This week’s retro trailer is for the 1981 movie The Monster Membership, a British horror-comedy anthology movie directed by Roy Ward Baker, based mostly on the works of creator R. Chetwynd-Hayes.
The movie stars Vincent Value as Eramus, a suave vampire, and John Carradine as Chetwynd-Hayes himself, a horror author. After an encounter by which Eramus drinks a little bit of the creator’s blood, he invitations him to the titular “Monster Membership,” a secret gathering place for supernatural creatures like vampires, werewolves, and ghouls.
The membership is crammed with eccentric monsters who take pleasure in dancing and music, however the spotlight of the night is Eramus’s storytelling. All through the evening, he shares three eerie and unsettling tales of monsters, every with its personal ethical twist, involving ghouls, shapeshifters, and human-monster hybrids.
The primary story, “The Shadmock,” revolves round a shy, reclusive man with lethal powers who turns into obsessive about a younger girl.
The second story, “The Vampires,” provides a novel twist on the vampire style, following a household of vampires and their sudden interactions with human society.
Lastly, “The Ghouls” tells the disturbing story of a movie director who stumbles upon a city inhabited by flesh-eating ghouls.
In between these tales, scenes of the weird and humorous Monster Membership punctuate the movie, mixing campy horror with darkish humor and Nineteen Eighties nightclub music. Whereas not a field workplace success, The Monster Membership has since gained a cult following for its quirky tone, and atmospheric storytelling.
