Monsters
A horror anthology show in a similar vein to Tales from the Darkside, it shared the same producer (Richard P. Rubenstein), and in some ways succeeded the show (which had ended the same year in which Monsters began). It differed in some respects nonetheless. While Tales sometimes dabbled in stories of science fiction and fantasy, this series was more strictly horror. As the name implies, each episode of Monsters (with very few exceptions) featured a different monster, from the animatronic puppet of a fictional children's television program to mutated, weapon-wielding lab rats.
Similar to Tales, however, the stories in Monsters were rarely very straightforward action plots and often contained some ironic twist in which a character's conceit or greed would do him in, often with gruesome results. Adding to this was a sense of comedy often lost on horror productions, which might in some instances lighten the audience's mood (often deceptively) but in many cases added to the overall eeriness of the production.
The introduction of the show is a perverse take on a sitcom intro, which begins with an aerial view of a neighborhood drawing closer to what seems to be merely a typical suburban home. The camera enters this seemingly innocuous setting as the family inside is discussing what to watch on television. They are revealed to be hideous humanoid creatures with an abnormal number of eyes and elongated, deformed faces who snack on candied insects, yet they are all dressed in very human clothing and live with typical affluent suburban surroundings. The mother eyes what is on the television, "It's Monsters, our favorite show!" to which the daughter remarks, "Shh, it's starting...." The camera zooms in on the face of the father, whose sinister, dark laugh ends the segment. The show was also known to have had celebrity guests before they became famous, including Lili Taylor and Steve Buscemi.
Has a Youtube Channel with nearly all the episodes uploaded.
Not to be confused with the anime series Monster or the 2010 film Monsters.
- An Aesop: A few stories contain these.
- The End of the World as We Know It: Waiting Game starts off with this when a nuclear bomb goes off And somehow creates vampires.
- Everything's Deader with Zombies: One episode set in The Vietnam War had zombie-infested Vietcong tunnels.
- Fallen Angel: One episode features a Fallen Angel who calls himself "Obeya" and looks more like a conventional demon than an angel after falling into Hell.
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Obeya (disguised as the janitor): I had a pretty bad fall. Maybe you've read about it...in The Bible? That's what they call it. A Fall. I'd say I was pushed! |
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- Fate Worse Than Death: One story involved an old man visiting his archaeologist daughter who shows him the a ritual ground of a old snake god. An Indian shaman tempts the man into killing his daughter as a sacrifice to the god to regain his youth. But he fails to mention till the last moment, that the man now "lives like the god lives" which said god is a statue. The man promptly starts slowing down as a result till he can hardly move at all.
- Jeopardy Intelligence Test: The hero in the adaptation of Stephen King's "The Moving Finger" does this with a generic quiz show.
- Laser-Guided Karma: A lot of the stories usually involve greedy people who usually get whats coming to them.
- One Word Title
- Sympathetic Magic: In the adformention episode abobe, the rather slimy Corrupt Corporate Executive Villain Protagonist uses of voodoo magic to get a leg up on his business rivals.