The Monster Club (1981) | Vincent Price has a very special invitation for you… on Blu-ray

Three stories to shock you! Chill you! Thrill you! And make you laugh... From Amicus, the studio that dripped blood in the 1960s and 1970s with a slate of uniquely British horror fare, comes 1980’s The Monster Club - now in HD. Taking its cues from Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes’s 1975 short story collection (which is excellent btw), this horror-comedy anthology found veteran actor Vincent Price (playing a vampire for the first and only time in his film career) and an ailing John Carradine (paying a fictionalised Chetwynd-Hayes) musing over three tales of terror while enjoying the dubious delights of a naff member’s club for supernatural creatures. But it bombed! Author Chetwynd-Hayes was struck dumb by how badly his source material was rewritten, while the great Roy Ward Baker (who’d been pulled out of retirement) directed without his usual flair. It was his final feature film, and also that of Amicus supremo, Milton Subotsky.

With little to no fanfare in 1981, The Monster Club ended up on home video, where it took on a bit of a cult following. Looking at it again however the Shadmock and Humgoo stories are actually quite effective, but the club scenes (featuring the worst masks ever) and the comedic vampire story are still pants. Vincent Price (who shot his scenes between 15 and 19 May 1980) is a real trooper throughout - and his impassioned soliloquy for allowing humans into the club (because they are the real monsters) is a highlight.

Network Distributing's UK Blu-ray restoration release comes from ITV Global and is a sparkly fresh delight (it also shows up just how bad those masks are). The special features includes the film with isolated music score – where you get to hear all of the songs featured (Barbara Kellerman and Simon Ward having breakfast while listening to a punk vampire song on the radio is hilarious), plus Douglas Gamley’s lyrical instrumental music and Alan Hawkshaw’s stirring synth score; two theatrical trailers (one textless); textless film elements, comprising the opening scene of the bookshop without sound, and the John Bolton/Dez Skinn colour promo poster (see below); promo, featuring the best bits on Blu-ray accompanied by The Viewers’ theme tune; and an image gallery, featuring UK and Spanish lobby cards, as well as lots of pictures you may not have seen before – all courtesy of Stephen Jones.

What is missing are the extras you get on the US Blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing (October 2013), which included George Reis’ detailed production history liner notes, and two interviews with Vincent Price conducted by film historian David Del Valle (I was looking forward to those). But considering I’ve only ever had the film on DVD in French before – it came with an issue of Mad Movies – I’m not complaining. Still, a pdf of the collectable promotion comic would have been a real treat.

 Check out Vincent's friendly vamp Erasmus discussing the rules of monsterdom in this clip:

Blu-ray release | The Monster Club (1980) | Catch the ghouls, vampires, shadmocks and Vincent Price in HD

Out today (30 September) from Scorpion Releasing comes the 1980 horror anthology, The Monster Club, on Blu-ray for the very first time.

WELCOME TO THE MONSTER CLUB
This attempt by Milton Subotsky at resuscitating the horror anthology formula that he started back in 1965 with Dr Terrors House of Horrors, but in a semi-comic vein, proved a disappointment on its release and was the final film from his Amicus outfit. But the film has since attracted a cult following.

The first story deals with a shadmock, the professor of a lethal whistle (James Laurenson), and the woman (Barbara Kellerman) who tries to steal from him. The second story is a comical autobiographical film by producer Lintom Bustosky (Anthony Steel) involving his father vampire (Richard Johnson) and the cop (Donald Pleasance) on whom he turns the tables. The final episode, which is the most effective of the three, concerns a film producer (Stuart Whitman) whose ideal horror movie location proves to be populated by real ghouls.

Vincent Price appears in the framing device as a vampire who inducts John Carradine’s horror writer into a club for monsters, and it’s these scenes where the film is at its weakest - mainly due to the cheap make-up effects used for the club’s denizens and an embarrassing final dance scene (check out my monster mash-up on YouTube here). But there are some stand-out moments, namely Kellerman’s grisly demise, the fog-shrouded town that Whitman tries to escape from, and Price’s big speech in which he declares that man is the biggest monster of them all.

The stories are all based on the work of Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes and is directed by Hammer/Amicus veteran Roy Ward Baker. The music, which ranges from the dub sounds of UB40 and the rock of The Pretty Things (who celebrated 50 years on the road this year), was also released on record - now quite collectable, fetching up to US$400 on e-Bay. The film also appeared in comic form (pictured below) in Issue 25 of Dez Skinn's legendary UK Hammer horror fanzine Halls of Horror, which was drawn by John Bolton and David Lloyd (thanks Baron F from correcting me on that).

THE RELEASE
The Scorpion Releasing Blu-ray features a brand new HD transfer, a 62-minute interview with Vincent Price conducted in 1987 by film historian David Del Valle, a 40-minute audio interview between Del Valle and Price, on camera interview with Del Valle, Original Trailer, and isolated ME track.

THE VERDICT
I haven't had the chance to see this Blu-ray version - I have to wait until the UK version becomes available from Networking Distributing on 18 August (2014). But if you have, then do let me know what you think.

Amicus: House of Horrors | Celebrating the history of the legendary UK film company

Did you know that Vincent Price went to a football match with the crew of Scream and Scream Again; that he was given saucy sex toys as a joke during the Madhouse wrap party, and that while filming The Monster Club he entertained the producer’s children wearing vampire fangs?

Well, these and many other anecdotes form the basis of AMICUS: HOUSE OF HORRORS, a two-part celebration of the British film company that was Hammer’s rival in the late 1960s and 1970s. The name, Amicus, may not be memorable, but the film titles most certainly are - especially the portmanteau films that the company excelled at, like Tales from the Crypt, Asylum and From Beyond the Grave.

Founded in the early 1960s by maverick American producers Milton Subotsky and Max J Rosenberg, Amicus made around 30 films in 20 years, turning out eight a year at their peak, and drew together a wealth of British talent, including directors Freddie Francis and Roy Ward Baker, writers Robert Bloch (of Psycho fame) and actors such as Peter Cushing, Diana Dors and Donald Pleasance, to create some of the most memorable homegrown horrors.

This documentary features interviews with a vast array of people who worked behind the scenes – from directors Peter Duffell (House that Dripped Blood) and Kevin Connor (The Land That Time Forgot), art director Tony Curtis (who shows off his personal collection of sketch designs) and producer John Dark, to the make-up assistants and supporting actors who all share some amazing stories.

While Vincent Price appeared in just three Amicus films, Peter Cushing starred in 15, and gave some of his most memorable performances, especially in Doctor Who and the Daleks and Tales from the Crypt. Included as an extra on this release is a never-before-seen 1983 interview with Cushing, conducted by a young 20-year-old fan at the star’s home in Kent, and a wonderful 1990 interview (filmed just four years before his death) in which Cushing talks about his love for his late wife Helen (who died in 1971), and shares memories of his childhood, his beliefs and his love of art. This being the year of Cushing’s centenary makes these bonus items especially poignant.

Amicus: House of Horror has been a labor of love for life-long fan Derek Pykett, who so deserves his Best Documentary nomination for a 2013 Rondo Award. It may not be slickly edited and the quality variable, but the anecdotes contained here are priceless. The DVD is currently only available (region free) in the US, but I highly recommend seeking it out. Click here to order from Amazon in the UK, or here if you are in the US.

If you'd like to nominate Amicus: House of Horror for a Rondo Award, click here to find out how.

To coincide with Cushing's centenary, Peveril Publishing will be bringing out The Peter Cushing Scrapbook this Spring. Click here to view some sample pages. 

Below, you can watch the trailer for Scream and Scream Again, and some vintage UK TV reports on Madhouse and The Monster Club: