Monster in the Closet

1987 "It's Out! It's Out! It's Out!"
Monster in the Closet
4.9| 1h30m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 30 January 1987 Released
Producted By: Troma Entertainment
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.troma.com/movies/monsterinthecloset/
Synopsis

After several people and a dog are found dead in their closets a "mild-mannered" reporter, a college professor, her son and a befuddled professor band together to uncover the mystery but not without involving the U.S. Army and mass panic.

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Reviews

drew_atreides ...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!
Wqdi Some other review mentioned "minor cleavage" in the Stella Stevens shower scene... well on NETFLIX she is shown full nipples and they are huge pre-implant natural breasts worth the price of admission.As a young boy growing up in the 80's Stella Stevens was a staple in many TV movies and programs like "Magnum P.I.". She was certainly an inspiration to more than one young mans lusty thoughts.Like the later deleted topless scene from the movie "Swamp Thing" starring Adrienne Barbeau, where her spectacular assets were displayed in all their glory, this movie contains an historic moment.10 stars just for Stella Stevens glorious orbs in their natural delicious (and wet) beauty.
wirthb Spoof of many sci-fi movies. Creature itself is reminiscent of the creature in Alien. Also reminds me a little of the creature in Pumpkinhead. Much less 'real' looking in appearance. Spoof of the movie Psycho shower scene. As the monster walks down the street, a military man yells 'bombs, tanks, planes, nothing...' which is a spoof of War of the Worlds as our weapons proved useless against the invaders. The kindly professor, Henry Gibson, attempts to communicate using a xylophone, playing the musical notes from the famous scene of Close Encounters of a Third Kind. The creature seems to respond by extending and retracting its inner 'Alien' type mouth in and out to the beat of the xylophone. When we learn that the existence of closets give this creature energy, we are all told to destroy all closets. This is a great scene, as people all over the world are tearing their closets to pieces. Good for laughs. Not serious at all.
Paul Andrews 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.