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.