The Monster Club

The Monster Club
Spanish language poster for the film
Directed by	Roy Ward Baker
Produced by	Milton Subotsky
Written by	Edward Abraham Valerie Abraham
Starring	Vincent Price Donald Pleasence John Carradine Stuart Whitman
Music by	Douglas Gamley
Cinematography	Peter Jessop
Edited by	Peter Tanner
Production company	Chips Productions Sword and Sorcery Productions
Distributed by	ITC
Release date	2 April 1981
Running time	97 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Monster Club is a 1981 British horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Vincent Price and John Carradine. An anthology film, it is based on the works of the British horror author R. Chetwynd-Hayes. It was the final film from Milton Subotsky who was best known for his work with Amicus Productions; Amicus were well known for their anthologies but this was not an Amicus film. It was also the final feature film directed by Baker.

A fictionalised version of author R. Chetwynd-Hayes (John Carradine) is approached on a city street by a strange man (Vincent Price) who turns out to be a starving vampire named Eramus. Eramus bites the writer, and in gratitude for the small "donation", takes his (basically unharmed but bewildered) victim to the titular club, which is a covert gathering place for a multitude of supernatural creatures. In between the club's unique music and dance performances, Eramus introduces three stories about his fellow creatures of the night.

A young, financially struggling woman (Barbara Kellerman) takes a job at a secluded manor house owned by Raven (James Laurenson), a hybrid creature called a Shadmock, who leads a troubled and tragic existence and is notorious for its demonic whistle. As time goes by, the girl, Angela, develops a friendship with the mysterious Shadmock, named Raven, and he eventually proposes to her. Alarmed, Angela refuses but her controlling boyfriend (Simon Ward) forces her to go through with it to gain the Shadmock's vast wealth. At the night of the engagement party, Angela is caught robbing the Shadmock's safe, and screams that she could never love him. Heartbroken, the Shadmock whistles and destroys Angela's face. Upon seeing her, her boyfriend is driven insane and locked away in an asylum.

The timid son (Warren Saire) of a peaceable family of vampires lives a miserable, lonely life where he is bullied at school and his father (Richard Johnson) spends little time with him. The son discovers his father is a vampire, being relentlessly if ineptly hunted by a team of bureaucratic undead-killers led by Pickering (Donald Pleasence). The hunters break into the house and stake the vampire father, but the tables are turned when the father bites Pickering, meaning he will have to be staked by his own assistants. A chase ensues and Pickering is staked. After his men take his body away the timid son and his mother (Britt Ekland) return to the basement to find that the father faked his death using a stake proof vest filled with ketchup.