A lot of people really enjoyed Bryan Bertino's 2008 home-invasion horror film The Strangers, a very pretty, decently suspenseful thrill ride that felt a little empty at its core. After that movie became a hit, Bertino went oddly quiet for awhile before reemerging six years later with Mockingbird, a found footage horror movie that went straight to Blu-ray and VOD — a rather strange turn of events for a filmmaker whose debut made such a splash in theaters.
Though Mockingbird felt like something of a career misfire, I think you may be hearing a lot more about The Monster, which like The Strangers benefits from a simple, easy-to-market premise — mother and daughter (Zoe Kazan and Ella Ballentine) stranded on a deserted road must fend off a terrifying beast — and a very, very good trailer:
The Monster looks like equal parts Cujo and Pumpkinhead, and Bertino is lucky to have A24 — the distributor behind such recent indie horror successes as Green Room and The Witch — in his corner, because they've proven time and again that they know how to handle these kinds of releases. My only gripe with the trailer is that it gives away what appears to be a major jump scare around the 1:35 mark, which is unfortunate given that it looks like a whopper of a fright. Regardless, I'm looking forward to this one.
The Monster hits limited theaters and VOD on November 11. If you have a DirecTV subscription, it's already available to watch there.