User reviews

In San Francisco, when several locals are found murdered in their closets, the rookie journalist Richard Clark (Donald Grant) is assigned to investigate the case. He stumbles upon the scientist Prof. Diane Bennett (Denise DuBarry) and her son "Professor" Bennett (Paul Walker) at the police station and befriends them. Soon they learn that a monster is responsible for the deaths and they team up with Diane´s chief Dr. Pennyworth (Henry Gibson) and Father Finnegan (Howard Duff) expecting to destroy the monster and save the world.

"Monster in the Closet" is a brainless classic trash-cult by Troma. The production follows the usual cheese Troma´s style and there are parodies to at least "The Exorcist", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Alien", "The War of the Worlds" and "The Howling" among other films. In addition, it is funny to see the debut of Paul Walker and an early work of Fergie and the cameo of John Carradine. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Monstro do Armário" ("Monster in the Closet")

This was sort of a cute movie, nothing too great.

It starts off with a pre-credits sequence of people getting dragged into their closets, or walking into their closets, only to be attacked by something. We don't see the attack, since the camera takes a side view of the open closet door, and we hear screaming and cartoonish monster eating noises, as clothing is tossed out of the closet. John Carradine has a small role as one of these people, and blind man violently smashing his cane around his apartment looking for his guide dog (who the monster hung on the closet door).

We then meet a reporter who looks a lot like Superman's alter-ego Clark Kent, complete with big black-rimmed Clark Kent eyeglasses. He's named Richard Clark. He got his job at the paper through nepotism, and only does obituaries, but her wants something more. The lead reporter "Scoop" gives him a three-week old story about the people dying in their closets as a laugh.

Clark befriends a young boy at the police station while waiting to talk to the chief there. The boy is a bespectacled small version of himself, perhaps. He's doing some kind of experiment recording all different kinds of sounds, while his mother - a teacher at the local college, where some of the deaths occurred - talks to the chief, explaining how the bite marks found on the victims are somewhat consistent with snake bites. Clark angers the bespectacled mother by having let the boy have a chocolate bar. Everyone, including the mother, calls the boy "The Professor."

Clark also meets an Albert Einstein-looking Nobel Priza-winning professor at the college, and gives him a claw he found at one of the crime scenes. We also see that the mother becomes speechlessly, motionlessly smitten with Clark every time he takes his glasses off.

They soon see the monster, who starts coming out of closets. There are elements of "Alien" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" to the monster and their attempts to communicate with it.

This movie could be appropriate for children, although be forewarned that there is a brief topless scene. A bit surprising for a PG-rated movie, but not altogether without precedent. Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985) had a lot more. The scene it occurs in is one early in the movie, and comically spoofs the shower scene in Hitchcock's Psycho.

Yes, "Monster In The Closet" is a guilty pleasure. Though it's not oriented for veteran horror fans, this film provides fun in a very silly way. It's a good dark comedy involving a very cheesy (Troma style) monster living in children's closets. The beginning is quite good and imaginative, and the ending is stuff for legend in cheesy horror cinema! Thousand cops against the monster is something that hasn't banished from my mind since the early 90's. Recommended for soft core horror fans. When I watched the Disney animated feature "Monsters Inc." I thought about this film, and I immediately saved it from my forgotten movie vault. Your average 80's film.

4/10 -Mediocre fun!

Troma aren't exactly well known for high quality horror films, and this one fits the bill pretty well in the quality stakes; but it's actually more childish than the usual gory Troma output. The film is something of a spoof of the monster movie genre and, as the title suggests, focuses on the childhood fear of a monster in the closet. The film kicks off with a few mysterious murders and it's not long before the horrible closet monster is revealed. The monster itself is an extremely camp creation and is sure to leave most audience members in stitches - not usually the desired effect for a monster but the film is obviously intended to be tongue in cheek and the monster is actually a very original creation. I really wasn't expecting anything at all decent from this film, but in fairness to it; it's actually quite decent. There's nothing particularly clever about it; though the idea of the monster 'recharging' in closets is nice in that it seems to be a ham-fisted way of explaining the whole closet monster idea. The characters and plot line surrounding the monster are interesting and entertaining and Monster in the Closet is at least a decent way to waste ninety minutes or so.

I think anyone who calls themselves a purveyor of b-cinema has seen their fair share of Troma films. If you haven't seen a Lloyd Kaufman produced film, or at least seen his face show up in a ton of bad movies that his company has bought then it's time to turn your bad movie watching up a notch. Monster in The Closet comes from a time where the company was busy making their own b-flicks instead of buying them, and like most of the movies Troma made, they can be pretty hit or miss. Although, mostly entertaining.

Monster in the Closet is no exception, taking the cliches of 50's monster movies and pooping a few jokes their way. An intrepid Clark Kent style reporter, a love interest, her son, and older scientist try to stop the onslaught of a monster who travels through closets to kill Americans. It's goofy and fun, but also not amazing. The monster suit is the best part of the film, and seeing it wander about like a mini rancor with xenomorph inner face punchy thingy is a lot of fun. Poking fun at the military from the old monster flicks also worked really well for me, as they were always so dumb and ineffective against giant lobsters, and praying mantises...Manti? Where the movie doesn't work is the long shots of wandering about, the constant bombardment of noise mixed with the damn tune they keep hitting on the xylophone, and some really annoying characters. I know this as all in the spirit of those older films, but they were b-movies for a reason. These things ware not good in those movies, nor are the good in this one.

Monster in the Closet is still fun, and there is a lot of good to be seen with the monster itself, and the jokes that land. Also, Paul Walker and Fergie are kids in this movie, so there is that if you need casting trivia. Although not my favorite, I would still recommend this film. its silly enough to have fun with...Also, 1986 PG-rated movies had some nudity...

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.

Watching Monster In A Closet I'd say the film hit about 60% of the time with gags it employed in this film. But I warn you had better have seen a lot of classic science fiction about monsters coming to earth or being discovered here already or you won't get half of what is shown.

I think about half the budget must have been spent on getting some name guest stars to do their thing and support the two less than charismatic leads Donald Grant and Denise Dubarry. But when you get folks like Claude Akins as the redneck sheriff, Henry Gibson as an eccentric scientist, Stella Stevens as a woman in a shower, Jesse White as a hardboiled newspaper editor, Howard Duff as a rather vacuous priest, and John Carradine who is one of the first victims this becomes an item to take a look at.

I really liked what Howard Duff did with the priest. He must have watched Alec Guinness did with his vicar character in Kind Hearts And Coronets.

You even get to see young Paul Walker make his screen debut as a genius kid everyone calls the Professor.

You'll recognize so many moments from some classic monster films, I dare not tell you.

There's a mix of genuine and ironic humour in this film. The beginning is definitely the best part. It kind of gets a bit boring towards the middle, but then the end gets so absurd that it makes up for it. I laughed a lot Willie watching this film. If you like cheese, give it a go.

I agree with most of the posts that this was a pretty good 'bad' movie (as cheap as it was I thought the monster was creepy looking!) But didn't anyone notice that the movie is one big gay joke?

The whole 'in the closet' thing

The way the monster reacts to the hunky guy (there's no reason to imply that the monster was female)

It's final march to, where else, San Francisco!

I don't think it affected the film at all. But it's really weird that a goofy, low-budget, comedy-horror movie would try to have some kind of 'message' like this. And I'm not even sure whether its pro or con!

Wow, I just saw this on T.V. as one of the "scary" movies they show around Halloween. Was this rated G? There wasn't really anything to make this movie scary, or worth watching. Also, other people say this is a spoof, but I don't think so. For a spoof, you need something called "humor". This low-budget crap-fest didn't have a shred of humor, and it didn't make much sense, either. You basically have a goofy looking monster (man in rubber suit) coming out of closets, killing people, I guess, since you never see the monster doing violence to anyone or any bloody aftermath. The spinning newspaper tells you that people were killed by the monster, so I guess that's good enough.

The military tries feebly to kill the monster, which isn't much larger than a man. They have very bad aim. Then the military FLEES! Wow, did this movie make the U.S. military look pathetic or what? The monster, while hard to kill, doesn't do much besides shuffle around and roar. Oh, and occasionally a second head pops out of its mouth and shrieks. It was a slightly interesting, yet a total Alien ripoff.

What was the deal with the scientist playing the Xylophone to attract the monster? It was hard to understand a lot of the dialog due to the poor sound quality. Also, why did the monster carry around the main wimpy guy for so long? Why didn't the monster go into the closet when it had a chance? Why do I insist on trying to make sense out of the senseless?

Typical American reaction. The movie is supposed to look cheesy. Take it for what it is - fun. In no way qualifies for worst film ever.

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+

A hideous creature (played by Predator performer Kevin Peter Hall) emerges from closets to kill innocent people; aspiring reporter Clark (Donald Grant), scientist Dr. Pennyworth (Henry Gibson), youngster 'Professor' Bennett (Fast and Furious star-to-be Paul Walker) and his mother Diane (Denise DuBarry) attempt to try and work out what drives the monster and how to stop it.

Given its suggestive title and San Francisco setting, I thought that Monster in the Closet would have some kind of gay agenda, but apart from the fact that the (presumably male) creature carries off handsome reporter Clark at the end, instead of the girl, the film doesn't really explore any potential homosexual subtext. Instead, this silly Troma film concentrates on what the studio specialises in: dumb comedy and even dumber horror, with a smattering of topless female nudity (courtesy of middle-aged MILF Stella Stevens). It's all extremely daft, the gags weak and the monster a hilarious z-grade rubber creation with an Alien-like extendable mandible, but it's reasonably undemanding fun for those who enjoy schlock.

From a technical standpoint, the film does rise above the usual Troma output, with smart editing and plenty of impressive fluid camera movement (including what I believe to be Louma crane shots), so much so that I was surprised to see that director Bob Dahlin didn't go onto bigger and better things (on the contrary, this was his only ever movie as director). The film also benefits from a cast of familiar faces that includes Donald Moffat, Claude Akins, John Carradine, and Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas in her movie debut.

4.5, rounded up to 5 for managing to show Stella Stevens in the shower, not once, but three times!

This movie captures the mood and feel of many a bad 50s B Horror flick, and then adds a few twists that'll bring smiles to your face. The actors do an excellent job of keeping a straight face while delivering bad dialogue. The movie's one-tone humor causes it to sag in the middle, but that is more than made up for by the inspired and silly ending.

This one is sorta a mixed spoof of science fiction alien-like monster that hides in the closet, creature horror and silly comedy. We have a helpful scientist wanting to communicate and study the monster. There is a news reporter wanting his first big break looking like Clark Kent. A Priest that is willing to exercise the demon creature. And the military out to hunt down and kill it. The film is pretty much what you think it would be - silly non-sense that is kinda funny at times. The film does not take itself seriously so it easy to kick-back and enjoy.

It's a shame that John Carradine's character was killed off very early. They missed out on some potentially really funny scenes.

This one is not a bad watch if you like these type films - it's nothing special but OK if nothing better on or you are just in mood for a film of this nature.

6/10

As the film's title suggests, a monster is hiding in people's closets and killing them. However, a rookie journalist, scientists, and the army are hot on its trail.

With this being a Troma film, I was expecting, at the very least, some spectacular gore. But no, this is a *gag* horror comedy that's so bland and tame that all I can think is that, at one time, Troma was thinking of moving into the PG-13 arena. They didn't pursue this idea maybe because this film is so anaemic.

Don't waste 90 mins of your life. Watch one of Troma's classics instead (Bloodsucking Freaks and Mother's Day instantly spring to mind).