Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
A mother and her son plan a surprise visit to Los Angeles to see her husband/his father. Halfway there they get into a terrible accident in the middle of nowhere and now must fight to survive.
Monolith is a lean survival thriller that traps a mother and young child inside a high-tech SUV after a desert accident. The premise is competently executed but thin — the single-location conceit struggles to generate sustained tension over a feature runtime, and the plot relies heavily on contrivance. Acting from Katrina Bowden is serviceable but uneven, with the child performance adding little dramatic weight. Cinematography makes reasonable use of the arid landscape and the claustrophobic interior, offering some visual interest. The concept of being locked inside a 'safe' vehicle as the source of danger has appeared before, limiting novelty. The ending feels anticlimactic and fails to deliver satisfying resolution or earned catharsis, consistent with the film's middling reputation.