It should be said that The Monster Club is a different horror anthology. Vampire Vincent Price invites writer John Carradine to an unusual club, where he tells three stories …
The Monster Club (1981) starring Vincent Price, John Carradine
The Shadmock
The Shadmock ranks low on the monster hierarchy — they only whistle. But when they whistle …
The first story deals with a young woman, pushed by her controlling boyfriend, to work for a young man. The man, vaguely repulsive, is a shadmock. Her job is to help catalog his vast collection of items in his mansion. She’s sad, lonely, and pitiful. A nice enough man, but she can’t get past his appearance. He falls in love with her, and eventually proposes marriage. Pushed by her boyfriend, she accepts. But it’s a ruse, to enable her to steal some of his valuables. When he catches her robbing his safe, he still professes his love for her. But she’s repulsed by him, and tells him so. And in his anger, he whistles …
Vampire
Clearly, a different kind of vampire story. A loving father works every evening, and his poor son is picked on at school. His mother tries to console him, with the knowledge that they’re actually nobility from Europe. Then, a trio of people befriend the young boy. The trio are secretly … vampire hunters. Believe it or not, the story takes a humorous bend.
Humgoo
The last story is sadly somewhat predictable. A movie star wants to find something more authentic for the horror movie they’re shooting. And stumbles upon a village of human-ghoul hybrids – the Humgoo. He tries to rescue a young woman, but …
Product Description
Screen legends Vincent Price, John Carradine and Donald Pleasence are just three of the stars of this darkly humorous cult horror gem. Earning Hammer Films veteran Roy Ward Baker the Audience Award at Rome’s Fantafestival in 1981 and featuring music by The Pretty Things, UB40 and B.A. Robertson, The Monster Club is featured here in a High Definition transfer made from original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.
Pausing to admire a window display of his own books, distinguished horror writer Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes is attacked by a desperate vampire, Eramus, faint from lack of sustenance. Assuring the startled victim that the neck bite was not deep, the grateful vampire takes him to the Monster Club wherein Eramus explains to Ronald the hierarchy and basic rules of Monsterdom, and illustrates his theme with three tales of toecurling terror…
Cast of characters
- Vincent Price (Last Man on Earth; House on Haunted Hill) … Eramus
- John Carradine (Captain Kidd; Five Came Back) … R. Chetwynd-Hayes
- Anthony Steel … Lintom Busotsky
- Roger Sloman … Club Secretary
- Fran Fullenwider … Buxom Beauty
- The Viewers … Entertainers
- B.A. Robertson … Entertainers
- Night … Entertainers
- The Pretty Things … Entertainers
- Suzanna Willis … Stripper
Shadmock Story
- Barbara Kellerman … Angela
- Simon Ward (The Three Musketeers 1973) … George
- James Laurenson … Raven
- Geoffrey Bayldon (Tales from the Crypt) … Psychiatrist
Vampire Story
- Donald Pleasence (The Uncanny, From Beyond the Grave) … Pickering
- Richard Johnson (The Haunting) … Father
- Britt Ekland (The Wicker Man) … Mother
- Warren Saire … Lintom
- Anthony Valentine … Mooney
- Neil McCarthy (Clash of the Titans [1981]) … Watson
Humgoo Story
- Stuart Whitman (Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, The Story of Ruth) … Sam
- Lesley Dunlop … Luna (Segment “Humgoo Story”)
- Patrick Magee (Tales from the Crypt, The Masque of the Red Death) … Innkeeper