Monster Mash

I saw the title and art and that was it.

I started off and I understood it was low budget. That's not my problem with it. I actually like Draculas delivery and there were some scenes I think were shot well. The Invisible Man also stood out.

Issues were its consitency. The story flow was bad. The points to move the plot forward flopped. I wish I had more characters to describe how irrational upset I was at this movie. This had a great premise and it failed to give anyone developmenm. Without spoilers I just feel they could have done a lot more for The Mummy, who I felt was just a tag along the whole way. Same with the Werewolf. This was Draculas movie and the Invisible Man helped him get there.

I honestly would have loved this movie if it sat in the camp, but it pulls away so often and takes itself seriously. Its attempts in parts to be an homage to classics didn't work out. The part with CGI was bad, but it reminded me of old 40s stop motion, so that gets no bad marks from me.

Wasted potential. Funny bits. I MST3Kd it with a friend, which took it from a 2 to a 5 for me. Cleaning up the story, embracing the camp, giving more of the characters things to do would have sent me over the moon.

I want to see more from Ethan Daniel Corbett.

Could have been an Are you Afraid of the Dark episode. Thats what this movie was.

Is this a joke?

I was honestly waiting for the punchline.

Waiting for the scene that would indicate this was meant as a comedy or parody of vintage Horror films.

But it never came.

The movie contains every frickin' monster Universal could imagine jammed into one film, and not comfortably.

Poor acting, poor lighting, painfully long dialogue and...Micahel Madsen.

Oh how far you've fallen from Reservoir Dogs.

This film should be dropped into a reservoir.

Listen, I think classic Universal is some of the best celluloid ever produced.

And I understood the homage paid to the classic era of monsters.

Even the scary warnings theaters used to show before a cheesy bad monster flick.

Before...before!!...not three quarters of the way into the movie!!

This was a joke right? ...right?

Plot

Dracula, Werewolf, and the Invisible Man must work together to stop Dr. Frankenstein from creating an unstoppable monster.

Cast

Michael Madsen in the death throes of his career in a movie made by the same guy who gave us two awful Hansel & Gretel films and reached such pinnacles as Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark!

Verdict

Did you ever watch the mega cheesy Monster Mash The Movie from the mid 90's? Me neither though I remember seeing the trailer and thinking it looked awful. I'll put my life savings down now that movie is better than this one!

Unsurprisingly an Asylum movie, Monster Mash sees most of the classic movie monsters collide in a movie advertised as a horror but let me assure you couldn't be further from. It's like an unintentional comedy and a stupidly campy one at that.

A vampire, Dracula, Frankenstein, Frankensteins monster, wolfman, the invisible man and of course a mummy. How could this possibly be bad? Well, very easily now you ask. I mean, it's an Asylum movie the better question is surely how could it possibly be good?

The acting is hilariously poor, Madsen included as this man just doesn't try anymore and why should he? He's gone from big Hollywood mainstay to will do anything for a dollar.

The story is contrived, the execution is dreadful and I found myself simultaneously cringing and wincing at the same time throughout.

Who are these movies aimed at? Too violent for kids, too dumb for adults.

Rants

One day someone needs to sit me down and explain how The Asylum movies make money. They can't make enough off the backs of people accidentally buying their movie instead of the one they're mockbustering surely! I've seen countless and am confident they'd reach an average of the early 3.0's if I totaled them all up. Then again are they any worse than ITN, Uncorked, Scyfy themselves? Awful, awful stuff.

The Good

Well, there's a lot going on

The Bad

Dreadful acting It's all so, stupid Seeing Madsen in a film like this is unsurprising but still sad Did I mention how stupid it all is?

First the movie. Possibly one of the worst I have seen, and that includes my 2000+ reviews here. The lighting is so dark from scene to scene you might actually think the screen on your device has failed. The writing and acting and overall effect -- or lack of same -- will make you wish the film had originally been done in any language other than English. That way, at least, you could dismiss the end result as bad dubbing. Or bad subtitling. But none of that is "the" extraordinary thing about this film. The extraordinary thing about this release is that the marketer decided to throw all the lemons into the metaphorical blender and make lemonade. The press kit for MONSTER MASH actually touts the fact that it was shot in only 5 days -- like that is a plus! Feels more like 5 hours. Worse, some reviewers actually fell for this hustle, and praised the end result as "campy" ... and "fun". The only fun thing about this movie is pressing the STOP button and taking your trade elsewhere. Except for the marketing. The marketing is brilliant. And campy. And fun. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

So this is presented as by the Asylum, but I believe it's actually done by another firm (Acme Holdings, or something, it's not clear to me who actually made the film.) But no matter, this is something Hollywood should be doing: Making movies fun again.

Cheesy? Mountains of it.

Low budget? Only the lowest.

Amateur acting? Sort of, it's not top notice but you could tell it was a labour of love and Ramses especially was having a great deal of fun with his part. They all did really, Dracula being reserved and mysterious, the Invisible Man drawing heavy inspiration from his counterpart in the Doom Squad. The Wolfman didn't have as much screen time as I would have liked to see, but he did well with what little he had. Indeed the only naff acting was from Dr. Frankenstein, the actor playing him was kind of going through the motions, which is kind of a shame as I am given to understand he has done much better in the past.

No matter, the plot is straightforward and there is little in the way of twists and turns, but all...err...mashed together, and you a fun little film that the big production houses could learn a thing or two from.

Definitely one for the group watch.