Story by Robert Crais | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Directed by B. W. L. Norton | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Original Airdate - January 24, 1986 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"Monsters" is a good, but rather ambivalent, episode. I enjoy watching it, but I'm not sure what they could have done to give it more edge. For a production filled with monsters, it's just not edgy enough. Ralph Bellamy is wonderful as Mr. Bendictson, a man who is not what he appears to be. Bellamy is an actor from the golden age of Hollywood, who kept working right up until his death in 1991 at age 87, and fits this role perfectly. He's funny and touching as a vampire who has spent his entire adult life moving from one place to another, trying to escape the mutated humans who keep trying to exterminate him. We don't hear how he was infected, so this is a mystery that's not cleared up, even at the end when it seems like either Toby has caught the infection, or another vampire is in the area. Was it infectious, and Toby caught it from the old man? The viewers might have liked to know this, because the ending is so vague, or at least I would have liked to know. Oliver Robins is adequate as Toby, but he's three years older than he was in "Poltergeist," where he gave a more natural performance. He's kind of wooden here, so he's not as effective as he might have been. It looks like he's gone into directing, so he might not have been as keen on acting in 1985 as he had been as a child. Bruce Solomon and Kathleen Lloyd are effectively goofy as Toby's parents; I always enjoyed Solomon's work in things like "Foul Play" and "Mary Hartman." He's a good comedic actor. Once again, makeup and special effects enhance the atmosphere of an episode. The monster makeup is effective, and the setting of Mr. Bendictson's demise is appropriately creepy. The effects of the fireflies in the cornfield are well done, and give the scene an eerie aura, since they're standing near a graveyard when it happens. I confess that I was a Famous Monster's fanatic as a teenager, as well as a fan of Creepy and Eerie magazines. I enjoyed them as much for the story as for the artwork, and will still pick them up to read today. I became a devotee of the artist SanJulian, thanks to those EC magazine covers, and still covet his work as an adult, probably more so. He is a genius. |
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