Monster Makers was the other movie that Netflix sent along yesterday. It was more fun to watch than Death Shock that's for sure. It's a slightly scary Hallmark horror comedy TV movie written by Marc Hershon and directed by David S Cass Sr. Hershon I hadn't heard of but Cass has had a long and interesting career. He was a stuntman and actor who started working in 1965 on Wagon Train. He started directing in 1999 and his last credit on the IMDb is from 2014. I hadn't seen much of his work but I had seen all the Mystery Woman TV movies he did. He mostly works in TV.
Linda Blair plays a nurse, she and her son, played by Tim McCallum, move into the house of an old movie director to be his part time caregiver. George Kennedy plays the old director, sadly he spends most of the movie sleeping. A plot device so he isn't awake at a crucial moment. A film he made, Monsters On The Loose, was shot on special radium film stock and shown at it's 1951 premiere. Lightning strikes the theater, the radium stock reacts, and the monsters come out of the screen. It's was all hushed up and George was forced to retire. Tim finds the film in the basement and doesn't tell George. On Halloween night he runs it, his only guest is a girl, played by Ashley Edner, from his new school. The three movie monsters pop out of the screen, along with the Sherriff who's chasing him. Adam Baldwin plays the sheriff and Tim Considine plays one of the monsters, Vermin, a rat creature. Tracey Walters plays one of the characters in the 1951 film. We get to see bits and pieces of it.
Amongst all the movie memorabilia in George's house is a poster for MANT. It's another movie in a movie. MANT was the movie that legendary monster movie maker Lawrence Woolsey was showing to the public in Florida coastal town during the Cuba Missile Crisis. If you haven't seen Joe Dante's wonderful film Matinee you should take a look. It's well worth seeing. Woolsey is based on real film maker William Castle, a man of some talent, who used a lot of gimmicks to get people into the theaters. You might have seen some of his more popular films, House On Haunted Hill, The Tingler, Zotz!, 13 Ghosts, Mr Sardonicus or Homicidal.
There's plenty of running about and screaming in Monster Makers but it's pretty tame stuff, which it was intended to be. It's nice light hearted fun, most of the characters are likeable, the monsters get vanquished, I got a laugh or two. It's not something I need to buy, especially not at 20 bucks a copy on Amazon, but I would watch it again.
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