The Monster Club (1981)

Director:

Roy Ward Baker

Writers:

Edward Abraham
Valerie Abraham
(more)

Release Date:

27 May 1981 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror | Music

Plot:

A writer of horror stories is invited to a "monster club" by a mysterious old gentleman. There, three...

Plot Keywords:

Monster | Writer | Werewolf | Shadmock | Vampire

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Vincent Price	...	Eramus
Donald Pleasence	...	Pickering, Chief of the B-Squad
John Carradine	...	R.Chetwynd-Hayes, Writer
Stuart Whitman	...	Sam, Movie Director
Richard Johnson	...	Busotsky's Father
Barbara Kellerman	...	Angela
Britt Ekland	...	Busotsky's Mother
Simon Ward	...	George, Angela's Boyfriend
Anthony Valentine	...	Mooney
Patrick Magee	...	Innkeeper (Luna's Father)
Anthony Steel	...	Lintom Busotsky, Film Producer
Fran Fullenwider	...	Buxom Beauty
Roger Sloman	...	Club Secretary (Werewolf)
James Laurenson	...	Raven (the Shadmock)
Geoffrey Bayldon	...	Psychiatrist
Warren Saire	...	Lintom as a Child
Neil McCarthy	...	Watson, B-Squad Member
Lesley Dunlop	...	Luna (the Humghoul)
The Viewers	...	Entertainment
B.A. Robertson	...	Entertainment
Night	...	Entertainment
The Pretty Things	...	Entertainment
UB40	...	Entertainment
Suzanna Willis	...	Stripper
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Phil May	...	Himself - Singer of the Pretty Things
Dick Taylor	...	Himself - Guitarist of the Pretty Things
Chris Thompson	...	Band Leader of Night
Sean Barry-Weske	...	Ghoul (uncredited)
Prentis Hancock	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Liz Smith	...	Villager (uncredited)

Directed by
Roy Ward Baker

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Edward Abraham
Valerie Abraham
R. Chetwynd-Hayes		book

Produced by
Ron Fry	....	associate producer
Bernard J. Kingham	....	executive producer
Milton Subotsky	....	producer

Original Music by
Douglas Gamley		(segment "Shadmock")
John Georgiadis		(segment "Vampire")
Alan Hawkshaw		(segment "Humgoo")

Cinematography by
Peter Jessop

Film Editing by
Peter Tanner

Casting by
Simone Reynolds

Production Design by
Tony Curtis		(uncredited)

Set Decoration by
Lionel Couch

Makeup Department
Roy Ashton	....	makeup artist
Joan Carpenter	....	supervising hair stylist
Ronnie Cogan	....	hair stylist
Ernest Gasser	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Nick Daubeny	....	second assistant director
Dominic Fulford	....	first assistant director
Nick Laws	....	third assistant director

Art Department
John Bolton	....	concept artist
Dennis Maddison	....	production buyer
Richard Rooker	....	assistant art director
Bill Waldron	....	construction manager

Sound Department
Bill Barringer	....	sound assistant
Norman Bolland	....	sound mixer
Richard Dunford	....	assistant sound editor
Russ Hill	....	sound editor
Bob Jones	....	dubbing mixer
John Salter	....	boom operator

Camera and Electrical Department
Howard Baker	....	camera loader
Howard Baker	....	clapper loader
Chris Howard	....	focus puller
John Jay	....	still photographer
Peter Sinclair	....	camera operator
Micky Thomas	....	chief electrician
Ted Whitby	....	camera grip

Animation Department
Eric Lodge	....	animator

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Eileen Sullivan	....	wardrobe supervisor

Editorial Department
Michael Connell	....	first assistant editor
Keith Gaisford	....	second assistant editor

Music Department
Graham Walker	....	music coordinator (uncredited)

Other crew
Jeffrey Broom	....	production accountant
Vic Door	....	monster masks
Lily Poyser	....	unit publicist
June Randall	....	continuity
Pauline Stevenson	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• Sword & Sorcery

Distributors

• ITC Entertainment Group (1980) (UK) (theatrical)
• Thriller Video (1985) (USA) (VHS)
• Channel 5 Video Distribution (1986) (UK) (VHS)
• Carlton Video (2000) (UK) (VHS)
• Sound & Media (2005) (UK) (DVD)
• Millennium Storm (2005) (Italy) (video)
• MRA Entertainment Group (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• Pathfinder Pictures (2006) (USA) (DVD) (as Pathfinder Home Entertainment)
• Elephant Films (2013) (France) (video)

Other Companies

• Elstree Film & Television Studios  movie studio
• Lee Lighting  lighting

Also Known As:

Runtime:

USA:104 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Norway:16 | USA:Unrated | UK:15 (video rating) | UK:A (original rating) | Iceland:16 | Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Aldenham, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

Sword & Sorcery

Trivia:

This film opened in theaters on Vincent Price's 70th birthday.

Movie Connections:

Follows Asylum (1972/I)

Soundtrack:

Valentino's Had Enough

Fun Horror Collection

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.