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Donald Grant, Denise Du Barry, Claude Akins, Howard Duff, Henry Gibson ... see more see more... , Donald Moffat , Paul Dooley , Stella Stevens , John Carradine , Frank Ashmore , Jesse White , Kevin Peter Hall , David Anthony , James Arone , Ben Baker , Sheldon Feldner , David McCharen , Arlee Reed , Jack Shearer , Wycliffe Young , Doc Duhame , Clare Nono , Jonathan Aluzas , Evan Arnold , Arthur Berggren , Andrew Cofrin , Richie Egan , Stacy Ferguson , Annie Glynn , Carole Kean , Brad Kester , Archie Lang , Paul Latchaw , Daryle Ann Lindley , Gordon Metcalfe , Ritchie Montgomery , Corky Pigeon , Jack Tate , Arthur Taxier , Stephanie White , Katherine Lyons , Jonna Lee , Paul Walker , John Walsh , Denise DuBarry

A humorous and skilful parody of the cliches and plot contrivances of 50's horror films, this monster movie is set in California, where closets can be large and quite important. The monster (Kevin Pet... read more read more...er Hall) is straight out of Alien, if not quite as gruesome. It hides out in closets and wait for victims to unsuspectingly grab a shirt or slacks. After several closet deaths, a San Francisco obituary writer (Donald Grant) is sent to cover the story. He soon teams up with a science teacher (Denise DuBarry) and her son, a super-smart child prodigy, and they set out to solve the murders. The plot thickens when the gruff, brash Gen. Turnbull (Donald Moffat) enters the picture. It seems the monster is bullet-proof, laser-proof and bomb-proof -- a challenge to capture, kill, or subdue. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

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40% liked it

1,574 ratings

PG, 1 hr. 27 min.

Directed by: Bob Dahlin

Release Date: January 30, 1987

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DVD Release Date: January 19, 1999

 

Stats: 108 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (108)

  • matertenebraum
    August 28, 2009
    matertenebraum
    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 newsp... read moreaper 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.
  • Beefy
    March 1, 2008
    Beefy
    Cuter in concept than in execution.
  • bbcfloridabound
    January 20, 2008
    bbcfloridabound
    An outstanding Spoof - comedy - Horror Flix, You want to sit around and laught some late night, rent this one. Try to buy it and see what the cost is. I can't find it under $50.00
  • acorn072681
    September 27, 2011
    acorn072681
    This is almost a normal movie for 75% of it. then it gets kinda funny. Not in a bad way, just funny. I enjoyed it.
  • jam233
    December 10, 2009
    jam233
    At times hysterically funny, it's a clever parody with an impressive cast. It's meant to be stupid, and it certainly succeeds on that level! But, thats part of the fun of it. Some of the gags miss the mark, but enough work to make it worthwhile.
  • bowtiepunk
    October 30, 2008
    bowtiepunk
    Easily the best troma movie ever put out, they are sooo much funnier when they are clean. Excellent satire.
  • lpswaggerty
    January 20, 2008
    lpswaggerty
    Well, he was really hot... This is some kind of social satire hidden as a kid horror flick. "Destroy all of the closets" leads to killing the monster in San Francisco - 'nuff said...

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Critic Reviews

Walter Goodman
May 21, 2003
Walter Goodman, New York Times

Click to read the article Full Review

Emanuel Levy
September 25, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

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  • He was a predator and the hendersons hairy friend with big feet after he was a monster in a closet?  Answer »
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