From The Grave
MONSTERS ALL AROUND US
The Monster Club (1981) is a fun little movie that might not be in step with what’s popular or hip in horror these days. The idea that these monsters are more in common with the monsters of the old days, no gore, no blood to speak of, and the depravity is subtle, but it’s there.
In the early 1980’s horror had not become the mega money making whore that it became in the mid 80’s. It was bankable, especially in drive-ins. Anthology films were just as rare as they are today, but Amicus had found a winning formula with Tales from the Crypt and The house that dripped Blood, Asylum, etc. when Amicus folded, Producer Milton Subotsky was looking to take this formula independently. He had worked with others to bring the brilliant From beyond the Grave to the big screen using R. Chetwynd-Hayes short stories. He chose Chetwynd-Hayes work again. Although Monster Club is not on par with From beyond the Grave, there are highlights that just make a person smile.
The film starts off with a writer (John Carradine---Grapes of Wrath, Silent night, bloody night, Twilight Zone) walking down an abandoned alley when he hears a man whimper. The man staggers toward the writer and bites him on the neck. Turns out the vampire only fed off the writer and assures him he would not become a creature of the night. The vampire’s name is Eramus (Vincent Price---too many films to list). He is a socialite of the night hours and in a grand gesture of appreciation for the writer’s “small donation”, he invites the writer to a special club.
This is where the film tends to dip too much into humor, but still in great fun. At the club we see monsters of all sorts who dance to rock n roll by the British band The Pretty Ones. The music is not bad; blues-based Brit rock. Some of the monster makeup is a bit corny, still, it has to make you smile, knowing the filmmakers didn’t take themselves too serious. Eramus orders his usual, blood—type “o” and suggests to the writer to have tomato juice. At this point Eramus points out a chart of “Monster relation” to the writer. He goes through the bloodline of all the monsters and how they cross pollinated to create new monsters. And this is where the short stories begin.
THE SHADMOK:
Angela (Barbara Kellerman---Satan’s Slaves, Sea Wolves) and her boyfriend (Simon Ward—Three Musketeers, Frankenstein must be Destroyed) want to run a scam on a wealthy shut-in named raven who lives in a huge manor. The two of them are looking to get to his secret stash of enormous wealth. Unbeknownst to them, Raven (James Laurenson---Women in Love, Pink Floyd’s The Wall) is a Shadmok, a hybrid monster who has the great power of destroying things with his whistle. Raven falls in love with Angela, who is disgusted by Raven’s rather disquieting looks.
This is the strongest of the three stories. Mostly for this one scene: Raven has a pet bird. And there had been a fat cat stalking the grounds. The cat gets into the house and snatches the bird. Upon discovering the birds disemboweled remains, Raven becomes upset. He sees the cat, purses his lips and a monotone sound is unleashed. Seconds later, we see the cat’s charred body.
THE VAMPIRE:
In the Monster Club, they introduce another guest, a Hollywood producer who shows a clip from his latest film, which he says, “is autobiographical”. In the film a young boy (William Saire) lives with his Father (Richard Johnson---The Pumpkin Eater, The Haunting) who sleeps all day and works exclusively at night, while his mother (Brit Eckland---The Wicker Man., Get Carter) takes care of the household. Both parents are not from England and have odd Eastern bloc accents. The boy is despised and teased at school. One day after school, a priest (Donald Pleasance---Halloween, The Great Escape, Etc.) witnesses the boy being bullied. He saves the boy, and later on takes a strange interest in the boy and his family, especially the father.
I can see the humor in this story, and yes, I can see it satirizing the vampire genre. Still, the execution was weak, not to mention the ridiculous ending.
“In the early 1980’s horror had not become the mega money making whore that it became in the mid 80’s.”
THE GHOULS:
This story turned out to be pretty interesting. A movie director (Stuart Whitman--- Murder Inc., The Longest Day) went out scouting locations for his newest horror film because nothing his assistant found was “spooky enough”. He ends up in an isolated village where the townspeople seem to shy away from strangers. The director discovers that the townsfolk are indeed corpse-eating Ghouls who also rob the graves for clothing and jewelry.
After he meets the only one to greet him (Patrick Magee ---A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon) he is attacked by the townsfolk. He finds safety in a room upstairs where he meets Luna (Lesley Dunlop---Tess, Elephant Man), who happens to be part Human, part Ghoul---what is commonly known as a Humghoul. They escape to the edge of town, but the ghouls are excellent at throwing rocks and they hit Luna. She knows she’s at the end of her life and tells the director to run for it. He manages to get to the freeway and is picked up by a police officer. I’d like to tell you this had a happy ending - instead a shock ending was more fitting to the film.
On a whole, this was a well-made film. It turns out this is the last film directed by Roy Ward-Baker (The Vampire lovers, Asylum, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde) as he died right after this film was completed. I remember seeing this one on syndicated TV when I was a kid and I always had a fondness for it; maybe for its satirical look at horror or just because Vincent Price played his character with a smile. Either way, it’s a fun little film that achieves what it set out to do: entertain.
Mark Slade, HMS
Read the previous installment.