The Monster Club (1980)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Roy Ward Baker

Writers:

Edward Abraham (writer)
Valerie Abraham (writer)

Release Date:

27 May 1981 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror

Plot:

A writer of horror stories is invited to a "monster club" by a mysterious old gentleman. There, three...

Plot Keywords:

Monster | Writer | Anthology | Village | Nightclub

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Vincent Price	...	Eramus
John Carradine	...	R.Chetwynd-Hayes, Writer
Anthony Steel	...	Lintom Busotsky, Film Producer
Roger Sloman	...	Club Secretary (Werewolf)
Fran Fullenwider	...	Buxom Beauty
B.A. Robertson	...	Entertainment
Night	...	Entertainment
Suzanna Willis	...	Stripper
Barbara Kellerman	...	Angela
Simon Ward	...	George, Angela's Boyfriend
James Laurenson	...	Raven (the Shadmock)
Geoffrey Bayldon	...	Psychiatrist
Donald Pleasence	...	Pickering, Chief of the B-Squad
Richard Johnson	...	Busotsky's Father
Britt Ekland	...	Busotsky's Mother

Runtime:

USA:104 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 (video rating) | UK:A (original rating) | Iceland:16 | Germany:12 | Australia:PG | Norway:16 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Knebworth House, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

Amicus Productions

Trivia:

It has been alleged that the monster masks were made by Milton Subotsky's milkman. The story came about because the masks were commissioned at short notice from Vic Door, who at the time was freelancing and also worked at a milk processing plant. He was not a milkman.

Movie Connections:

Follows The House That Dripped Blood (1971)

Soundtrack:

Ghouls Galore

Fun Horror Collection

The Monster Club was the final installment in Amicus studios portmanteau series and concerns R.Chetwynd-Hayes(John Carradine)a noted Horror writer who runs into an elderly Vampire named Erasmus (Vincent Price) .Erasmus duly takes his fill of the authors blood and after recognizing him becomes all apologetic and invites him to The Monster Club where he hopes Chetwynd-Hayes might garner some new ideas for a new book.As the guest of Erasmus, Chetwynd-Hayes is regaled with three stories of the macabre.

Story 1:A young couple George and Angela are hard up for cash, so they answer an advertisement in a newspaper looking for someone to help catalogue antiques in an old manor.Angela goes and meets the owner who as it turns out is a Shadmock,kind of a Vampire/werewolf hybrid,Angerla is scared of at first but soon settles in to her job.Angela soon becomes friendly with the soft spoken and thoughtful employer but comes under increasing pressure form George to steal something from the house, and she decides to take advantage of an invitation to a masqued ball with the Shadmock's family at the manor to fulfill her objective.

Story 2:A Vampire stalks the London underground is being chased by the B-squad a team of vampire hunters lead by Pickering, (Donald Pleasance) . Pickering uses the vampires son who unknowingly leads the B-squad right to his father.

Story 3: Stuart Whitman plays Sam an American movie Director scouting the English countryside for the perfect location for his upcoming movie. He stumbles across a fog bound town full of Ghouls where he befriends a Humghoul (Human and ghoul hybrid) and struggles with her help to make his escape from his living nightmare.

Review The shadmock story I found to be quite unique, its nice to have a different monster and this one was a rather a nice chap and I felt for his pain at the end, but it was definitely a missed opportunity, the idea of a masqued monster ball I find intriguing, but Ward obviously only used this as a means perhaps to save money on Monster make-up.The second story is played for laughs which is a shame and is by far the least of the three stories.The Ghoul story I found to be the best,and full of atmosphere with a nice twist at the end.The in between segments with Price and Carradine are poor and full of very bad monster make-up and annoyingly bad music(No really bad), these two great horror legends were fine,considering the quality of script, but they deserved more. This is the kind of film I was raised on and for that reason and the people involved I really enjoyed it,sure its not the best from the esteemed Amicus studio or Baker,but for pure fun its hard to beat and I unreservedly give this a whopping 6/10 against my better judgement.