Under The Bed (2012)

After two years living far away with his Aunt, Neal returns to a welcome home party which makes him feel awkward, his Dad's new wife, and a feeling of dread to be back in this house.

His younger brother Paulie has moved into his old room, and Neal wants to know if he's seen anything that looks like the drawings in Neal's old sketchbook. Paulie doesn't want to talk about it at first, but eventually tells Neal that he knows Neal isn't crazy because he's seen it too. But he hasn't told his dad or stepmother because he doesn't want to be sent away like Neal.

Their Dad is at the end of his rope because Neal is sullen and Paulie is having trouble sleeping.  Their new stepmother runs interference to keep Dad from blowing up at the kids. But after Paulie gets attacked in his room one night, she thinks Neal is trying to hurt him.

The kids are just worried about what is under the bed and are trying their best not to become it's next victim.  They're not sure what it is, but there's growling, fog, and slime. It comes out at night so they try to keep the light on, but the monster is able to manipulate things to put them in the dark. So the question is will their Dad inadvertently give them to the monster, or will they find a way to survive?

While this is entertaining overall, it has a slow start and they don't let the viewer in on what is going on.  We aren't aware of why Neal is afraid to go in the house, or what happened to his mother. Some of the local teens harass Neal by making jokes about him setting fires and his mom's death.  There's tension with the Dad but it's not clear why he's such a dick.  And here's another movie where a parent with a teen thinks their best bet is to lock the kid in their room for the night.  What if there's a fire?

At one point the stepmother goes into the garage to do laundry and things begin to bang around for no reason. It's daylight so how is this happening?  Is the monster targeting her now? This leads nowhere and is never mentioned again.

This is more of an old fashioned horror movie, like The Hole, Fright Night, or Lost Boys.  While it takes a while to really get going, there are some surprisingly bloody kills. Neal is a big of a pain at first, but he's a good older brother and does all he can to keep Paulie safe. Plus Dad is such a jerk that nothing Neal does is going to look bad.