You really just want to punch these characters in the face more and more as the film progresses. With every new instance of whining, cursing and pointless bickering, you feel the anger and frustration swell inside you. I wanted the monster to eat them and get it over with. I have never seen characters that annoyed me so much and made me hate them. And it took less than 30 minutes for that to happen. It's amazing. Add to that the poorly written dialogue and plot, and you get one difficult movie to endure. Forget the terror coming from the threat the monster poses. The real terror is waiting for the characters' mouths to open, as one anticipates the crap that is about to come out. The characters are so poorly written that they are not even consistent in their annoying behaviour. Oh no. The scared girl who five minutes earlier wouldn't even leave the car suddenly enters the woods for no reason. Then she sees something scary, but still doesn't run back to the car, and instead calls to her mother who (as everyone in the audience knows by now) has no intention of paying attention to her. See, if we know she is not going to answer, but the girl (who, as the first act of the film has established, knows how deranged her mother is better than anyone in the world) acts as though she doesn't, that makes the audience angry and frustrated. Unfortunately, almost every round of dialogue between characters and every action they undertake is at best questionable, if not outright nonsensical. I was screaming by the time the monster made its appearance, but not from terror; I was screaming at the characters, hoping they would die.
Review of The Monster
