Honey, it’s Family Hour…

Monsters: The Complete Series Review

I was born in 1987, so obviously I wasn’t able to watch any of the awesome horror anthology shows that were airing around that time, until I was much older. I remember catching some episodes of Tales From the Crypt here and there, while staying up late at my grandmother’s house, but I could never fully appreciate it. One show that I managed to miss the existence of completely was Monsters. The show originally aired for three seasons, from 1988 to 1991, and even though it has been rerun on channels like Sci-Fi/SyFy and most recently Chiller, it still fell off of my radar. Luckily, that has all changed now with the recent release of the entire series in one awesome DVD box set!

Monsters is the brainchild of Executive Producer, Richard P. Rubinstein, who happened to also be the mastermind (in collaboration with George Romero) behind another great anthology series, Tales From the Darkside. If you are familiar with Tales, you will know the great variety of horror sub-genres covered in the various episodes throughout the series existence. That same variety can be seen in the Monsters series. Any and everything you can think of has been done in the three years these show has run. Vampires and witches, zombies and aliens, giant queen bees, demons, werewolves, haunted houses, and so much more are all subjects explored in the 72 episode total.

Not only does Monsters deliver every type of horror you can imagine, but there are tons of guest appearances of some pretty familiar faces. Linda Blair, Steve Buscemi, Jerry Stiller, Tom Noonan, Pam Grier, and way more than I can list are all featured in various episodes really bringing some star power to the television series.

The acting, even from the lesser known performers, is done well. It is what you’d expect from an 80’s TV series. Nothing too stellar, but not bad at all either. The effects seen throughout each episode obviously varies, but I was actually rather impressed. I really enjoy the way the creatures, monsters, and demons look, which also brings a very fun tone to the series. I can imagine, however, that if I did see some of this stuff as a young child, I would certainly have been frightened!

Audio and video nuts may be a little upset about the 4×3/1.33:1 full frame ratio presented in this DVD set, but rest assured this is still the best way to experience this 1988 series. It looks and sounds better than even the most recent Chiller channel reruns and as soon as you dive into the show itself, you won’t even notice those pesky black bars along either side of your screen.

If you are a fan of old school anthology television shows like The Twilight Zone, Tales From the Crypt, or Tales From the Darkside, you should certainly consider purchasing this amazing complete series box set. With 72 episodes and over 25 hours of footage, you are sure to be entertained for a very long time. You can purchase the Monsters complete series set through eOne Entertainment’s official website/Amazon link

I give this series 4 monsters out of 5!

One Response to Honey, it’s Family Hour…

  1. Mathijs Pluijmen says:

    Monsters! That part with Billy Drago was cool!

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