Monsters - The Match Game

 Monsters - The Match Game

PLOT - A group of teenagers break into an old abandoned house one night and decide to play "The match game" in which they sit circled around with a box of matches. Each takes turns, striking a match and making up a ghost story. They take turns, and have to stop whenever their match burns out. Slowly the story begins to have a life of it's own the monster from it returns from the grave!

LOWDOWN - Not exactly a review, but one of the few episodes so far that's really caught my interest.  You see, I bought the box set of Monsters just a few months ago since I had caught a few episodes before on Chiller (years before the station went to complete shit) and own a few of the better episodes on VHS tape. My goal was so slowly work my way through the series as I'm doing with Tales From The Darkside (It still blows my mind I haven't finished that show yet!) You see I love anthologies (Creepshow, Tales From The Crypt, ect.) Back in the 80's I feel most TV shows as well as movies based off this format rocked. Hell, even Freddy's Nightmares is sorta like that if you really look at it. As a huge fan of horror themed shows (Friday the 13th the series, Nightstalker, Freddy's Nightmares, and Tales From The Darkside) I was always interested in Monsters since it sorta picked up after Tales From The Darkside ended. Running for three seasons, it's known as the lower budget of Tales, mostly focusing on monsters, demons, and creatures. I bought a bootleg of the entire show a few years ago but the transfer wasn't that hot so I was psyched when I learned it was finally getting the DVD treatment. Now mind you, I know I should have waited until I finished Darkside, but this box set was on sale and I jumped at the chance. Funny enough I also bought the 80's version of the Twilight Zone around the same time, wanting to plow through the episodes and have good background noise whenever I was working on something.

Well trying to get through Monsters so far is like pulling teeth! Nothing against the show, I'm only on the first season and have been skipping around a lot. I know there's some greats that I've all ready seen (Glim-Glim, The Farmer's Daughter, Holly's House, and The Jar.) but with the handful of episodes I've watched so far I haven't really been that impressed. I'm truly hoping that changes soon. I need to remember, sometimes with shows like this it took a while for the ball to get rolling. It's sorta hit or miss for me and when I'm FINALLY finished I would love to list my top episodes I would recommend. Until then I'll mention a highlight episode which is The Match Game (no, not the gameshow) This episode itself features a pretty impressive cast with Ashley Lawrence (Hellraiser), Sasha Jenson (Ghoulies II), Tori Spelling (Yep, you read right), Byron Thames (Haven't seen him in anything I can remember, but very easy on the eyes mmm hummm!), and the creature king himself Tom Woodruff Jr!

With a pretty awesome creature design and gore for a low budget TV episode (loved the girl's face getting folded into slime), and the overall story. Very original, and a great ending. I thought this was a standout episode for having sold actors, and a great story to surround it. Maybe if more episodes were like this one I might be more interested! I would love to meet Ashley at a convention and ask her about this one for sure!

So until then, The Match Game gets 4 stars! Stay tune for more episodes!