I have a friend who is a full-blown, championship-level hypochondriac. You know the type. Every week they have discovered a new designer illness that sounds like something you would catch while backpacking through an ancient tomb. One minute it is “mild dragonpox,” the next it is “acute inner-ear destabilization syndrome,” which I am pretty sure they invented while scrolling WebMD at 2 am. They self-diagnose with all the confidence of a man holding a medical degree from YouTube University, yet somehow never manages to set foot inside a real doctor’s office. If drama was a contagious disease, they would be Patient Zero.

So, when Something of a Monster opens with a woman convinced that she is experiencing life-changing symptoms, my brain immediately went, “Ah yes, I know this energy.”

Only unlike my friend, who usually just needs a nap and less caffeine, the main lead in this film needs mega doses of therapy.

Monster, directed by Brandon Duncan and written by Hyten Davidson and Christian Missonak, is set in 1984, following Amelia (Ashley Bacon) and her husband, Josh (Greg Brostrom), who have just learned they are expecting. What should be a moment of celebration quickly curdles, thanks to Josh’s deeply skeptical family.

They pepper Amelia with so many loaded questions about the pregnancy that it feels less like concern and more like an interrogation.

Their doubts push Amelia to a remote Catskills inn, where she is meant to quietly reflect and, in their minds, accept that the pregnancy is all in her head. But isolation does not bring clarity. It brings fear. Instead of being convinced she is not pregnant, Amelia becomes certain that a mysterious woman in the surrounding woods is stalking her and is willing to do whatever it takes to claim a child of her own.

One of the strongest elements of Something of a Monster is Ashley Bacon’s performance. She does not simply play Amelia; she inhabits the character. Every moment on screen feels lived in, every glance and tremor is loaded with a mix of hope, fear and a kind of desperate conviction that borders on painful to watch. Amelia’s unwavering belief in her pregnancy could have easily come off as melodramatic in lesser hands, but Bacon roots every emotion in something authentic.

It feels real, as if she, herself, was carrying this child, and the world around her was conspiring to snatch away the joy she has barely allowed herself to feel.

There are scenes where the camera lingers on her face, and you can see entire emotional storms play out without a single word spoken. That quiet intensity sells the film’s slow-burn dread. Even when the story leans into its stranger turns, Bacon keeps everything grounded. She becomes the audience’s anchor, the reason we lean forward, the reason we start to question what is real, right along with her.

The story, itself, has a solid foundation, and for a while it builds tension with real confidence. The mystery surrounding the woman in the woods is compelling, and the film smartly leans into that creeping paranoia that makes you wonder if Amelia is seeing a threat that others refuse to acknowledge or if her fear is feeding something entirely imagined.

The second act especially does a great job tightening the screws, drawing us closer and closer to what feels like an inevitable confrontation.

But when that moment finally arrives, the film stumbles. After spending so much time winding the tension like a bowstring, the payoff lands with far less force than expected. The encounter with the woman in the woods, which the entire narrative has been steering toward, ends so abruptly that it barely registers before the credits start to loom. It is tense in the moment, but it does not deliver the emotional or narrative punch the setup promises. Instead of a cathartic release or a shocking twist, it feels more like the story simply runs out of room and decides to call it a night.

It is not enough to undo the strengths that came before, but it definitely left me wishing for something more definitive.

I give Something of a Monster three out of five stars. There is a lot here to admire, from Ashley Bacon’s gripping performance to the way the film layers tension through its second act. But the weak payoff keeps it from fully sticking the landing. It is a film that builds pressure beautifully, only to let the air out a little too quickly. Still, the emotional commitment on display, especially through Amelia’s fierce belief in her pregnancy, makes the journey worthwhile, even if the destination feels unfinished.

And honestly, after watching Amelia navigate a barrage of doubts and a possible woodland stalker, I might start being a little less hard on my hypochondriac friend. At least their imaginary illnesses have the good manners to resolve themselves without dragging me into the Catskills.