Product Details

• Actors: Donald Grant, Denise DuBarry, Claude Akins, Howard Duff, Henry Gibson
• Directors: Bob Dahlin
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: TROMA ENTERTAINMENT INC.
• DVD Release Date: November 10, 1998
• Run Time: 87 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000009RBL
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #42,473 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Monster in the Closet" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Claude Akins John Carradine Jesse White and Stella Stevens headline this humorous and skillful parody of 50's horror films. The monster (Kevin Peter Hall) hides out in closets and waits for victims to unsuspectingly grab a shirt or slacks before he reduces them to dead meat. After several closet deaths, a writer (Donald Grant) sent to cover the story soon teams up with a science teacher (Denise DuBarry) and her son, a super-smart child prodigy, and they set out to solve the murders. The plot thickens when the gruff, brash Gen. Turnbull (Donald Moffat) enters the picture. It seems the monster is bullet-proof, laser-proof and bomb-proof -- a challenge to capture, kill, or subdue. This 80’s horror hit classic offers fun for all as America joins together to battle the monster in the closet. This DVD comes fully loaded with the premiere episode of the Toxic Crusaders TV show, production stills, an episode of Troma’s Edge TV and the first ever tour of Troma studios.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm the guy in the movie..., April 14, 2004

By	Donald Grant (Wichita, KS United States/Los Angeles CA) - See all my reviews

I'm Donald Grant... Richard Clark in the movie. We made this thing back in 1983. I compare the production of the film, to what I've heard about the first 'Rocky'. Most everyone sacrificed their time and livlihood for the months of pre-production, actual production, and post, to get Monster done. I really only understood the magnitude of everyone's sacrifice after the project was completed.
It took about 15 weeks to shoot, what could have taken about 6 weeks. Monster was not 'produced' by Troma. They picked it up for distribution, and took production credits only after the actual producers exhausted their resources, and were forced to do what they could to get the film done. Director Bob Dahlin really had a vision. He plucked me out of nowhere (commercial actor from the SF bay area) and put me as the lead in the film. Being his first major film,with him at the helm... he was (I believe) overly cautious - thus the long shooting time. He and the producers, busted keester to get this thing done.
I believe it is the first movie in the history of the Teamsters, that the unions allowed them to defer pay. Everyone involved in this film did it on faith and confidence in Bob and the script.
In hindsight, I believed the producers should have accepted help from the majors (who were courting them all along), so that it could have gotten the full theatrical release that it was due. Bob and the producers were understandibly reluctant to give up any control.
Monster is a great little movie, with a tremendous cast of veteran actors. I learned a tremendous amount from all of them, and developed lifelong firendships with a few of them. [e-mail]

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quick! Grab The Xylophone And The Kazoo!, July 12, 2004

By	Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This rare film, made with lots of personal sacrifice from the cast and crew, is well worth the effort to seek out. "Monster In The Closet" is a satire of formulaic monster movies, and is done with great wit and charm on a low budget. The story concerns a mysterious set of serial murders in which all victims are killed in their closets. Early victims include the horror movie institution, John Carradine, this time as a cranky blind man who gets eaten.

A spittoon-toting Sheriff (Claude Akins) tries to defeat the monster while ignoring scientific counsel from scientists Denise Dubarry and Henry Gibson. Gibson is particularly entertaining as a half-baked forgetful professor who thinks he can communicate with the creature via a xylophone (he can, as it turns out, not that it does him any good), and is forever prattling on about a frog he once found. The male lead is Donald Grant, who does a great job as the naive 'Pretty Boy' reporter sent to cover the story as harassment by veteran reporter "Scoop" played by Frank Ashmore. I have never been as pleased in a movie as when Grant stands up to Ashmore.

When the creature finally does show up it is a gross looking kind of excrement monster with a second sub-head in a spoof of "Alien", which actually can be communicated with. In the end not only does Gibson get to chat with the creature via the xylophone, but Grant gets to chat via kazoo, as well. The Army seems powerless to do anything, a romance subplot flourishes, and we get to what would seem to be the climactic scene of the film. There is a great twist in the last 15 minutes, which I did not see coming, and probably most other people won't either. Suffice it to say, it is silly, involves a lot of property mutilation that I would not want to explain to my Homeowner's policy issuer, love, self-sacrifice (sort of), and hope springing eternal. (And ultimately a lot of expensive remodeling.)

The film is a great, cheesy, fun movie to watch (best with friends) and I highly recommend it. Troma distributes it, but did not produce it, so it is not typical Troma fare. It is not particularly violent (except the scenes of violent closet disruption and some Army efforts at the grade school) or gory (well, OK, the monster mouth is pretty nasty), has little objectionable except one fairly gratuitous scene of Stella Stevens in an excellent "Psycho" parody, and is just plain fun.

Watch a great low budget movie and see why B Movies can be so much fun. Grab "Monster In The Closet" today!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars B-Film Tribute and Lots of Troma Extras, January 9, 2004

By	Joshua Koppel (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Monster in the Closet is a wonderful send up of classic man-in-a-rubber-suit b-movies of the 50's. In this one, a mysterious monster suddenly appears in a closet in a small town North of San Francisco and proceeds to start killing people. It is able to move from closet to closet unseen.

Richard Clark is a hopeless reporter who is sent out to cover the nutty story. What he finds is a true story of horror and terror that can shock the world. He is suddenly in the middle of the biggest story ever.

A wonderful cast helps keep the movie right on track. Claude Akins is the tobacco-spitting Sherif and Henry Gibson is an Einstein-like scientist plus many others.

The movie is rated PG although Stella Stevens has a nude scene and many of the disks extras (there are dozens) are obviously R rated. But if you have ever loved those campy B flicks, you will really want to see this one.