The Monster Club – 1980 | 104 mins | Horror | Colour

Plot Synopsis

The Monster Club (1980) was Milton Subotsky’s swan song from British cinema as a producer, and was a disappointing horror anthology, this time based on a collection of stories by Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes and aimed at a younger market.. The stories were adapted by Edward and Valerie Abraham and bear little to no resemblance to the original 1976 novel. Veteran director Roy Ward Baker, helming his last feature, handles the serious stories with assurance and they look first-rate, but the story framing and parody segment appear forced and trite. If the film could make up its mind which way it wanted to fall, then it would be a better viewing experience.

Horror author R Chetwynd-Hayes (John Carradine) is accosted on the street by vampire Eramus (Vincent Price). When the vampire recognises his favourite author, he takes him to The Monster Club in the certainty his fellow-monster-members may provide the author with material for future books. Together they watch some execrable music from BA Robertson, UB40 and the Pretty Things, see a striptease that is down to the bare bone, and get introduced to some monsters. During the show Eramus entertains the author by retelling three routine horror tales.

In “The Shadmock Story,” Raven (James Laurenson) is a ‘shadmock’ who possesses the ability to disfigure and kill by whistling. He finds himself pursued by a attractive female Angela (Barbara Kellerman), who is being encouraged by her boyfriend to rob him. “The Vampire Story” finds a young man (Warren Saire) and his mother (Britt Ekland) trying to defend the vampiric head of the household Busotsky (Richard Johnson) from vampire hunter Pickering (Donald Pleasence). And in the last tale, “The Humgoo Story,” a movie director (Stuart Whitman) goes on location to shoot a horror story, only to find the village infested with real ghouls. Befriended by the innkeeper’s (Patrick Magee) ‘humgoo’ daughter (Lesley Dunlop), he tries to escape, only to run into a police escort bringing the village elders home.