The Monster — The Monster( Blu Ray)
From the mid-1970s The Monster (aka I Don’t Be Born, Sharon's Baby) is a schlocky slice of demonic baby shenanigans. It finds ex-stripper Joan Collins been cursed by her little person dance partner, then giving birth to a satanic ankle bitter. The film features lots of campy ‘n’ hammy acting, some blood-red spurting gore, and a few sprinkles of sleaze. Here from Network, as part of their British Horror Classic series, is a new Blu Ray release of the picture- with the disc featuring a commentary track, alternative credits, a trailer, and an inlay booklet with new writing by Adrian Smith.
The Monster was directed by Budapest, Hungary born Peter Sasdy- who in the ’70s helmed a far bit of horror fare, going from Taste The Blood Of Dracula(1970), Countess Dracula (1971), Hands Of The Ripper( 1971), Doomwatch(1972), The Stone Tape(1972), and Nothing But The Night( 1973). The Monster is set in and around London and is well enough shot and scoped- but boy is it high 70’s horror camp.
The film kicks off with the sweaty Lucy(Collins) trying to give birth as Dr Finch( Donald Pleasance) looks on, when finally the baby pops out he admits it was one of the largest he’s birthed. He goes out to give the good news to Lucy husband Gino( Ralph Bates)- he rushes in to see his wife, finding she’s been crawled across the face by her newborn. The pair take the youngster home to their classy central London house- but the crawling was just the beginning- as baby bites drawing blood, tries to drown a nurse in the bath, and lashes out. In time we find out Lucy had somewhat a recent sleazy past- as she worked as an upmarket stripper, her dance partner was portly little person Hercules(George Claydon)- one night he makes an advance on Lucy in her dressing room, she rebuts him- then he curses her saying she will give birth to a demon child.
Collins as always is great blending sweaty overacting, with high camp. Though most entertaining here is Ralph Bates, who hams it up with a slip in and out meant to be Italian accent. We get to have a great supporting cast from the likes of Pleasance as the slightly nervy Doctor, Claydon as the creepy and sleazy little person, and Eileen Atkins as Sister Albana- who is over from Rome visiting her brother Bates. The films run time is an eventful 70’s ride- as we move from soapy dramatics, onto lightly sleazed and fleshy strip club encounters, though to silly curse imagery as the baby switches to Claydon in a yellow baby suit. Then we of course have the demonic attacks/ murder side of things- and while these aren’t as inventive as those seen in The Omen series they are entertaining enough- we have lots of face scratches, a pushed into a pound kill, a wacky hanging, an overdramatic stabbing, and most impressive battered around the head- then decapitated with a shovel kill. All in all The Monster is a great 70’s terror romp- that will appeal to those who enjoy an even mix of camp ‘n’ gore.
The release comes in the form of region B Blu Ray and has the following features brand-new audio commentary from the cult Second Features podcast team, theatrical trailer, alternative I Don't Want to be Born titles, Image gallery- I can’t comment on any of these as we were just sent a digital screener for review. But I can of course comment on the new print- it’s a high definition remaster from original negatives, and this brings nice depth and clarity to the films 70’s colour scheme, as well as a selection of punchy reds for the gory sections. The disc also comes with a twelve-page colour inlay booklet- this features a new nine-page write-up/ viewers notes article by Adrian Smith, as well as reproductions of stills and poster art.
It’s great to see The Monster getting this new release, as it really is a great slice of 70’s British horror- high in camp and nicely dabbed with gore-bound death. They really don’t make them like this anymore, and let us hope this new series leads to more great slices of 70’s brit horror getting reissued down the line.