The Monster Club (1981) - Three mini 'Hammer' films

'The Monster Club' is actually an anthology of three - roughly - half hour monster-related stories set in Britain.  Even for 1981, this film is the definition of 'low budget' and the - almost blatant - Halloween-esque masks the background monsters wear would practically make the film unwatchable if it wasn't for the fact that it really doesn't take itself seriously and is effectively tongue in cheek.

Horror legend Vincent Price threads the tales together as a vampire who invites a horror writer to the titular 'Monster Club' to give him some extra ideas for upcoming novels.  These are probably the best bits really and I'd probably rather see more of this than the shorter stories he tells.  After the film had ended, I tried to work out what order I'd put the three stories in and see which one was the strongest and which the weakest.  However, they're all a bit 'so-so' in my opinion.  Yeah, they're okay, but not really scary enough to be frightening, without the budget to be gory and not funny enough to really be an outright comedy.

It's all rather camp and 'Hammer Horror' film-like.  If you like cheesy low-budget melodrama then you'll definitely get something out of this film.  I used to watch Hammer films as a kid and probably only really kids would ever find any of these tales particularly threatening.

Give it a go if you're a fan of the genre.  I did find it entertaining, if not really brilliant.  But at least it did have my hometown on the map shown in the third story.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights