Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

edgalarza It's a shame I came across this short 13 years after it was made. I loved the full featured film of 2014 when it came out. It's really nice to see the original inspiration for the 2014 film in this one. I actually thought the monster in this one was scarier than the one from 2014. The little boy in this one is just as effective at annoying the adults as the 2014 film lol. But the boy was adorable just the same.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Monster" is a 10-minute black-and-white short film written and directed by Jennifer Kent. She made this one 10 years ago and, recently, turned it into the full feature movie "Babadook", a great success with critics and awards bodies. However, i must ask: Do i really want to watch a film where a wicked monster simply disappears when the mother tells him to leave in order to protect her son? What kind of pathetic monster is that. I'd have expected it to come back at the end and kill the two in the most horrible manner. Instead, it accepts a glass of milk. Oh well.. I thought the film started well, also with the suspense if there really is a monster, but got worse quickly. Kent obviously did not cast the actors from this film for "Babadook" as the time gap was simply too big I guess. Forgettable short film. Not recommended.

bob the moo I have not seen The Babadook, but it was hearing positive reviews for that film that made me interested to see the short film that reportedly was the roots for the bigger project. The plot here is condensed as it seems a woman struggling alone with her unruly young son, in particular his constant running, yelling, and battling of monsters – making nothing but a mess in the progress. Worn down and frustrated by the constant energy and chaos of the boy, the woman may be forced to confront more than her own offspring.This is an interesting and reasonably effective short film – and in particular it makes me more interested to see the full feature because to be honest one of the main weaknesses here is that the film is a short and has fewer than 10 minutes to deliver. Given the short running time, the film really does compress what it is doing, and it is a shame because what we have that works well here is stuff that needs more room to breathe and be realized. In terms of just being a horror, the film starts with a good creepy atmosphere and some nicely unsettling imagery. This leads to a jump scare that had me recoiling from the screen. The confrontation in the room remains creepy, but to be honest too much of the figure is seen, and it does feel like a moody teenage goth is being deliberately difficult; this does rather rob the fear factor a bitThat feeling may be partly deliberate though, since one of the things that appears to be here but not with enough time to run with it, is the idea that the monster is the son himself – or at least a metaphor for the mother's fear of her son's wild side and her inability to cope with it. We see this in the maternal way she confronts him, and the way she continues to care for him. We also see it in the exhaustion she feels in dealing with the son in the early stages of the film – and to be honest even watching him endlessly banging everything made me feel tired.It is a shame for the short that the best parts of the film are those which really could have used more time and space to flesh out and be fully realized. The connection of the monster to the mother/son relationship is interesting but rushed; while the monster himself is too present too quickly and I would have preferred remain a feeling rather than an actual form. Worth a look and, on the basis of this, I am looking forward to see what Kent does with the substance of this when she has more time to do it.

Aaron1375 This short horror film was pretty good. It had some moments that were a bit creepy and I enjoyed the performances of both the mom and the little boy in this one. The atmosphere was good as the black and white made an everyday house and everyday things seem more sinister than they would have been otherwise. The story has a rather hyper active kid really beating down one of his stuffed toys, a rather ugly doll that to me resembled a witch a bit. Most kids can remember that childhood toy that really did not delight them, but rather scared the crap out of them. Well the boy seems convinced that the thing is alive and really freaks out when he glimpses it in the closet. Well the mother thinks it is just an over active imagination at first, but something seems a bit off kilter. Like I said this one overall was okay, my favorite part was when the mother heard something while she and her son were in bed and she looked out her door. To me that was the freakiest part in the film. The conclusion is a bit strange though, I did not completely care for it, but then I still feel I must give it credit for being original. The final scene is even more strange, but once again it was different. So while not the most shocking or creepy short horror film I have seen, it was an interesting watch and it did things a bit differently than one would normally expect.