Very well executed

Just perfect...

Dreadfully Boring

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Following Amicus' sad demise in the middle of the 1970s, producer Milton Subotsky used some of the short horror story rights he owned to make one last-ditch attempt at a horror anthology. Utilising the cream of acting talent and bringing experienced director Roy Ward Baker back into the fold, THE MONSTER CLUB was to be possibly the last of the old-wave horror films. Surrounded by the likes of HALLOWEEN, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and Friday the 13th, it sank without trace, which is somewhat sad. While THE MONSTER CLUB is undoubtedly a cheesy, unintentionally funny, and incredibly dated movie – more dated than all of the earlier Amicus films put together – it should have a place in the heart of anyone who has affection for the type of old-fashioned horror movies that it seeks to emulate.Things kick off in great fashion, though, with not one but two old-timer horror stars appearing together! From out of the shadows comes an aged Vincent Price, playing a vampire (for the only time in his career) who puts the bite on John Carradine. If Price is looking old, Carradine's looking positively mummified! In an amusing bit of self-referencing, Carradine plays real-life British horror author R. Chetwynd-Hayes, upon whose work the three stories that make up this film are based. Hayes was reportedly horrified with the result but I find it fairly successful. In any case, Price and Carradine make their way to the Monster Club of the title, where a bunch of goons in joke-shop monster masks are busy disco dancing to a number of incredibly cheesy songs. Most of the bands you've never heard of, although UB40 do make an appearance.In the old days, I remember the wraparound segments of horror anthologies to sometimes be better than the stories themselves. Who can forget Cushing's tarot-dealer on the train in DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS, or the five men meeting spooky Ralph Richardson in TALES FROM THE CRYPT? The cheesy nightclub scenes on display here are a far cry from that kind of finesse, but they do hold a nostalgic charm for a time long since vanished. Highlights include a surreal strip tease with some great special effects, some truly awful singing and the eye-searing sight of Price and Carradine boogieing away to some '80s pop tunes. Unforgettable.As for the stories, they're a mixed bag, but none of them are as effective as they want to be. The first story of the Shadmock is the most traditional, featuring a kind of vintage E.C. Comics-style vengeance being meted out on some unpleasant characters. Simon Ward is hissably nasty, while the guy playing the Shadmock is memorably weird. It's all a little too po-faced for my liking, but it DOES have the scariest moment in the film – the climax – and a great melted cat moment. The second story goes for all-out comedy as vampire Richard Johnson (fresh from making ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS in Italy) finds himself up against vampire killer Donald Pleasence, going for extreme ham here. Britt Ekland's hanging around, but she seems to have aged loads since THE WICKER MAN seven years before. The twist ending is groan-worthy, it's that poor, so this is one just to watch the actors.The final story has the most potential, but it's wasted because of the lack of atmosphere and suspense. A brash American film producer (played by Stuart Whitman, no stranger to B-movie trash) scouts out a location in the British countryside, only to fall foul of some ghouls presided over by the ever-great Patrick Magee. Too many scenes are weak imitations of zombie attacks in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and all of the other zombie flicks popular during this decade, and the singular lack of bloodshed makes them seem tame. A very young Lesley Dunlop puts in an awful performance as a teenage girl with a child's mind – touching innocence or laughable naivety? In the end the emphasis is on middling action scenes, completed by another twist ending which is so obvious you can see it coming a mile away.So there we have THE MONSTER CLUB. Yes, in some ways it's a bad film, made with scant regard for true scares. In some ways you feel it's aimed at a child audience; this is the kind of horror that seeks to emulate the Universal classics of the 1940s or the Forrest J. Ackermann brand of horror journalism. Imagine a ride through a cheesy '80s ghost train and you'll have some idea of what's on offer here. It's not good, but it does have some charm seen in a modern light, and I loved it all the same.

The famous British film production company Amicus were most famous for producing a string of horror anthology movies. The Monster Club was the final entry in this cycle. It came at a time where the quaint format was hopelessly out of date. The early 80's was a time of slashers, splatter films and video nasties, the old school charms of the British portmanteau movies were somewhat out of step with these times. So with The Monster Club, Amicus tried to update the format by including music performances from new wave and hard rock bands, while also ramping up the campy factor even further. The result was an effort that was the most self-consciously silly of them all.My introduction to the movie was a little unusual, in that as a kid I first encountered it in comic format. It was serialised in the magazine 'Halls of Horror'. I remember vividly the one about the Shadmock, it was so brilliantly illustrated and full of nudity and violence. When I saw the film on TV a year or so later I was very disappointed with the lack of any nudity whatsoever and the much less impressive effects. While the denizens of The Monster Club itself looked considerably better than the film version which seemed to consist of people in masks. You can still find the comic if you look for it but even if you don't, trust me it looked excellent and the film could only be a let down by comparison.But I guess what the comic showed was that there was great potential in this movie if it had more of a budget. The low production values really effected it though. Having said all that, I have revisited it recently and went into it knowing in advance what it is and what it isn't. And with that attitude I found it to be pretty good fun overall. It's based on the work of the author R. Chetwynd Hayes, who is portrayed by John Carradine in the movie. He encounters a vampire one night in the streets of a city, who attacks him but then takes him to a secret place where the creatures of the night assemble - The Monster Club. From here the vampire tells the writer three spooky tales of the dark side. The first one concerns a being called a Shadmock, who is a mysterious loner who causes real horror when he whistles. The second film is about a vampire and vampire hunters. The third is about a director scouting for a location for his next horror film, he comes across a weird isolated village populated by flesh-eating ghouls.The first and third stories are actually pretty decent with some nice atmosphere at times. The third was easily the weakest because it was far too silly. Previous Amicus anthologies always seemed to have a 'comedy' story but in this one it's more of a problem because the wraparound story is so silly to begin with and is much more extended than in earlier films, in order to include all the songs. It also means we only have three stories, as opposed to the more normal five. This all means that we don't really need more comedy and it would have been better having something more along the lines of the other two tone-wise.It is a monumentally daft film though overall and I reckon it's probably more fun now than it was at the time. The music scenes are very silly but entertaining never-the-less. And I was pretty surprised to see that the reggae-pop band UB40 were involved in this music! Aside from the bands the other entertainment on display in the club is a stripper who removes…well…everything. The Monster Club is an utterly ridiculous film but it is pretty unique, as I sure haven't seen anything quite like this before. If you go in with the right attitude and expectations adjusted accordingly, you might well have fun though.

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.

Although I generally lapped up the star-studded horror compendiums produced by the British film company Amicus (a Hammer rival), I kept postponing this one (despite there being a readily available SE DVD of it from Pathfinder) because of its poor reputation! I did acquire it from ulterior sources some time ago and, now that I was going through a Vincent Price phase on account of his centenary, I had the opportunity (or the excuse) to finally submit myself to it! Even if producer Milton Subotsky lived on for 10 more years and he made other films after it, THE MONSTER CLUB proved to be, sadly but unsurprisingly, Amicus' swan-song.Actually, on paper, this had all the right ingredients to succeed as much as Amicus' earlier efforts given the participation of past alumni like director Baker, stars Price, Donald Pleasence, Britt Ekland and Richard Johnson, plus character actors Patrick Magee and Geoffrey Bayldon – not to mention new additions like John Carradine, Stuart Whitman, Simon Ward (who, 3 years earlier, had appeared in Subotsky's non-Amicus but equally strongly-cast DOMINIQUE) and Anthony Steel! Apparently Christopher Lee was the first choice for the part eventually played by Carradine and Klaus Kinski was also offered a role but declined! Where it does go horribly wrong, however, is in the disco-set(!) bookend sequences in which vampire Price (only his second time playing a traditional monster{!} and an expert in monster genealogy, the hybrids between species and even humans being given would-be hilarious names) takes celebrated horror author Carradine (after giving him one harmless little bite!) for some more legitimately served liquid sustenance at the ghastly titular abode (which has a werewolf for a secretary!) brimming with hideously made-up punters embarrassingly gyrating on the dance floor to the sounds of UB40 and The Pretty Things (who perform the ska-tinged title song as Carradine and Price get embarrassingly footloose, the latter with a so-called "Buxom Beauty"!) among others!! Still, if one were to twist my arm I would have to say that I did like 2 of the cheesy numbers performed therein: Night's "The Stripper" (with red-haired singer Stevie Lange energetically belting it out and accompanied by a blonde who, literally, strips all the way down to her bones – albeit in a silhouetted bit of animation!) and B.A. Robertson's cheekily goth "Sucker For Your Love"; the stupid "Monsters Rule O.K" tune is best forgotten, however.As for the trilogy of tales, these are decent enough in themselves but nothing that we have not seen before in better movies. The first has James Laurenson as a Shadmuck(!) whose whistle can prove deadly (a greedy cat falls victim to it after it attacks his pet pigeons), as well as Barbara Kellerman and the above-mentioned Ward as a couple who intend to rob the reclusive 'monster' of his fortune. To this end, the woman presents herself for a secretarial job but, besotted with her beauty, he asks her to marry him; naturally, she wants out of the scheme after that but Ward persuades her to go along with the ruse. At the nuptials, Laurenson's monstrous family turns up for a fancy dress ball (recalling the opening scene of Price's classic vehicle THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES {1971}) while Kellerman absents herself from the festivities to loot her brand-new hubby's safe. Caught in the act, he gives her the whistle...and she goes back to Ward a monster, assuring him that he can learn to love her despite her gruesome appearance (a hope Laurenson himself had harbored in her case), which drives Ward off-the-wall.The second tale involves the childhood of film producer Lintom Busotsky (Steel, obviously sending up Subotsky himself!) among his vampire parents Johnson and Ekland who are forever 'stalked not staked' by vampire hunter (masquerading as a priest) Pleasence and his men (who include Neil McCarthy, the memorably hideous Calibos in the contemporaneous original Malta-shot version of CLASH OF THE TITANS). This is perhaps the most enjoyable segment, largely eschewing the others' glumness for amusing campiness (especially by way of Johnson's look and Pleasence's antics – though the latter thinks he has killed the vampire, Johnson is revealed to have been wearing a stake-proof vest and, 'infecting' Pleasence, the vampire hunter can do nothing to stop his own men from giving him a dose of his own medicine!).The third story finds Stuart Whitman as a Hollywood director filming a horror film in London. Distracted by the unprofessionalism of his associates (a dig at the fall of British cinema, perhaps?), he goes in search of real atmosphere and stumbles upon a village that seems lost in time, presided over by creepy inn-keeper Magee. Eventually, it transpires that the locals are all ghouls (or, if you like, zombies) as, in fact, the graveyard is filled with holes through which the corpses had risen! Magee's daughter is the only normal person since she is a Hum-goo(!) and, given that she tries to alert him to the danger (he manages to barricade himself in the church fending off the hungry assailants with a large crucifix), eventually falls victim to their wrath as the couple flee. Meeting up with a cop, Whitman thinks he has reached safety but the car soon takes him back to where he had come from as it was officially escorting the Elders of the village just arrived from the netherworld to celebrate its anniversary! This is easily the least effective episode (if mainly because it is the most ordinary, with Magee in particular wasted); however, it does garner some extra points via the use of evocative illustrations in the flashbacks depicting the history of the cursed community.