Monster Mash – review

Director: Jose Prendes

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

The Asylum is not known for quality productions but they have hit the formula of pumping the films out with a name attached – in the case Michael Madsen, who is playing Dr Frankenstein, who happens to be the bad guy in this film that literally is a monster mash. The Asylum’s effort is perhaps better than I hoped for, but my bar was pretty darn low. It has practical effects (mostly in makeup) that work better than I could have hoped for – though when they move to cgi it is dire.

Elisabeta enthroned

After a view of a castle, we see a woman with bite marks on her neck, sat against the leg of Elisabeta (Emma Reinagel) – Dracula’s Daughter. After playing with a music box, she tells the woman she can leave, who in turn wishes her mistress goodnight. Someone enters the room; Frankenstein’s Monster (Erik Celso Mann) who we later discover is called Boris. Elisabeta does not know who he is and says that he doesn’t belong there. They fight and he overpowers her and takes her to Frankenstein. In a cell, she warns that her father will come for her and Frankenstein is delighted, she is, after all, bait.

Ethan Daniel Corbett as Dracula

Dracula (Ethan Daniel Corbett) gets back to his castle and discovers the aftermath of the fight, including a bead from a bracelet that was broken, and is right royally pissed as we go into credits that, with the female crooned vocals, sound more like a Bond credit sequence than anything else. After the credits, Boris brings bread for Elisabeta, which she cannot eat of course, but she decides to try and befriend him. He is then sent on his next job, where he needs the repaired bracelet. The bracelet is an imitation of one that the Mummy, Ramsis (Adam Slemon, Bloodsucking Bastards), gave to his beloved and it lures him into the open in the catacombs he lives in. Boris fights with him and takes his heart, rendering the Mummy to dust.

the mummy and invisible man

Dracula questions the servant/meal, who suggests that his daughter had been consulting Mila Severine (Bix Krieger) a local witch. He goes to her and she recognises the bracelet stone and sends him to Ramsis, who he resurrects (using a mouse heart, some potion or other and his own blood, as Dracula’s blood is stronger than a curse). Frankenstein, we soon discover, is after monster parts – as well as the heart he wants Dracula’s blood, the skin of the invisible man (Gabriel Pranter) and the limbs of the wolfman (Ian Hummel) – and with them he will build an unstoppable monster and transfer his consciousness into it.

Ian Hummel is the Wolfman

So, we have a monster team up with all bar Frankenstein drawn as anti-heroes. The film hasn’t got the greatest narrative in moviedom, by a long shot, but it is surprisingly watchable for an Asylum production. The monsters are played straight but scratch the surface and the story has issues. For instance, why is it that Dracula knew the whereabouts of all the monsters but has never heard of Frankenstein and his monster? Also, we get the new idea that a werewolf, in human form, who has his limps chopped off immediately grows them back! This doesn’t rock the world but overcomes its pedigree to be at least watchable. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK