The Monster Club
Encyclopedia
The Monster Club is a 1980
British
horror
film
directed by Roy Ward Baker
and starring Vincent Price
and John Carradine
. An anthology film, it is based on the works of the British horror author R. Chetwynd-Hayes
. It was the final film of Amicus Productions
.
named Eramus. Eramus bites the writer, and in gratitude for the small "donation", takes his (basically unharmed but bewildered) victim to the titular club, which is a covert gathering place for a multitude of supernatural creatures. In between the club's unique music and dance performances, Eramus introduces three stories about his fellow creatures of the night.
. As time goes by, the girl, Angela, develops a friendship with the mysterious Shadmock, named Raven, and he eventually proposes to her. Alarmed, Angela refuses but her controlling boyfriend forces her to go through with it in order to gain the Shadmock's vast wealth. At the night of the engagement party, Angela is caught robbing the Shadmock's safe, and screams that she could never love him. Heartbroken, the Shadmock whistles and destroys Angela's face. Upon seeing her, her boyfriend is driven insane and locked away in an asylum.
, inhabited by a species of man-eating ghoul
. There he meets a teenage girl, Luna, the daughter of a ghoul father and a deceased human mother. The director with the aid of Luna attempts to escape, only for Luna to be killed and the director captured and returned to the village.
At the end of the film, Eramus cheerfully lists to the other club-members all the imaginative ways that humans have of being horrible to each other, and declares that humans are the most despicable monsters of all. Thus Chetwynd-Hayes is made an honorary monster and member of the club.
was originally sought for the role of Chetwynd-Hayes, but flatly turned the offer down simply upon hearing the film's title from his agent. The character of Lintom Busotsky is a film producer, and his name is an anagram
of the real film's producer, Milton Subotsky.
The film was released to theaters in the UK on May 24, 1981. During the 1980s, it was released to video and TV and became a small cult
film. It was liked mainly for the pairing of Carradine and Price, who were preparing to leave horror for other ventures. Both men died between the late 1980s and early 1990s.
and The Pretty Things
. The soundtrack features UB40
though they do not appear in the film. The rock band Night
perform the track "Stripper", which did not appear on either of their albums.
The film's soundtrack album including both songs and instrumental tracks is included as a bonus feature on the DVD.
1980 in film
- Events :* May 21 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released and is the biggest grosser of the year ....
British
Cinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...
horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
directed by Roy Ward Baker
Roy Ward Baker
Roy Ward Baker , born Roy Horace Baker, was an English film director, credited as Roy Baker for much of his career. His best known film is A Night to Remember which won a Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film in 1959...
and starring Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
and John Carradine
John Carradine
John Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
. An anthology film, it is based on the works of the British horror author R. Chetwynd-Hayes
Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes
Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes was an author, best known for his ghost stories. His first published work was the science fiction novel The Man From The Bomb in 1959...
. It was the final film of Amicus Productions
Amicus Productions
Amicus Productions is a British film production company, based at Shepperton Studios, England. It was founded by American producer and screenwriter Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg.-Horror:...
.
Plot
A fictionalized version of Chetwynd-Hayes (Carradine) is approached on a city street by a strange man (Price) who turns out to be a starving vampireVampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
named Eramus. Eramus bites the writer, and in gratitude for the small "donation", takes his (basically unharmed but bewildered) victim to the titular club, which is a covert gathering place for a multitude of supernatural creatures. In between the club's unique music and dance performances, Eramus introduces three stories about his fellow creatures of the night.
The Shadmock
A young, financially struggling woman takes a job at a secluded manor house owned by a hybrid creature called a Shadmock, which leads a troubled and tragic existence and is notorious for its demonic whistleWhistle
A whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means...
. As time goes by, the girl, Angela, develops a friendship with the mysterious Shadmock, named Raven, and he eventually proposes to her. Alarmed, Angela refuses but her controlling boyfriend forces her to go through with it in order to gain the Shadmock's vast wealth. At the night of the engagement party, Angela is caught robbing the Shadmock's safe, and screams that she could never love him. Heartbroken, the Shadmock whistles and destroys Angela's face. Upon seeing her, her boyfriend is driven insane and locked away in an asylum.
The Vampires
The timid son of a peaceable family of vampires lives a miserable, lonely life where he is bullied at school and his father spends little time with him. The son discovers his father is a vampire, being relentlessly if ineptly hunted by a team of bureaucratic undead-killers. The hunters break into the house and stake the vampire father, but the tables are turned when the father bites the leader of the vampire hunters, meaning he will have to be staked by his own servants.The Ghouls
A movie director scouting locations for his next film pays an unpleasant visit to a small backwards village, Loughville near Hillington, NorfolkHillington, Norfolk
Hillington is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.It covers an area of and had a population of 287 in 123 households as of the 2001 census.For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk....
, inhabited by a species of man-eating ghoul
Ghoul
A ghoul is a folkloric monster associated with graveyards and consuming human flesh, often classified as undead. The oldest surviving literature that mention ghouls is likely One Thousand and One Nights...
. There he meets a teenage girl, Luna, the daughter of a ghoul father and a deceased human mother. The director with the aid of Luna attempts to escape, only for Luna to be killed and the director captured and returned to the village.
At the end of the film, Eramus cheerfully lists to the other club-members all the imaginative ways that humans have of being horrible to each other, and declares that humans are the most despicable monsters of all. Thus Chetwynd-Hayes is made an honorary monster and member of the club.
Behind the scenes
Despite Vincent Price's decades-long career as a horror actor, The Monster Club features what may be his only film performance as a vampire; although he appeared as Dracula in the educational film "Once upon a Midnight scary". Christopher LeeChristopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
was originally sought for the role of Chetwynd-Hayes, but flatly turned the offer down simply upon hearing the film's title from his agent. The character of Lintom Busotsky is a film producer, and his name is an anagram
Anagram
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
of the real film's producer, Milton Subotsky.
The film was released to theaters in the UK on May 24, 1981. During the 1980s, it was released to video and TV and became a small cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
film. It was liked mainly for the pairing of Carradine and Price, who were preparing to leave horror for other ventures. Both men died between the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Cast
- Vincent PriceVincent PriceVincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
as Eramus - John CarradineJohn CarradineJohn Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
as R. Chetwynd-Hayes - James LaurensonJames LaurensonJames Laurenson is a New Zealand actor, who has performed many classical roles on stage and television.Laurenson was born in Marton, New Zealand...
as Raven (The Shadmock) - Anthony Steel as Lintom Busotsky
- Warren SaireWarren SaireWarren Saire is an English actor.His roles include King Edward VI of England in the film Lady Jane.-External links:...
as young Lintom - Britt EklandBritt EklandBritt-Marie Ekland is a Swedish actress and singer, and a long time resident of the United Kingdom. She is best known for her roles as a Bond girl in The Man with the Golden Gun, and in the British cult horror film The Wicker Man, as well as her marriage to actor Peter Sellers, and her...
as Lintom's mother - Richard JohnsonRichard Johnson (actor)Richard Johnson is an English actor, writer and producer, who starred in several British films of the 1960s and has also had a distinguished stage career. He most recently appeared in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.-Life and career:...
as Lintom's father - Donald PleasenceDonald PleasenceSir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
as Pickering - Stuart WhitmanStuart WhitmanStuart Maxwell Whitman is an American actor.Stuart Whitman is arguably best-known for playing Marshal Jim Crown in the western television series Cimarron Strip in 1967...
as Sam - Lesley DunlopLesley DunlopLesley Dunlop is a British actress.Daughter of the television writer Pat Dunlop, she began as a child actress in the seventies featuring in a BBC version of the classic A Little Princess and as Lydia Holly in the ITV adaptation of South Riding.Her transition to adult roles began by playing Lizzie...
as Luna
Crew
- Directed by Roy Ward BakerRoy Ward BakerRoy Ward Baker , born Roy Horace Baker, was an English film director, credited as Roy Baker for much of his career. His best known film is A Night to Remember which won a Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film in 1959...
- Produced by Milton SubotskyMilton SubotskyMilton Subotsky was an American TV and film writer/producer. In 1964, in England, he formed Amicus Productions with Max J Rosenberg.Together they produced a number of low budget science fiction and horror films....
- Music by John WilliamsJohn WilliamsJohn Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
- Concept art by John Bolton
Music
Musical artists performing between stories include B. A. RobertsonB. A. Robertson
B. A. Robertson is a Scottish musician, actor, composer and songwriter.-Career:...
and The Pretty Things
The Pretty Things
The Pretty Things are an English rock and roll band from London, who originally formed in 1963. They took their name from Bo Diddley's 1955 song "Pretty Thing" and, in their early days, were dubbed by the British press the "uglier cousins of the Rolling Stones". Their most commercially successful...
. The soundtrack features UB40
UB40
UB40 are a British reggae/pop band formed in 1978 in Birmingham. The band has placed more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. One of the world's best-selling music artists, UB40 have sold over 70 million records.Their hit singles...
though they do not appear in the film. The rock band Night
Night (band)
Night was a rock band formed in 1978 in Los Angeles whose personnel were veteran British-based session musicians.-History:Night's vocalists Stevie Vann and Chris Thompson had met when Vann had provided backing vocals for the 1978 album Watch by Manfred Mann's Earth Band then fronted by Thompson...
perform the track "Stripper", which did not appear on either of their albums.
The film's soundtrack album including both songs and instrumental tracks is included as a bonus feature on the DVD.