Monster Club (1980)
By: Michael Helms on May 17, 2005.
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| MRA (Australia). All Regions, PAL. 4:3. English 2.0. 94 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Roy Ward
Baker
Starring: Vincent Price,
John Carradine, Anthony Steel, Barbara Kellerman,
Simon Ward, James Laurenson, Donald Pleasance,
Richard Johnson, Britt Ekland, Stuart Whitman
Screenplay: Edward and
Valerie Abraham
Tagline: Trilogy Of
Terror
Country: UK |
At night on a darkened street a man idenitified
as author R.Chetwynd Hayes played by John Carradine,
is approached for help by Vincent Price who immediately
flashes his fangs and sinks them into Carradine's
neck. But it's okay because in the words of vampire
Price, "I didn't bite deep so you won't become
one of us". Price turns out to be a fan of the
work of Hayes and offers to help him with his
stories. Past the vampire door bitch and we're
inside the titular night club that's populated
by vampire waiters, a band singing, "Monsters
Rule OK", a werewolf club secretary come-emcee,
and a hoard of monster mask wearing punters who,
as it turns out, didn't purchase their heads via
mail order. With it's self reflexive tongue firmly
in it's cheek it's on with the show as Price wheels
out a handy monster primate chart which helps
him to educate Carradine and illustrate his lecture
on monsterdom with three shorts, all the while
cracking jokes that take in everything from low
budget film production to monster culture.
For the most part Carradine gets his lines out
of the way quickly and sits back looking amused
as Price takes centre stage in what was something
of a comeback film for him.
The first short concerns a Shadmock, a product
of inter-species monster breeding who looks like
a middle aged goth (played by TV's BONEY) and
is confined to eternally roaming his estate but
who possesses a whistle that can melt cats at
ten paces. When a girl hired to catalogue the
possessions in his mansion tries to rip him off
and then spurns his love he sends her home looking
like she's been deep fried with the film's best
example of the work of veteran Hammer make-up
artist Roy Ashton. This story literally ends in
tears (of the Shadmock).
Back at the club as the next band plays, "Just
A Sucker For Your Love", a special guest is introduced
as a Vampire Film Producer who turns out to be
none other than the producer Milton Subotsky himself.
He screens excerpts from his next film, a biographical
number that revolves around a young boy growing
up with Britt Ekland as his mother and a vampire
for a father. Donald Pleasance turns up as the
leader of a roving band of vampire killers but
it quickly devolves into parody much like the
wraparound sequences but unlike the two far more
serious films that bookend it.
Night is the name of the strongest music act
and appear just before a stripper who not only
removes her clothes but her skin. The stripper
precedes the last film sequence that spins the
tale of a town that doesn't exist just like the
Pleasant Valley of 2000 Maniacs.
This story involves a director in search of a
location and his encounter with a village of Humgoos
who themselves are the products of humans mating
with ghouls. Part of this story is told with graphics
that look like they were ripped from a Victorian-era
guide to demonology. Downbeat and like the other
two films superbly shot, it powers towards it's
elliptical ending and with the excellent electronic
score by Alan Harkshaw stands out. The final framing
sequence only serves to dilute it's power though
as one of the worst incarnations of The Pretty
Things play their reggae-tinged, "Welcome To The
Monster Club", while Vincent Price elects Carradine
as the first human member of the Monster Club. |
| Video |
| Completely uneven the only real consistency to
the visuals is that when they're good they're excellent
and when they're bad, like nearly all of the club
interior sequences which smack of haste, they're
really bad. The wraparounds do little to enhance
the performances of Price or Carradine and only
serve to make the already excellent visuals of the
stories look better. |
| Audio |
| The rock'n'roll component to the Monster
Club soundtrack really moves it along despite
it's severely dated new waved versions of British
pub rock. The Alan Hawkshaw electronica deserves
attention on it's own and wouldn't have gone astray
amidst the Italian exploitation scene of the era
and still sounds great today. While it lacks a surround
mix it's probably better that some of the less than
snappy banter of Price and Carradine isn't as audible
as it should be. |
| Extra Features |
| None. |
| The Verdict |
| You're unlikely to find a horror movie more maligned
than Monster Club (besides the
preceding commentary, Mick Martin & Marsha Porter's
Video Movie Guide is just about the sole dissenter).
So, it came as no surprise that this horror anthology
is hardly unwatchable, not entirely unlikeable,
and definitely not worthless, that is if you're
not after raw, eviscerated, hardcore horror. The
elements of Monster Club might
sit together uneasily but that's where it's charm
lies, as awkward as it might be. After all, the
creation of unease is one of the core tenets of
horror. With the exception of the second tale which
goes all jocular in it's closing minutes, the stories
are not without creepy atmospherics and the introduction
of graphics into the final tale actually increases
it's sense of dread although it dissipates quickly
when we get back to Price and Carradine. For director
Roy Ward Baker who had more than one go at crafting
an anthology film and producer Subotsky who virtually
had a career making them Monster Club might seem like an ignominious end to their big
screen work (neither worked again) but I'd prefer
to think of it as a fusion of elements that has
yet to be more fully developed. Bring on the rock'n'roll
horror anthology but start with this one. |
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| User Comments |
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1 user comments have been posted so far |
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I liked it only because I'm a Vincent Price fan.