Monsters

I remember being 12 or 13 years old and begging my mother to let me stay up on Saturday nights to watch this cheesy half-hour horror show. I always think of it as the 80s version of Goosebumps, though I don't think it was specifically aimed at kids. Not that scary, but fun for lovers of the horror genre! The best part of the show was the monsters, of course... different ones every week with not too shabby makeup and effects, considering that this was a low-budget show.

I picked up on this show towards the end of its original 3 year run and loved it. I continued watching well on until the reruns finally disappeared entirely.

Made by essentially the same people who made "Tales From The Darkside", (minus one major player), it was just as good, I thought. While "Tales" was the darker, more sinister show, with the creepy organ music and negative film forest shot intro, "Monsters" was both more humorous and more disturbing than "Tales".

The premise of the show was basically the same, borrowed idea from "The Twighlight Zone", featuring weird stories, some that made me feel creeped out when I'd turn out all the lights to watch, and some that were downright silly and made me laugh. They were all very entertaining.

I wish reruns would air again.

I caught this show on Sci-Fi a few times a several years ago and was very surprised that it wasn't half bad. If I remember correctly they usually had twist endings a la Tales from the Crypt which I genuinely love. I'm having trouble remembering specifics about the plots to the episodes I saw but I think they usually had a way of showing that the real monsters were ordinary people who did horrible things, pretty cheesy and predictable but entertaining nonetheless. One show, however, sticks with me years later, an adaptation of the Stephen King story "The Crawling Finger". Its about a guy who, for no real reason as is frequently the case in King's short fiction, finds a finger coming out of his bathroom sink drain. He tries several different ways to dispose of the finger, learning along the way that a) it takes a very, very long finger to make the journey through the pipes and into his sink, and b) there are five fingers on a hand. It was truly creepy and made the story that much better since I actually got to see how disturbing having an alien appendage coming out of one's plumbing would be.

This show has to be my favorite out of all the 80's horror TV shows. Like Tales from the Darkside, also from the same creators, this show is a rare gem. If you agree with me, PLEASE sign this petition I started, to get the word out for Monsters and get it out on DVD. Here is the petition address: www.petitiononline.com/19784444/petition.html Some of my favorite episodes would have to be Glim glim, and Rain Dance. I also loved the opening intro with the monster family. That used to creep me out! One of the things I would have to ask the DVD creators to include would be the organ sound heard right before where the commercial break would be. I don't know if any of you remember that part but that's one of the main things that brings back memories to me. I mean, come on! War of the Worlds the TV series already has been released on DVD, so I say Monsters, and also Tales from the Darkside, and Friday the 13th the series should be released too! We the fans need to speak our minds! We need this awesome show on DVD so PLEASE spread the word!!!

I loved Monsters! Everyone in my family thought I was weird. I know they thought it but they wouldn't say it. Monsters was just a great low-budget, third-rate show but it never let me down. The plots were very silly at times. For example, I remember one about a human-eating bed!!! What were these writers thinking?? Now and then I check out the sci-fi channel to see if they could re-start showing the re-runs but unfortunately no such luck. Someone email me if they know what channels are running re-runs please...