Monster Mash | |
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Directed by |
Joel Cohen Alec Sokolow |
Produced by |
Michael Kates Nathaniel Kramer |
Written by | Sheldon Allman (original play) Bobby Pickett (original play) Joel Cohen (screenplay) Alec Sokolow (screenplay) |
Starring |
Bobby Pickett Candace Cameron Bure Ian Bohen John Kassir Anthony Crivello Sarah Douglas Adam Shankman Mink Stole Jimmie Walker |
Music by | Bobby Pickett Joe Troiano Jeffrey Zahn |
Cinematography | Scott Andrew Ressler |
Edited by | Stephen Mirrione |
Release date
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Monster Mash (also known as Monster Mash: The Movie and Frankenstein Sings) is a horror-themed musical film, based on the Bobby "Boris" Pickett song "Monster Mash" and the 1967 stage musical, I'm Sorry the Bridge Is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night, also by Pickett and Sheldon Allman. The film starred Pickett himself as Dr. Frankenstein, was produced and distributed by Prism Pictures, and originally released to cinemas in November 14, 1995.
A teenage couple, Mary and Scott, are on their way home from a Halloween party when car trouble prompts them to seek help at the old mansion of Dr. Frankenstein. Once inside, they meet a host of strange characters, at whose mercy Scott and Mary suddenly find themselves when Frankenstein informs them, "I'm sorry the bridge is out, you'll have to spend the night!"
Each character has his or her own secret designs on Mary and Scott. Frankenstein wants to take Scott's brain and put it in his latest creation. Meanwhile, Frankenstein's assistant, Igor, develops feelings for Mary, especially after she encourages him to be confident and "play your hunch," thinking that, once Scott's brain has been removed, Igor's own brain can replace it. Count Dracula and his wife, Countess Natasha, a pair of vampires, decide to spice up their lifeless marriage ("All Eternity Blues") by feasting on Mary and Scott respectively. Wolfie, who is constantly struggling with his lycanthropy and worrying his mother ("Things a Mother Goes Through"), has to go into hiding to keep from devouring the newcomers. Finally, Elvis Presley, now a bandaged mummy, is planning a comeback (to show business and from the dead) with the help of his manager, Hathaway, but in order to fully restore the king to life, they need the blood of a virgin, and Mary just so happens to be one.
Monster Mash is decidedly very different from I'm Sorry the Bridge is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night. While the premise and basic plot are the same, much of the music and certain characters were reworked for the film version.
Bohen's character, "Scott," is named "John" in the stage show and Stole's "Wolfie's mother" is named "Talbot." "The Mummy" was rewritten as Elvis Presley, who was still alive when the original show was conceived, and "The Mummy's" , "Dr. Abdul Nasser," became Elvis' manager, Hathaway. The ever-present dancers in the film are based on Count Dracula's onstage harem of "Draculettes." Dracula's motivations are also slightly different: onstage, he seeks to turn Mary into a Draculette while feasting on her boyfriend, whereas in the film Dracula and his wife decide to share the teenagers from the outset. In addition, the stage production includes several characters who do not appear in the film, including Renfield (from Bram Stoker's Dracula), two graverobbers named Montclair and Clairmont, and a not-quite-dead body.