Somewhat, 4 out of 10. It's a bleak crime drama, and the fear comes from what people do to each other.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
4 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
The sadness stays with you for about a night.
DOG
Dog: fine
no dog dies.
Ruling: It is a bleak drama with some brutal scenes, so watch it in daylight and queue something gentle afterward.
Monster runs 109 minutes and takes place around Daytona Beach, Florida, in bars, motel rooms and the front seats of strangers' cars. It is a crime drama that sits in the horror section, and it is scary in the way a bad night in a stranger's car is scary.
The premise, briefly
In 1989, a woman on the edge of giving up in Daytona Beach meets a young woman at a bar, falls in love, and starts planning a better life.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Aileen is arrested, Selby helps the police record a confession, and Aileen takes the blame alone. She is sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.
The scene you're dreading
The attack by Vincent Corey, early on: he drives Aileen to a wooded area, knocks her unconscious, ties her to the steering wheel, and rapes and beats her until she frees her hands and shoots him with a gun from her purse.
The dog
No dog dies in Monster.
Monster is a sad crime drama with some violent scenes, and knowing the plot mostly prepares you for how bleak the last act is.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A date at a bar nobody planned to enjoy
In 1989 Aileen "Lee" Wuornos has moved from Michigan to Daytona Beach, Florida, works the street as a prostitute, and is close to ending her own life. In a gay bar she meets Selby Wall, a young woman staying at a house after her religious parents sent her away because another girl said Selby had tried to kiss her. Aileen announces right away that she is not a lesbian, then spends the evening talking to Selby and drinking beer anyway. Selby is drawn to her right away and asks her to stay the night. They arrange to meet at a roller rink, where they share their first kiss, and they set up a date for the following evening.
The next day Aileen goes back to the street to earn money for the date with Selby. Late in the day a client named Vincent Corey drives her to a wooded area. He talks about hating prostitutes, they start arguing, and he knocks her unconscious. This is the scene people dread, it comes early, and it is violent: Aileen wakes up tied to the steering wheel while Vincent rapes and beats her. She gets her hands free and shoots him with a gun from her purse. Afterward she gets rid of the body, takes his car, and decides to quit prostitution. Selby waited for her and gave up. Aileen turns up at the house that night, tells Selby she loves her, and proposes that they leave together.
A resume with nothing on it
Selby agrees, and the two rent a motel room to start over. Aileen looks for qualified work, but she has little education and no work experience, and employers turn her down. With money running short she goes back to prostitution, and from then on she kills her clients and takes their money and cars. Each death is worse than the one before, because she has convinced herself that all of them are rapists and predators. She spares one man after he admits he has never been with a prostitute. Later Selby drives one of the stolen cars onto a stranger's lawn. The homeowners reach for the phone to call the police, but Aileen drives the car away and gets rid of it.
A bus ticket to Ohio
Selby asks who owned the car, and Aileen admits to the murders but says she was only protecting herself. When money runs out she finds another client, a man who sincerely offers her shelter and help. She hesitates, then kills him. Selby sees composite sketches of the two of them on the news and takes a charter bus back to Ohio. Aileen keeps going to the biker bar she frequents, where Thomas, the only friend she says she has, works out that two men approaching her are undercover police and offers to get her out of there. Aileen takes it as a proposition and turns him down in disgust. The two men get her outside, and she is arrested.
The ending, explained
In jail, Aileen talks to Selby one last time. Selby is in tears and says she is afraid for her own fate and her own part in it. What the movie shows is that Selby is cooperating with the police, who are coaching her through getting incriminating statements. It works: Aileen says on the recording that she committed the murders alone and that Selby wasn't involved, even though she may realize she is being recorded and betrayed. At the trial Selby testifies against her coldly, and Aileen is crushed but understands. She is convicted of the murders, sentenced to death, and executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there is a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Monster scary?
Monster scores 4 out of 10 with a medium dread level. It is a crime drama, so the fear comes from some brutal scenes and a bleak story.
How does Monster end?
Aileen is arrested after Selby helps the police record her admitting to the murders. She is convicted, sentenced to death, and executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.
Does the dog die in Monster?
No. No dog dies in Monster.
Is there a post-credits scene in Monster?
Nobody has confirmed whether Monster has a scene after the credits.
Does Selby betray Aileen in Monster?
Yes. After Aileen's arrest, Selby cooperates with police, who coach her through getting Aileen to incriminate herself on a recording, and she later testifies against Aileen at the trial.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Monster is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You can know everything that happens in Monster without sitting through the car scene. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror before you see it.
