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.

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.

How ANYONE that has procured and sat through this film (I'm referring to the first reviewer, no offense) can not know the details of WHY this film is so short just amazes me! The entire lore and told & retold story of this film is half of it's entertainment! This film was two thirds (the beginning and end) on film and one third (the middle) a live spook show/stage show! The film pauses and all the monsters and whoever all jump out of the screen, terrorize the audience and do a little show, sit on peoples laps, cut heads off of audience members, etc, etc. Then they run back into the screen and the last third of the film plays...the end! The only film of it's kind! I wonder why...hmmmmm...hahahahaha. Now if only there was footage of the live part!!!

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.

Let's put aside reviewing "Monsters Crash the Pajama Party". I love bad movies, and picked up the DVD for that, (and due to the seeming endless list of program content), but this DVD from "Something Weird" is meant to be digested as a whole offering. I was not aware of the history of the spook shows, having been a child in the 70's, after the fad had passed on, but this DVD is a lot of fun...it leaves you to root around several spooky menus, finding tidbits and exploring for more. And for some reason, the 45 minutes of "linking trailers" and promotional title cards that would have been shown ahead of the midnight shows back in the day was fascinating to me. It really paints a picture of a different time in our culture, when clean-cut teens could be grabbed by monster-suit wearing extras in the theater, without lawsuits following, and where watching "scary" movies was fun. Made me sad I missed it all.

So, yes, "Pajama Party" is bad, but it shouldn't be looked at like a regular movie, but drunk in as part of the whole "Spook show" tribute that this DVD is....lovingly compiled by someone who also wrote a very informative booklet in the DVD. I urge any fan of old-time horror, or the 50's and 60's in general, to pick this up. Really great fun.