Monsters
Monsters is a syndicated horror anthology series which originally ran from 1988 to 1991 and reran on the Sci-Fi Channel during the 1990s. As of 2011, Monsters airs on NBC Universal's horror/suspense-themed cable channel Chiller in sporadic weekday marathons. In a similar vein to Tales from the Darkside, Monsters shared the same producer, and in some ways succeeded the show. It differed in some respects nonetheless. While Tales sometimes dabbled in stories of science fiction and fantasy, this series was more strictly horror. As the name implies, each episode of Monsters featured a different monster which the story concerned, from the animatronic puppet of a fictional children's television program to mutated, weapon-wielding lab rats. Similar to Tales, however, the stories in Monsters were rarely very straightforward action plots and often contained some ironic twist in which a character's conceit or greed would do him in, often with gruesome results. Adding to this was a sense of comedy often lost on horror productions which might in some instances lighten the audience's mood but in many cases added to the overall eeriness of the production.
Mutant rats threaten pesticide wielding scientists in a laboratory.
A psychiatrist with his own stress from his wife finds a solution when he discovers a sheepish patient has manifested his repressed anger in the form of a giant ape-like monster.
A man awakes to find himself in a home where the lady of the house has a non-chalant attitude towards the bugs in her home.
A young man expecting to be freed from prison by his rich father discoveres he's been placed in the wrong cell.
A planetary station commander discovers the identity of a monster that operates a mining project on a hostile planet.
A group of men find their way into a bunker during the Vietnam War, only to find that this hole hides a secret buried in its walls.
A young family tries to cope with having a meat hungry deformed baby.
Two teenagers think the barber shop across the street may be a secret meeting place for town vampires.
The marriage of a couple of doctors become problematic when the woman's presumed-to-be-dead husband returns and she finds herself still allured to the hunk despite her better judgement. After finding success with animating a headless parrot, the two decide to use the numbskull of a third wheel to take their work to another level.
After a nuclear blowout, only two factions remain. Humans inside of a small locked shelter, and nuclear holocaust vampires. With the two sides only separated by a small digital code on the outside of the shelter.
A sort of faith healer has set up a kind of distillery for paying customers. What was once the most sinful man is now a living conduit to drain people of their sins.
As a rich, elderly man lays dying, his cold-hearted mistress threatens what maybe his last morale act on earth. For her soulless intents, the man's mysterious doctor promises her a haunting that very well may change her outlook.
A husband rediscovers a part of himself that he thought he lost long ago when he gave up his music career for his wife.
When a recent mother tries to go back to work while maintaining some housework, she finds things going awry. To her disbelief she finds out that her lifestyle is defying the domestic gods.
Two men encounter a victim who claims his brain was eaten. After confirming the story, they attempt to fight off the alien invader responsible.
A father brings his son and his new wife to a hotel where he and his wife once stayed. It seems that there is a specific reason for this, one that has to do with a promise he broke to a woman he encountered in a room that exists only in the dark.
Two police officers are disturbed by recent sightings of people who are missing body parts and others who appear to have been almost put together from other parts. However, the oddest thing is the blasé reaction of their supervisor upon hearing their stories.
A caseworker for the United States Immigration Service wants to unlock the mystery of her subject's alluring power.
A smart-mouth host of a late-night radio show is beguiled by a female guest who claims she was abducted by aliens and that they gave her a creature to help rid the planet of evil.
A screenwriter it tasked to pen a horror film with the unique premise of a werewolf in the position of an executive. But things starting getting a bit bloody when it seems that it hits a nerve with someone in the studio.
A columnist and lady's man is harassed by a woman via the phone, but he can't figure out who she is, how she seems to know what's going on in his apartment all the time, or how she manages to get into his place without him seeing her.
A cut-throat CEO is making good business with the help of voodoo, but doesn't find out until it's too late that it comes with a very high price.
A bum encounters a man with the power to create anything he desires.
A man battles a large finger that that rises out of drain of his sink.
When two brothers break into an old woman's house to rob her, they wind up killing her, but not before she bites one of them, leaving him with a nasty scar to remember her by.
The art being displayed in a local exhibit may not be what it appears to be as the haunting figures hanging in the gallery resemble those of recent missing persons.
A newlywed couple finds out you get what you pay for when they discover that their honeymoon suite is not quite what they expected.
A student has somehow brought back a recently deceased TV star that pledges his undying love for her.
A DMV employee begins an affair with his wife and father-in-law being the only thing holding him back. However, the seductress taps into her learned dark magic to make him all hers.
A man takes shelter at a farm for the evening and he is surprised to be sharing a room with the farmer's pretty daughter.
A private detective looking for a missing person discovers an innkeeper who sells mysterious jars.
An alien accidentally conjures an insurance agent who, in order to serve his master's wishes, must summon a demon of his own.
A patient at a nursing home makes a deal with the Grim Reaper.
While cleaning her grandmother's house, Angela finds a strange plant growing in the basement. It soon grows into what was once her grandmother's lover who soon seduces her, but has an increasing thirst for blood.
An old man finds a Fountain of Youth, but with a cost...
A cheating man finds himself locked after-hours in a museum with three women: his girlfriend; the woman he's cheating on her with; and the reanimated body of a Druid priestess, who claims to be the spirit of woman.
A girl volunteers to become a test study for an alien aboard its ship, only to realize the loneliness is driving her insane.
A traveling salesman spends the night in a hotel next door to a beautiful woman and her husband, who hides a dark secret.
Roy Barton lives a life of misery. Since his dad left he has been made into a slave, serving his mother and sister hand and foot. Hope comes in the form of a creature who calls himself ""Swlabr"". With help from Swlabr, Roy is able to turn the tables on his pesky family.
A psychiatrist and a girl help a man who is having strange dreams that may well spell his demise.
A family of werewolves attempt to assimilate into modern American society.
After receiving a head injury in a car crash, a man recovering in the hospital finds that he can see a strange creature that he believes is the source of cancer.
A nosy city official stumbles into a secret operation beneath a New York Subway.
A couple of scientists make a dramatic breakthrough when an antenna finds a signal from intelligent life. However, the world of these beings turns out not to be swimming in a sea of stars, but in a mere tank.
An American secret agent finds himself being tasked with one more mission. He is to help a Soviet scientist, but finds that the forces he is to help her escape from are more dangerous than the Russians.
A young boy has been kidnapped and locked in the basement of a cabin where he meets and befriends a strange beast he discovers to be a man with many powers. He can help them escape their captors, but there are unfortunate limits to such abilities.
A homely owner of a bookshop is very much in love with a frequent customer who barely seems to know she exists. When she calls a number in a very old magazine, she finds that they are in business and willing to sell her a mask that will guarantee her the beauty that will catch the man's attention.
A young boy tries to protect his family from an alien, whom he can only see using his dead father's glasses.
An unsual healer is a man's last hope for his ailing daughter.
A puppeteer for a favorite children's program starts seeing her puppet move and talk on its own...but is it all in her mind?
A man falls for a beautiful seductress who turn out to be a giant bee.
A young woman left at home by her zombie-hunting family gets a suprise visit from an old classmate.
A mad doctor develops a serum that keeps dead bodies from deteriorating.
Scientists discover a time capsule, unaware of the dragon that sleeps inside...
A pool hustler, Gabe finds himself involved in a high-stakes game (literally) with Natasha, a seductive vampire.
A man feeds a monster that resides in his bedroom.
An artist draws inspiration from the house she has recently moved into. However, it has a dark history and the previous owner, a practitioner of witchcraft, has left something behind in the basement.
A group of miners stumble upon a lost chamber with a horde of treasure - to get it, all they have to do is deal with the guardian troll.
A mysterious disease has killed most of the people in town and Amy's father believes that the hideous alien holed up in the library is responsible. But as Amy soon learns, Glim-Glim may be their only hope for survival.
A girl dealing with her cruel foster parents, is blessed when aliens take over their bodies.
A slimy, good-for-nothing husband tries to get money from his mother-in-law, especially when he finds out that her fruit can produce a serum that can boost the human strength. He is prepared to do anything to get rich from it, but hasn't counted on just how protective a mother can be.
Siamese twins seek help from a psychologist.
Suzy murders her lover, a talented tap dancer. In this take on ""The Telltale Heart,"" she cuts up the body to hide the parts...but one body part refuses to stay quiet.
Four teenagers go into a haunted Victorian mansion and play a game where each tell part of a ghost story while a match burns, suddenly the story comes true.
A greedy couple are stuck in a dried-up land so as to exploit the native people of their relics. The indigenous tribe offers one last item for them, a nasty-looking statue of Masow, the God of Death, who is said to promise rain at the expense of a sacrifice.
A detective has his psychic girlfriend try to find the identity of a wealthy woman who has miraculously survived an accident unscratched, but with no memory of who she is and is disturbed about what she sees.
A witch tries to protect herself against a demon.
After winning a bet with Lucifer, a devil is promised a single and struggling housewife to write his memoirs and turn it into a bestseller.
A nurse tries to help a patient who obsesses on perfecting his clay mannequins. But little does she know how much of a connection he actually has with them.
A man aims to take revenge against a shopkeeper whom he believes is a witch who killed his mother via a curse.
| Location | United States of America |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Release | 1988-10-01 |
| Producer | Tribune Entertainment |