Monster Mash

Monster-Mash
Monster Mash

Monster Mash has The Asylum doing what they usually do the least. After huge beasts, devastating tempests, and gigantic space rocks they return to classic sorts of Universal monsters and the structure reminiscent of the 1940s films, like House of Frankenstein or House of Dracula. But, since it’s The Asylum after all accidentally emulating Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is rather possible.

Before the title credits, the plot begins with Frankenstein’s monster, called Boris (Erik Celso Mann), who has captured and taken Dracula’s daughter, Elisabeta (Emma Reinagel, Prepare to Die, Arctic Armageddon), to his father’s house. After that, Boris’s father, Dr. Frankenstein (Michael Madsen, Waking Karma, Arena Wars), who created him, tells him to go to the catacombs for the heart of The Mummy (Adam Slemon, Easter Bloody Easter, Bloodsucking Bastards), who for some reason is not in her tomb in Egypt.

The notorious Dracula (Ethan Daniel Corbett, Headless Horseman, Spit), a vampire, with the help of (Bix Krieger, Fatal Temptation: Between Two Alphas, Ape X Mecha Ape New World Order) and through a medium that can’t die voiced by Michelle Bauer (The Erotic Misadventures of the Invisible Man, Demonwarp) has uncovered that Frankenstein is creating a creature composed of other beasts or Outsiders as they call themselves.

The resurrected Ramses The Invisible Man (Gabriel Pranter, Top Gunner: America vs. Russia and Trapped in the Farmhouse), and The Wolfman (Ian Hummel, Super Volcano and Ice Storm) have to unite to stop him.

In Monster Mash apparently, The Asylum studio tried again to do something more interesting to classical literate monsters, a couple of years back this was attempted in Dracula’s The Original Living Vampire. That turned out to be a complete anomalous ruin that even Michael Ironside failed to salvage much. In this case, however, writer/director Jose Prendes (The Exorcists, Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark) takes a much more realistic stance regarding the cast of creatures and it works a lot better.

That’s not to say that Prendes just lifted the characters from the Universal films. He has modified some names and appearances so as not to infringe on copyrights, it is an Asylum film after all. But they are known, and what’s more, they have not been turned into parodies. Naturally, the downside to this is that these monsters, especially in their classic versions, are not that terrifying as well so making them the heroes, or anti heroes for that matter, isn’t out of the question. This makes Monster Mash closer to the storyline of Hugh Jackman’s film Van Helsing more than anything else, which is an action movie with horror elements. Titles like Bond, and sung by a woman only add to that.

You will see I did not draw parallels with The Monster Squad, even though there are quite a few that can be drawn. That is because Monster Mash, with its title, is not exactly a children’s movie. The violence may be fairly restrained as it is all implied, special effects cost money anyway, but people are chopped up, flayed alive, etc all with a lot of shrieking and disturbing sound effects which would be enough to traumatize little kids who have active imaginations.

The effects we do get vary. The creature makeup by Jake Porath (Darkness of Man, Attack of The Meth Gator) and Eric Yoder (Dantes Hotel, Walpurgis Night) is all practical and reasonable in effectiveness, though rather primitive. The CGI used for things like the enormous monster Dr. Frankenstein turns into and bat Dracula works, but not as effective.

Some Hammeresque peeks into the castles and dungeons of the film thanks to DOP Mark David (Legend of Fall Creek, Slaughterhouse), but a few shots are a bit too dark. I got that same feeling after watching yesterday’s film Night Shoot, and I started to dread that the monitor I bought a month back was starting to work out. Still, the one other review of Monster Mash I have come across stated the same thing.

While not exactly a graveyard smash, Monster Mash is among the better things The Asylum has churned out lately, and if such an era is your thing, it is worth renting. I have always been criticizing the original Universal features, and I still have to say I enjoyed it.

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