Monsters Crash the Pajama Party

In order to get even close to the full effect, you must get the Something Weird DVD version and imagine yourself to be a teenager in the 50's or 60's. Spook shows were evening-long events, not just a movie, and the atmosphere was giddy and creepy at the same time. I personally just missed being old enough to experience it first-hand, but have talked to many people who did go to them.

Some were awful and amateurish and some did a good job. But they were never meant to be anything more than a good time to have with your date or friends. And this movie probably typifies the experience more than any other--a little self-indulgent, a little off-kilter, and good, cheesy fun.

A rather short film, but actually this works well as the script and material probably couldn't have filled up much more time anyway. A mix between horror and farce, this is one of those films that is so bad it's good, and the whole cast and crew do seem to be enjoying themselves even with the low production values. Monsters Crash the Pajama Party is a strange little movie, but once you begin to watch it you realize it's a film that doesn't take itself too seriously and you'll want to stay with it until the end. An interesting movie to watch!

The acting, costumes and dialog for "Monsters Crash the Pajama Party" are all quite terrible. In fact, it's one of the cheesiest films of an era known for its cheesy teen movies. But, it still manages to entertain--mostly because it never takes itself seriously and often makes fun of itself. Because of this, the bad film has a genial quality about it that make it goofy fun. Among the best examples is the guy in the gorilla suit. He not only introduces the film but makes commentary using giant signs with words printed on it. Also, as the film is introduced, a bizarre narrator says LOTS of strange and occasionally funny remarks. Another is the mad scientist--who wears a lab coat that says 'Mad Doctor' right on it! Because this film is intentionally bad, I really don't think it's appropriate to give it a numerical score. For those who love the silly monster films of the 1960s, it's well worth seeing. For anyone just wanting to see a good film, then it's definitely one you should skip! Harmless fun.

by itself, it's dreadful.

Horrible short film about some idiots who decide to spend a night in a haunted house. Naturally there's a mad doctor in the basement doing some stupid experiments...or something.

Tacky sets, lousy acting, stupid script, dumb jokes...really a chore to sit through. Seeing this in a movie theatre as part of a spook show it probably worked. By itself it just looks pretty desperate. Still, I suppose we should be grateful that this even exists anymore. It IS an important piece of American cinema (so to speak). But I really can't give it more than a 2.

The movie's plot has been explained well in other entries here, so I'll just cut to background and some context here. This movie was made to be part of the old movie theatre spookshow circuit. Nothing more. At one point in the movie the gorilla and other monsters walk toward the screen and this would have cued actors in the theatre to come out dressed in similar costumes to terrorize the audience. The next scene shows the monsters bring a girl in to be operated on, by this time the actors would have retreated back behind the screen.

Yes, it's cheesy fun, it was meant to be.It would have been shown as a part of a full evening of horror movies, cartoons, "live" monsters and ghosts, maybe a magic show and more, with the theatre rigged to producee various special effects.

That this movie survives at all is a treat, but it does need to be seen with the understanding of it's time frame and how it would have been shown.

The costumes as bad, but they were made to approximate how the actors (usually locally hired teenagers) would have looked when they came out into the audience.

Recommended, if in a silly mood as part of a Halloween evening's show with a favorite horror movie. "Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark" would make an excellent double feature with this one! I'd also recommend as another suggestion "Zacherley's Horrible Horror" , a compilation of 2 hours of classic bad horror movies, hosted by Zacherley. Now, thats what I'd call Halloween!