Le club des monstres

It's been many years since I last saw this anthology, and though it's usually reviled I think it's gotten better with age. I love the air of black comedy that prevails in the scenes with Vincent Price and John Carradine in the Disco (both perform very tongue in cheek and appear to be having some fun spoofing their images), and the three horror tales aren't bad, either. The stories manage to be satirical, humorous, and even a little scary. I even liked some of the rock tunes sung at the club (my favorite probably being B. A. Robertson's SUCKER FOR YOUR LOVE). I also like MONSTERS RULE O.K. by the Viewers. Okay, so I wouldn't go out and buy the album perhaps, but the songs work nicely within the bizarre context of the film. Price and Carradine actually get up on the dance floor to boogie with the ghouls, and it's good fun all around. **1/2 out of ****

Fun horror anthology film from producer Milton Subotsky, who produced similar pictures for Amicus in the 1960s and 70s. It's directed by Roy Ward Baker, who also directed some of those previous anthologies. There are three stories here plus a wraparound segment that connects everything. The first story is about a shadmock (don't ask). It's an ok segment with a standout sympathetic performance from James Laurenson. The second story is about a vampire hunter (Donald Pleasence) targeting the father of a bullied boy. It's a decent story with a goofy ending. The third story is the best. It's about a move director (Stuart Whitman) who finds himself trapped in a town full of ghouls while scouting for a filming location. This is the only story that feels like it could have been its own movie. The wraparound segments feature Vincent Price as a vampire who takes famed horror writer John Carradine to the titular club where monsters hang out and dance to early 80s rock bands. Super cheesy but also loads of fun.

All in all this isn't as good as many of the older horror anthology films but it's all very charming and innocent fun. Hardcore horror nuts will likely hate it for not being serious or gory enough. I think in my initial viewing years ago I was unimpressed but it's grown on me over the years. Give it a shot. The music numbers alone are worth your time.

I love this movie. When I began renting exclusively horror movies in the late eighties I'd rent movies like The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula and Monster Club and The House That Dripped Blood... and eventually I realized they were all by the same director, Roy Ward Baker. What stands out in his fillms to me is the colors. He goes for some really bold color choices. Monster Club is a funny movie. The musical interludes betw2een the vignettes are pretty damn snappy f you've heard them a hundred times, and I have. The stories are good. The dippy costumes are effective and fun. I saw it hosted by Elvira Mistress of the Dark and that made a lot of difference but it's a good movie with or without her breastesses.

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.

What can I say? I liked it. Then again, I've had a love affair with Britain's Hammer, Amicus and Tony Tensor's Tigon films since I was a kid in the Los Angeles area in the early 60s and caught Hammer's Hound of the Baskervilles (1959).

For me, it's just a kick to see John Carridine and Vincent Price together again. I'm also a Roy Ward Baker fan and enjoy most of his work.

Are the stories truly scary? No, not really. They're eerie. Strange. That's good enough for me. That works.

And the capper is getting The Pretty Things as the Monster Club's house band. I have no idea what song Phil May & Co. play, but I love it. I've got several PT CDs as well as their 2-CD anthology and it's not contained in anything I've ever found. I'd dearly love to get a copy of their MC music.

Any horror fan who writes that it was high time Hammer and Amicus rode off into the sunset ain't no horror fan, because they just don't make classy little gems like this anymore.