Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Monster Party Blu-ray Movie Review

Monsters and Thieves

Reviewed by Michael Reuben December 24, 2018

Writer-director Chris von Hoffmann must be a big fan of the Dexter series (novels or TV), because he's borrowed its essential premise that psychopathic killers may be able to control their urges, with the right counseling. Of course, when "treatment" fails, the result is likely to be a bloodbath, which is what happens in Monster Party, the latest horror comedy from RLJ Entertainment.

Monster Party has a simple setup. Casper (Sam Strike), Iris (Virginia Gardner) and Dodge (Brandon Micheal Hall) are a trio of small-time and not particularly bright burglars. Casper is the tech wizard who defeats alarms, while Iris is the gang's mastermind, planning and directing the jobs. Against Iris' better judgment, the crew takes on a big caper without sufficient planning or preparation, because Casper's father has been threatened with death by a crime boss to whom he owes a big gambling debt. (A visit to the gangster's club allows von Hoffmann to include some gratuitous T&A, plus some early violence as an appetizer.)

The Dawson mansion in Malibu is a massive and imposing structure inhabited by a clan that even the Addams Family might find strange. (I don't think it's an accident that the Dawson patriarch is made up to look like Gomez Addams.) Patrick Dawson (Julian McMahon) either makes or inherited a lot of money. His wife, Roxanne (Robin Tunney), chops vegetables in a dreamy state in which she's obviously imagining chopping something else. Son Elliott (Kian Lawley) and daughter Alexis (Erin Moriarty) are equally strange, but not as strange as the "dog" that the Dawsons keep locked in the basement. (Gee, I wonder if we'll see him/it before the film is over?)

It's never clear how Iris knows about the safe she assumes will contain a major score, or how she gets the details of the catering job that she and her cohorts infiltrate, but details are irrelevant in a film like Monster Party, where realism has left the building from the opening frames depicting the Dawsons at home in slow motion surrounded by set design that's a cross between Edward Scissorhands and an old Vincent Price film (with shades of giallo that grow stronger as the film progresses). While Casper struggles with unexpected challenges in cracking the safe's electronic lock, Iris and Dodge gradually realize that they're catering a party for a very special gathering. Once a year, a guru named Milo (Lance Reddick) gathers his reformed flock to celebrate their "cure" from an addiction to killing people. But not everyone is equally "cured", and the presence of outsiders, particularly ones with less-than-honorable motives, transforms the evening into an indiscriminate slaughter.

Monster Party is ridiculous, but it's played utterly straight by a committed cast, even in scenes that would make Hannibal Lecter dissolve in mocking laughter. The murders and effects aren't particularly novel or original, but the cast's commitment manages to sell them. At the end, though, as survivors straggle away, one can't help but wonder who's going to do the post-party cleanup?

Monster Party Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Monster Party appears to be yet another digital production; the credited cinematographer is Tobias Deml (Hangman). RLJ Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray reflects all the usual virtues of digital capture, with superior clarity, sharpness and detail, and any digital harshness has been softened by the now-familiar technique of shooting through anamorphic lenses. The palette is appropriately surreal, with a cheerful SoCal brightness that contrasts sharply with the darkness of the characters' behavior. RLJ has given the film an overly tight encode with an average bitrate of 20.96 Mbps and about 6 GB of space left unused on the BD-25. Fleeting instances of noise are probably a result of unnecessarily aggressive compression, but overall it's a serviceable image.

Monster Party Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is loud and boisterous, assisted by a heavy rap-flavored score from Felix Erskine and Nao Sato. The surrounds are aggressively used, although it's most often to expand the ominous musical beats. Dialogue is clearly rendered and accurately prioritized.

Monster Party Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The disc has no extras. At startup, it plays trailers for Mayhem, Mandy and All Cheerleaders Die, all three of which could be considered horror comedies, though Mandy is unintentionally so.

Monster Party Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Monster Party is a clever premise but a slight film with a fair amount of blood and a few laughs. Horror fans should be diverted for 90 minutes, but the disc is worth a rental (or streaming) at best.