Monster Mash

So bad I was laughing at myself for even watching until the end!

Like someone else mentioned it could have been great with the characters involved but the story is just all over the place and makes no sense at what some of their purpose is to assist Dracula get his daughter back and stop Frankenstein. They just seem to tag along lol! The guy who plays Dracula is probably the best thing about the movie, I feel bad that he was reduced to this role.

I literally couldn't stop laughing at how bad it was and then I just thought, well it's given me a good laugh at least.

Take it with a pinch of salt I'd say ;)

I have to say that the movie's title made me stop and have a gander. And of course, I had to sit down and watch it, on account of it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, and one that had icon horror creatures such as Dracula, the mummy, the werewolf, the Invisible Man and Frankenstein in it.

Sure, I had neve heard about the movie, so I didn't know what I was in for. But I have to say that with Michael Madsen being on the cover, then I wasn't really expecting a whole lot. And when the movie started and those two dreaded words, The Asylum, popped up on the screen, my expectations went from slim to none.

I can't claim to say that writer and director Jose Prendes delivered a particularly impressive script for the movie. Sure, it was watchable for the cheesy rubbish that it was, but if you're here in search for a properly entertaining creature feature, then "Monster Mash" will leave you sorely disappointed.

The narrative in "Monster Mash" is pretty sluggish and slow paced with very little of anything overly interesting happening. And that made sitting through the movie quite an ordeal.

Of the entire cast ensemble in "Monster Mash", I was actually only familiar with Michael Madsen. The acting performances in "Monster Mash" was okay. Sure, you're not in for any award-winning performances here, but the acting performances were actually fair for a movie such as what it turned out to be.

The effects in the movie were fairly okay too. Not top of the line, of course, but certainly good enough. And for a movie brought to us by The Asylum, then the effects were not too shabby, well except for that atrocious CGI animated beastial creature that looked like something from an early 1990s computer game. What were they thinking with approving that for the movie? And the scene with the giant beast and the giant bat, well that just was an eyesore. It was as if they hadn't added the final details and textures, sort of if you were looking at a rough draft of what they wanted the scene to look like.

Cheesy? Check. Low budget? Check. Enjoyable? Check, well if you enjoy these sort of dubious horror movies.

My rating of "Monster Mash" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Seriously.. if you didn't/don't enjoy this movie, it's because you take life way too seriously. Yeah, the movie is campy as hell. It's not meant to be a big budget, hollywood horror fest. It's a cheesy, campy, low budget, b-movie good time. It's comical. It's fun. It's entertaining. If you are looking for serious... try the news networks. You'll get plenty of horror there.

My one and only complaint is the same complaint that I have for most every single movie made post-2000... BUY A LIGHT BULB! And I don't want to hear that this is supposed to be "back in the day" before they had electric lights. First, movies set in this era have been made for decades and they were lit perfectly fine, thank you very much! Secondly, there are literally electric lights in Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory. Most of the movie is so dark, you might as well close your eyes and you'd still get the same effect.

Other than that, if you are just looking for a good movie night flick, you could do much worse!

Who was the audience supposed to be? The horror crowd?...it failed. The drama crowd?....nope. The comedy/parody vultures? Heck no.

Of course, it is low budget and Michael Madsen is broke but that notwithstanding this is terrible. It has not redeeming features. The acting is terrible. The script is weary. The effects are poor. The direction amateurish. The lighting and cinematography lack any kind of subtlety. It really is is first class horse you know what.

So why not give it one? Well at least they tried. Making coherent and professional movies on this budget must be difficult and almost impossible to get In cinemas.

Doesn't stop it being rubbish though.

So this is presented as by the Asylum, but I believe it's actually done by another firm (Acme Holdings, or something, it's not clear to me who actually made the film.) But no matter, this is something Hollywood should be doing: Making movies fun again.

Cheesy? Mountains of it.

Low budget? Only the lowest.

Amateur acting? Sort of, it's not top notice but you could tell it was a labour of love and Ramses especially was having a great deal of fun with his part. They all did really, Dracula being reserved and mysterious, the Invisible Man drawing heavy inspiration from his counterpart in the Doom Squad. The Wolfman didn't have as much screen time as I would have liked to see, but he did well with what little he had. Indeed the only naff acting was from Dr. Frankenstein, the actor playing him was kind of going through the motions, which is kind of a shame as I am given to understand he has done much better in the past.

No matter, the plot is straightforward and there is little in the way of twists and turns, but all...err...mashed together, and you a fun little film that the big production houses could learn a thing or two from.

Definitely one for the group watch.