Monster in the Closet (1986) Reviews

• A little gem of a parody.

  fhabets2000-05-09

  This movie captures the mood and feel of many a bad 50s B Horror flick, and then adds a few twists that'll bring smiles to your face. The actors do an excellent job of keeping a straight face while delivering bad dialogue. The movie's one-tone humor causes it to sag in the middle, but that is more than made up for by the inspired and silly ending.

• One of the more underrated spoofs

  drew_atreides2011-10-22

  ...i saw "MONSTER IN MY CLOSET" one day, back in the 90's, when i stayed home sick from school. It has always stuck with me as one of the more well-done tributes to 50's style scifi, while also being a very clever spoof of the genre. The performances are all grade-8 cheese, but highly entertaining. I've always been surprised by how much emotion i felt for the monster, in the final reel. Even as a 12 year old kid i really felt the monster's love for the reporter. When he chooses death over not being able to fit in the closet with the guy, it almost brings a tear to my eye. Of course, all these years later the entire concept of the closet and it's representation of repressed homosexuality just adds another wonderful layer to the satire. This one really deserves more kudos!

• Decent Troma effort

  dead_dudeINthehouse2003-08-27

  Yes, "Monster In The Closet" is a guilty pleasure. Though it's not oriented for veteran horror fans, this film provides fun in a very silly way. It's a good dark comedy involving a very cheesy (Troma style) monster living in children's closets. The beginning is quite good and imaginative, and the ending is stuff for legend in cheesy horror cinema! Thousand cops against the monster is something that hasn't banished from my mind since the early 90's. Recommended for soft core horror fans. When I watched the Disney animated feature "Monsters Inc." I thought about this film, and I immediately saved it from my forgotten movie vault. Your average 80's film. 4/10 -Mediocre fun!

• "It was not unlike the colour of a rancid avocado."Surprisingly good.

  poolandrews2006-01-07

  Monster in the Closet is set in the small American town of 'Chestnut Hills California' where Mary Lou (Jona Lee), a young girl & the blind Joe Shempter (John Carradine) are all attacked & killed by something nasty in their closets... Jump to 'San Francisco' & the offices of newspaper the 'Daily Globe' where usually ignored reporter Richard Clark (Donald Grant) is given the task of writing a story about the three unexplained murders by his editor Ben Bernstein (Jesse White). Richard drives to Chestnut Hills & heads straight for the local police department to interview Sheriff Sam Ketchem (Claude Akins). There he meets high school biologist Diane Bennett (Denise DuBarry) who thinks some sort of creature my be responsible because of two mysterious puncture wounds on the victims bodies. Richard & Sheriff Ketchem head over to the scene of Mary Lou's murder & Richard finds some sort of claw, he heads over to the school to ask Diane about it. Scientist Dr. Pennyworth (Henry Gibson) says he has never seen anything like it & wants to run some tests on it. Later that night at Diane's house Richard, Pennyworth, a priest named Finnegan (Howard Duff) & Diane's son (Paul Walker) are having dinner when they hear screaming from across the street, Margo (Stella Stevens) claims that her husband Roy (Paul Dooley) has been killed by a monster that came out of the closet. A national emergency is called & the army is called in to combat the threat that the monster in the closet poses... Written & directed by Bob Dahlin I was somewhat surprised that Monster in the Closet was a decent little film. The script is a homage to all those 50's type monster films, from the General who wants to just kill the threat to the scientist who wants to study it & the priest who who thinks religion is the key. The reporter who looks & feels like Clarke Kent from Superman as the hero & the attractive female. Because of the type of comedy horror hat this film is it starts to drag a little & it starts to get a bit boring. The term 'one-joke-film' springs to mind. There are a few amusing moments & if your familiar with the type of film that Monster in the Closet spoofs then you may get a fair amount of enjoyment out of it's 90 odd minute duration. I doubt anyone would want to watch it more than once though & the pointless constant on screen captions become highly annoying. Director Dahlin films with competence on an obviously low budget. The monster itself looks a bit rubbery but I didn't think it looked too bad. There is no blood or gore whatsoever so forget about anything like that. There is a touch of nudity in a shower scene. Apparently Monster in the Closet was filmed in 1983 & was picked-up & released by Troma in 1987, make of that what you will. Technically Monster in the Closet is pretty good, nothing outstanding & it has cheap production values throughout but it ended up being better than I had expected. The acting isn't brilliant but again by no means the worst I've seen, Carradine makes an appearance for all of 4 minutes at the start. Monster in the Closet is a decent little homage to many other sci-fi horror films & fans of those genres would probably get more out of it than others. I personally think it's worth a one-off watch.

• Brainless Classic Trash-Cult by Troma

  claudio_carvalho2018-09-28

  In San Francisco, when several locals are found murdered in their closets, the rookie journalist Richard Clark (Donald Grant) is assigned to investigate the case. He stumbles upon the scientist Prof. Diane Bennett (Denise DuBarry) and her son "Professor" Bennett (Paul Walker) at the police station and befriends them. Soon they learn that a monster is responsible for the deaths and they team up with Diane´s chief Dr. Pennyworth (Henry Gibson) and Father Finnegan (Howard Duff) expecting to destroy the monster and save the world. "Monster in the Closet" is a brainless classic trash-cult by Troma. The production follows the usual cheese Troma´s style and there are parodies to at least "The Exorcist", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Alien", "The War of the Worlds" and "The Howling" among other films. In addition, it is funny to see the debut of Paul Walker and an early work of Fergie and the cameo of John Carradine. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "O Monstro do Armário" ("Monster in the Closet")