MovieChat Forums > The Monster (2016) Discussion > How many stupid decisions can you cram i...

How many stupid decisions can you cram into one hour and a half ?


This is just infuriating.. I was rooting for the monster the whole time.

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and yet you couldn't list one.

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I know, right...I was expecting a list of stupid decisions.

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i raised my opinion on this in the other post, so ill copy-paste:

english not my language also- nevermind. on the monster: i think it has a natural flammable body, that is why it was afraid of light/heat. but nevermind the monster. i think the point was the mother; she was incapable of making good decision for her daughter due to her alcoholism. she said "yes, that's the plan", but did she really had a plan? and that's what she was doing wasting her life on alcohol, making bad decisions, thinking she has a plan to get out of it (alcoholism, monster, and being a good parent) but it didnt work for her. sometimes, even if our intentions are good, we just screw it up under drugs, alcohol, etc...

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Basically, the end of the movie was just a bad decision. Why did the mother think her plan was going to work? Where was the daughter going to walk to? They are on a deserted road that took an ambulance like an hour to get to them, and the monster is obviously fast enough to catch up with the ambulance and knock it off the road. They should have just stayed holed up in the ambulance with the flashlight and torch until it became daylight.

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Basically, the end of the movie was just a bad decision. Why did the mother think her plan was going to work? Where was the daughter going to walk to? They are on a deserted road that took an ambulance like an hour to get to them, and the monster is obviously fast enough to catch up with the ambulance and knock it off the road. They should have just stayed holed up in the ambulance with the flashlight and torch until it became daylight.

EXACTLY what I thought. She should have just waited it out and hoped back-up would arrive soon or started walking with the torch since it clearly doesn't like the light and burning it would have been easier to do than club it with a hammer, if it's on top of them. Or they could have went for it's eyes with that longer reach. But sending her kid on a death walk was ridiculous.

Another foolish scene was when the female from the ambulance kicked the window out for no reason whatsoever lol. Your instinct is to hope that already shattered windshield will still protect you and buy you a few seconds anyway and not to remove the barrier completely.

Another idiotic character move that didn't make sense was the little girl who was afraid of everything at the time, just decided to go wander off by the woods where the creature got an up close look at her. Anyone that afraid, wouldn't do that.

Then at the end, she turns all bad-ass lol. Of course one would expect this in today's empowered female character running rampant through current films. But sorry, no child would take on a monster that just cut through all the adults like little play toys. They'd be curled up in the corner wetting themselves most likely. They could have at least have her still play scared and killed it as a self-defense mechanism but of course they took the female warrior route instead.

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Xkape raises a very good one, why did that EMT worker kick out the windshield? There were a lot of head-shakers in this movie but that one had me going "HUH?" aloud.

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Because it’s easier to drive with it out and so you can see where you are going. It’s actually a pretty smart move and shows a pretty level headed response from the medic. It was just reaction though and then she froze up once she heard a thing on the roof, it became a supernatural moment and it shook her enough that she didn’t think to drive away which is why the window screen looks like a bad idea because she didn’t end up following through.

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The mother realizes she is dying, and probably didn't want Lizzy to be there when it happened, figuring it would paralyze Lizzy with fear. I agree her plan is not great, but to her, it was the best way she could think of to use her death to distract the creature and give Lizzy the chance to get as far away as possible.

It's easy to look at a movie and criticize characters for their decisions, but we do this with knowing the outcome. Say they stayed in the ambulance, the flashlight ran out, and the monster killed both of them. You could just as easily criticize that decision and ask why they didn't come up with a plan to get away on the road, where st least they have a fighting chance to run (the classic Night of the Living Dead upstairs/basement argument).

As for the driver kicking out the window, I thought that was to prevent pieces of glass breaking off and falling on her, not something you would want if you are trying to drive away quickly. In any case, I don't think the few seconds the broken windshield would have potentially given would have saved her.

And saying that Lizzy goes all "bad ass" is an exaggeration. I saw it as essentially an act of desperation, driven by self-defense as well as pain at her mother's death, and the realization that she will have to face her fear rather than run from it to survive. Seconds earlier, she was sobbing at her mother's death and pleading for her to survive. Despite having been the adult and responsible one through their lives, in this situation, facing a real "monster," Lizzy's child side has taken over, and she thinks she is entirely dependent on her mother to live, until the end. Her character does a 360, going from confident to scared and helpless, and back to confident, with a greater courage to face her fears, rather than simply keep them at bay (which she seemed to be doing before). In any case, a character who goes from scared to brave has to make that decision at some point. Unless you think characters should be stagnant and never change--either brave and fearless from the start or scared the whole time--I don't see the problem with Lizzy's turn at the end. Maybe if she had gone fearless earlier for no apparent reason, that would be harder to swallow. Change in character should be driven by sufficient motivation, and a mother's death definitely counts for strong motivation.

"every time godzilla loses to mothra I die a little bit more"--Godzillaswrath

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Then at the end, she turns all bad-ass lol. Of course one would expect this in today's empowered female character running rampant through current films... but of course they took the female warrior route instead.


Really man? F'ing seriously? Do you count Ellen Ripley as another "empowered female character running rampant"? And that was back in 1979.... I'm sure you prefer women to be the damsel in distress-type; so, what's the problem with having women being strong protagonists? And in this specific instance it was a 12 year old kid and, honestly, the gender wouldn't matter much as it was more about the relationship between mother and child. That and you seem to have perhaps missed the allegory that was at the heart of the film.

For what it was, I quite enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed the mother character being a complete selfish *beep* up and hedonist, as opposed to the more traditional role of "mothers in film" (save Joan Crawford).


Sh!t, I hate to speculate based on a couple sentences from your post, but I'll wager that you complained about Furiosa in Mad Max Fury Road and Rey in The Force Awakens....





something terribly clever.

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Really man? F'ing seriously? Do you count Ellen Ripley as another "empowered female character running rampant"?

lol ah, a little white knight to the rescue.

And at the time, she was considered that, but she was well written and quite believable. She was also a grown woman. This was a mere child taking on a monster lol.

And that was back in 1979.... I'm sure you prefer women to be the damsel in distress-type;

Unlike yourself, I prefer to see women not "always" take on male characteristic traits but embrace their feminine qualities. 100 percent of women I've encountered in my life, do not have the capability to beat up 200lb male fighters or soldiers. Women being damsels in distress is a reality. Ever see that British cop recently who was practically crying while her 2 male counter parts were taking on some hammer wielding psycho. Would that trigger you if they made a movie about such a weak woman? I'm assuming it would since it clearly bothers you if someone wishes to have some reality thrown into the mix once in awhile.

Why do we always see the women in those youtube videos stand around wanting a man to jump in the river to save a child. Or haul someone out of a burning car. Hmmmm.

so, what's the problem with having women being strong protagonists?

Well, the question should really be, why do you see zero problem with every action film of today, making females into soldiers. Why do we see men as being pussies more than women as being pussies in sci-fi or action films.

The movie 'Sicario'. Now there's a movie that was done right if you have a naive female officer, getting tangled up with hardened male officers.

And in this specific instance it was a 12 year old kid and, honestly, the gender wouldn't matter much as it was more about the relationship between mother and child. That and you seem to have perhaps missed the allegory that was at the heart of the film.

On the contrary, my point went straight over your head since you eagerly took it upon yourself to defend women on here. You said it yourself, the gender at that age would not matter. No kid is going to behave that way. But in today's constant push to empower their women, they threw common sense out the window and made this kid behave in such a way, because she was in fact female.

Sh!t, I hate to speculate based on a couple sentences from your post, but I'll wager that you complained about Furiosa in Mad Max Fury Road and Rey in The Force Awakens....

lol Rey was a Mary Sue and deserved without question, to be mocked since they practically ruined that movie because of feminism.

As for Furiosa, she actually looked the part and still wasn't capable of handling Mad Max. So in a time where everyone had to be tough, I could see some women behave like she did. Too bad they pussified Max though. The guy pretty much did nothing for the entire movie but have a muzzle on over his mouth lol.

We can't deny though, that Furiosa was tossed in there because of that 'empowered female' model that's a must in today's action flicks.

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Thanks for mansplaining that though bro...

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Thanks for mansplaining that though bro...


Thanks for just identifying yourself as a mentally ill feminist bro.

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Internet debates like these really make message forums a turn-off.

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100 percent of women I've encountered in my life, do not have the capability to beat up 200lb male fighters or soldiers

And 80% men do not have the capability to beat up 200lb male fighters or soldiers. That is also a reality.

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lol that still leaves 20 percent to play with. Not 0 percent.

BTW, the men in these films taking out the 200 pounders are well above 120lbs which is your average female powerhouse.

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She knew she was dying and she was likely spiralling a bit due to not having a drink in awhile and blood loss. Her main thought was if her daughter gets to the road that equals safety because more people were coming. Wasn’t exactly a smart or good plan but in her position it felt like the safest option and hoped while the creature ate her, her daughter would get away. She had completely given up on her own survival and wanted to do something before she died.

I’ve discussed the ambulance one in another comment but it does actually make sense.

Yeah this was the part that made me go a bit like ummmm what? Honestly was quite outside the characters well character to walk into the forest in the dark alone.

Actually maybe not. Kids have been shown to be very resilient in traumatic experiences sometimes handling them way better than adults because they don’t fully comprehend everything. Also the kid was use to messed up situations and as we saw through flashbacks had a lot of anger inside her. So she fought back because for a kid that seemed like the best thing to do attack the thing that killed her mum, she didn’t have a clue that it would work it was a kids fantasy plan. The movie just made it work because the creature is Apprently super flammable. But this isn’t any female empowerment. Like I don’t know where you are getting that when the whole movie showed the mother being well a pretty bad person and the daughter constantly wanted her dad. It wasn’t female empowerment at all it was scared kid tries stupid plan because she’s angry and scared and really messed up right now and the plan happens to work and doesn’t end with her getting her guts ripped open.

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I think the mother and the daughter did what they had to do... They were pretty much sitting ducks in that car and the monster grabbing the mother out of the car proves that. Before seeing the monster, they didn't know what was out there and they were pretty much trapped in the situation. Now the ambulance driver and the medic, they made some debatably stupid decisions. If I see a mans severed arm and blood everywhere, I'm not going to linger outside for too long. I'm going to assume he's dead, based off of the blood loss, then return in the daytime with backup.

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The entire movie was an allegory for addiction and the effect it has on the addict and those around him/her. Not listening to your loved ones, your doctors, taking your life for granted and giving in to your addiction and thereby loosing your life IS indeed STUPID!!


The daughter in this movie was doing all what she could to help the mother. The mother "never listens". Despite their differences they love each other very much. The mother succumbs to her addiction and dies. The daughter stays with her and helps her fight it to the end. Finally the daughter tells her goodbye and reconciles with her mother's death. Her exit from the forest symbolises that.

In conclusion,like the way you pointed out the decisions she took was stupid, but that was by design.

This went over most of the average cine goers head who went in expecting a typical hollywood horror flick, explaining the abysmal rating this movie has here on IMDB.

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Not as many as in "Don't Breathe" so it has that going for it.

"I can't remember anything without you"

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The monster kept making stupid decisions too. Even though we don't fully understand it's methodology obviously why did it seem to pick and choose who to attack? At times it was overbearingly furious, others it cowered in the woods staring at the vehicles for 20 minutes. Sometimes it was completely silent while others it growled at the top of it's lungs. Why did it throw it's victims/food at its other victims on two occasions? Let the wolf sit in the road? If it was so afraid of light why did it hang around the well-lit vehicles and road?

Explain away why the monster did what it did. I felt like it was sitting in a directors chair offstage in a robe sipping tea while the two leads cried and had meaningful flashbacks for most of the film.

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The Monster was defending its territory. I thought that was obvious. Somehow it had survived for quite some time just eating wolves and other critters in that area. Otherwise people would have known about its presence and then the movie would have had an entirely different plot like The Blair Witch, Amytiville Horror or The Haunting.

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It felt like it was constantly setting up bait.

The wolf somehow escapes which can be seen as the creature letting it go so others of its kind will come to help it.

Instead it gets humans something it’s not use too. So it watches and waits to see what they do and take their measure. As another comment said they stayed in its territory and weren’t leaving as well.

Then another human comes and it’s watching.

It then takes out the man. But then the man “escapes” and crawls to his car. The creature watches because it’s hoping to lure the others out now while they help it’s injured kind. It seems like it hunts mostly by sound and when they don’t come and something is making a loud noise it’s like meh whatever and eats the man.

It then can’t get a read on where the others are exactly because it can’t hear them anymore. Then a noise sets it off and it attacks and grabs the Mum.

It looked like it was doing the same tactic of wounding not killing. But then something much larger and louder (the ambulance) comes along so it backs off. It’s now changed though and sees the bug ambulance and all these humans as a threat and invading its territory so it doesn’t play around and attacks.

It attacks the ambulance and it goes off the road. Pet theory here is the attack on the ambulance dazed the creature which is why it didn’t eat them while they are unconscious. Then it starts coming at them but is hurt my the direct light to its eyes. So it backs off and stays outside maybe going back to its previous plan of baiting.

Then mum comes out and is making noise, noise seeming to be a big trigger for the creature. So it sees the Mum challenging it now so goes meh and eats her.

Gets attacked by a kid and eyes hurt again so backs off again and is probs really confused because it’s not use to humans.

Gets killed because fire ducks it and it’s like why is this small weak creature not running. Steps up to challenge. Gets BBQ’ed

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Their stupid decisions was kind of the point. There are only a handful of horror movies in which the protagonist continuously outsmarts the monster/killer. Usually they make poor decisons that drive the plot forward. This movie is no different. But if I were the mother, I would have jumped into the wrecker and drove away while he was being killed by the monster. But then that wouldn't have been the point of the story.

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I'm pretty sure this is the reason why IMDB is getting rid of the message boards.
You do realize there was no monster and that the entire movie is a metaphor, symbol, allegory, you choose the word for it, right?

I mean they didn't even attempt to hide it and fully relied on the actors to make it work.
This is either someone looking to be trolled or a troll having a good time. I bit either way. This is why we have Trump as a president, haha

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"You do realize there was no monster and that the entire movie is a metaphor, symbol, allegory, you choose the word for it, right?"

Sorry but you are wrong. The director himself said he wanted to make a movie about a monster actually being real and what would people do when confronted with one.

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I wouldn't bother trying to talk sense to a delusional, Trump hater who posted just to bring politics into it.

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