reviews, but there isn't much to say about the movie without them.

This is an excellent entry in the mother-horror category. The mother-child relationship is fraught with potential horror under even the best circumstances. When things aren't good, it's utterly terrifying. In The Monster, a creature terrorizes a young mother and tween-early teenaged daughter on what was already meant to be their last night together (the daughter was leaving to move in with her father and stepmother). Uncomfortable flashbacks of their truly horrible relationship are spliced in between present day scenes of the monster waylaying them on a dark, stormy side road. I don't want to give the entire film away, but the depiction of an unintentionally toxic mother's love for her child is exquisite. Bothe actors absolutely nailed it, and there's not a bit of bad dialogue or hokum to slow the roll.

I did feel like there were a couple of threads that never got tied in, but maybe that's okay. Recommended for viewers who liked The Babadook, The Taking of Debra Logan.

I thought this would be a cheesy b-flick, but I got totally sucked into the mother/daughter storyline up against the monster. With a throwback to the more handmade monster types (but this one still looks pretty awesome) there's enough jump-scares and downright tension and fear to keep you on the edge of your seat, while you simultaneously get swallowed up by the drama between these two. The mom is an alcoholic, and likely an addict, and their relationship is just fraught with issues. The girl is definitely emotionally traumatized by all of it, swinging between being the absolute adult in the situation, and showing just how young she really is. Maybe it's because I'm a daughter, and now I have a daughter of my own, but the acting here totally tore at my heartstrings. In my opinion, it was portrayed very realistically, beautifully raw, and these two actresses earned the 5 stars even if we never quite learn if it was all real, or some kind of weird post-car crash hallucination. Either way, well worth the time.

My brother suggested I watch this (I am very critical when it comes to horror movies and don't usually watch them). I wasn't going to b/c there were so many bad reviews on here. I thought it would be like other stupid horror flicks but I was wrong and these reviewers who had bad things to say have absolutely no taste, whatsoever! This was awesome! Amazing story line, excellent actors and CGI monster was so much better than many big budget horror movies.

I RECOMMEND TO ANYONE WHO WANTS A GOOD STORY AND ACTUAL SUSPENSE IN THEIR HORROR MOVIES.

I *DO NOT* RECOMMEND TO THOSE OF YOU WHO WATCH STUPID HORROR FLICKS WITH: overdone gore to cover-up the lack of story, boobs just for the sake of boobs, cheesy plots that make no actual sense, bad actors who got the job based on looks alone and even cheesier CGI monsters.