the audience applauded

Best movie ever!

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I don't remember much from this movie as I saw it when I was a little kid with my dad. However, I do remember that some sort of monster that kind of is a cross between Chewbacca and Bigfoot comes out of people's closets and starts terrorizing a small town. It's really just a monster-on-the-loose movie but with very little plot.This little horror movie is camp at its best, ridiculous and cheesy. I recalled my dad saying that this movie was stupid throughout, but couldn't stop laughing at how bad it was.So, if you like camp and just plain, insane fun, go for it. Otherwise, stay away.Grade D+

If you know any Troma movie -- an example is "The Toxic Avenger" -- then you should have an idea of what to expect in "Monster in the Closet". This is a very tongue-in-cheek flick. After three people get killed in their closets, a San Francisco reporter goes to the town to investigate, and discovers that there's literally a monster appearing in people's closets! Nothing can stop this beast! One of the interesting things is the mixture of characters. There's the nerdy reporter (Donald Grant), a teacher whom he loves (Denise DuBarry), her hyper-intellectual son (Paul Walker of "The Fast and the Furious"), a scientist (Henry Gibson) who resembles Einstein and wants to communicate with the monster, a nervous priest (Howard Duff), a general (Donald Moffat) who knows nothing except brute force, and a number of other people. Watch for John Carradine and Stella Stevens in small roles.As I was saying, this movie is not meant to be taken seriously. The whole thing is pretty much a joke. I wonder if the title subtly implies that the monster is gay or something. Whether or not it does, this movie is just plain funny. And Stella Stevens sure is a fox!

Meek newspaper reporter Richard Clark (a likable performance by Donald Grant), spunky college biology professor Diane Bennett (a charming portrayal by the pretty Denise DuBarry), Diane's precocious little squirt son (a very young and then unknown Paul Walker), and eccentric elderly scientist Dr. Pennyworth (a wonderfully flaky Henry Gibson sporting white Einstein hair) join forces to figure out a way to defeat an ugly, hulking, and predatory beast (Kevin Peter Hall in a funky rubber suit) that comes out of people's closets and kills them. Writer/director Bob Dahlin neatly concocts a witty and affectionate parody of choice cheesy 50's low-budget creature features that unfolds at a constant brisk pace, maintains an amiable tongue-in-cheek tone from start to finish, and possesses a certain sweet-natured sensibility that's impossible to either hate or resist. Moreover, Dahlin tosses in a pleasant romance between the two appealing leads for good measure and in an amusing twist on the standard genre convention makes the monster gay so it can abduct the male star instead of the female main character. The game cast have a field day with the blithely goofy material, with especially stand-out work from Claude Atkins as the hard-nosed Sheriff Sam Ketchum, Howard Duff as sensitive and devoutly religious priest Father Finnegan, Donald Moffat as the gung-ho, profanity-spewing General Trumbull, Jesse White as crusty newspaper editor Ben, and Frank Ashmore as Richard's slick'n'smarmy rival Scoop. Popping up in nifty bits are Paul Dooley, John Carradine (as a cranky cane-slinging old blind guy), and the ever-lovely Stella Stevens (in a nice send-up of the famous shower scene from "Psycho"). Ronald W. McLeish's polished cinematography boasts plenty of snazzy zoom-in close-ups and smooth tracking shots. Barrie Guard's perfectly cornball hum'n'shiver score does the robustly generic trick. An immensely enjoyable romp.

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.