The Monster Club starts late one night in London as famed horror author Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes (John Carradine) is attacked by a Vampire named Eramus (Vincent Price), afterwards Eramus invites Hayes back to a late night party at a club where he will get inspiration & material for some new books...
First up Hayes is told the 'Shadmock Story' in which a odd looking & lonely man has a very powerful whistle...
Then Hayes is told the 'Vampire Story' about a young boy named Linton (Warren Saire) & his Vampire father (Richard Johnson) who is being hunted by the 'Beenie Squad' & Chief Pickering (Donald Pleasence)...
Finally the 'Humegoo Story' sees a horror film director (Stuart Whitman) trapped in a spooky village by Ghoul's & finds himself on the menu...
This British production was directed by genre veteran Roy Ward Baker & was the final film produced by Amicus studios who at one point had specialized in these horror anthology films & made some of the best the genre has to offer including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), The House that Dripped Blood (1971), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972) & The Vault of Horror (1973). Based on stories from the book by the real Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes the script tries to be a little more light hearted than one might expect, it still has a few scares & some eerie moments but overall the tone is lighter than usual for Amicus, I assume The Monster Club was made with a younger audience in mind. I have to admit that I am a big fan of The Monster Club, call it a guilty pleasure or just that I have no discernible taste in films but I really enjoyed this from start to finish & is a real product of it's time that maybe hasn't dated that well but so what? At about 100 minutes long The Monster Club moves at a decent pace & none of three stories outstay their welcome & all three offer something different. The first Shadmock story is a little weird but has a few great moments including a twin shocking & touching twist ending that is well handled. The second Vampire story is probably my least favourite of the three stories & in my opinion is the weakest, it feels more like a Vampire sitcom with one of the worst twist endings around. However, it does a have a few funny comedic moments & the build-up of the story is also quite good but it's a shame it all falls apart at the end. The third Humegoo story is easy the best of the three as far as I am concerned, it is a genuinely eerie little story with a fantastic atmosphere that ends a little abruptly but I think suits the story very well.
One reason why I think The Monster Club has a bad reputation is because of the framing parts set inside the monster club itself, while it's great to see veterans John Carradine & Vincent Price bounce one-liners off each other the disco dancing monster look awful with joke shop mask's of the lowest quality. Then there's the truly terrible soft rock pop musical numbers by the likes of The Viewers, B.A. Robertson, Night, The Pretty Things & the then unknown UB40. There is one cool moments though when a stripper does her thing to one of the songs & ends up taking her skin off in silhouette to reveal her skeleton, very amusing & a nice touch. The Monster Club drips atmosphere with the third Humegood story in particular being very creepy, I also loved the comic book style black and white storyboard interludes that represent the flashback, very stylish & an imaginative way to not spend much money! There's not much blood or gore here, a couple of Vampires are seen with stakes in their chest, there's a melted Cat & a woman's face is also melted but otherwise there's nothing graphic here.
Apparently shot in Hertfordshire here in the UK this is well made with a nice feel to the production, it's just so odd that while the stories themselves are so atmospheric & well made the monster club parts are horrendously dated & camp. There's a great cast here, Carradine & Price are terrific ('where are your fangs' ask's Carradine to which Price replies 'their retractable when not in use'!) while Donald Pleasence, Britt Ekland, Patrick Mcgee & Stuart Whitman are also great although I did think Richard Johnson's comic accent made him sound Italian!
The Monster Club is great entertainment for an old school horror anthology fan like myself, I love the performances & atmosphere & even find the disco dancing monster funny in a camp sort of way. What else can I say? I am probably flying against popular opinion again but screw it, I thought The Monster Club was terrific, funny, eerie & creepy in equal measure. They just don't make them like this anymore.
First up Hayes is told the 'Shadmock Story' in which a odd looking & lonely man has a very powerful whistle...
Then Hayes is told the 'Vampire Story' about a young boy named Linton (Warren Saire) & his Vampire father (Richard Johnson) who is being hunted by the 'Beenie Squad' & Chief Pickering (Donald Pleasence)...
Finally the 'Humegoo Story' sees a horror film director (Stuart Whitman) trapped in a spooky village by Ghoul's & finds himself on the menu...
This British production was directed by genre veteran Roy Ward Baker & was the final film produced by Amicus studios who at one point had specialized in these horror anthology films & made some of the best the genre has to offer including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), The House that Dripped Blood (1971), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972) & The Vault of Horror (1973). Based on stories from the book by the real Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes the script tries to be a little more light hearted than one might expect, it still has a few scares & some eerie moments but overall the tone is lighter than usual for Amicus, I assume The Monster Club was made with a younger audience in mind. I have to admit that I am a big fan of The Monster Club, call it a guilty pleasure or just that I have no discernible taste in films but I really enjoyed this from start to finish & is a real product of it's time that maybe hasn't dated that well but so what? At about 100 minutes long The Monster Club moves at a decent pace & none of three stories outstay their welcome & all three offer something different. The first Shadmock story is a little weird but has a few great moments including a twin shocking & touching twist ending that is well handled. The second Vampire story is probably my least favourite of the three stories & in my opinion is the weakest, it feels more like a Vampire sitcom with one of the worst twist endings around. However, it does a have a few funny comedic moments & the build-up of the story is also quite good but it's a shame it all falls apart at the end. The third Humegoo story is easy the best of the three as far as I am concerned, it is a genuinely eerie little story with a fantastic atmosphere that ends a little abruptly but I think suits the story very well.
One reason why I think The Monster Club has a bad reputation is because of the framing parts set inside the monster club itself, while it's great to see veterans John Carradine & Vincent Price bounce one-liners off each other the disco dancing monster look awful with joke shop mask's of the lowest quality. Then there's the truly terrible soft rock pop musical numbers by the likes of The Viewers, B.A. Robertson, Night, The Pretty Things & the then unknown UB40. There is one cool moments though when a stripper does her thing to one of the songs & ends up taking her skin off in silhouette to reveal her skeleton, very amusing & a nice touch. The Monster Club drips atmosphere with the third Humegood story in particular being very creepy, I also loved the comic book style black and white storyboard interludes that represent the flashback, very stylish & an imaginative way to not spend much money! There's not much blood or gore here, a couple of Vampires are seen with stakes in their chest, there's a melted Cat & a woman's face is also melted but otherwise there's nothing graphic here.
Apparently shot in Hertfordshire here in the UK this is well made with a nice feel to the production, it's just so odd that while the stories themselves are so atmospheric & well made the monster club parts are horrendously dated & camp. There's a great cast here, Carradine & Price are terrific ('where are your fangs' ask's Carradine to which Price replies 'their retractable when not in use'!) while Donald Pleasence, Britt Ekland, Patrick Mcgee & Stuart Whitman are also great although I did think Richard Johnson's comic accent made him sound Italian!
The Monster Club is great entertainment for an old school horror anthology fan like myself, I love the performances & atmosphere & even find the disco dancing monster funny in a camp sort of way. What else can I say? I am probably flying against popular opinion again but screw it, I thought The Monster Club was terrific, funny, eerie & creepy in equal measure. They just don't make them like this anymore.