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.
A man battles a large finger that that rises out of drain of his sink.
A bum encounters a man with the power to create anything he desires.
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 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 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 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 caseworker for the United States Immigration Service wants to unlock the mystery of her subject's alluring power.
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 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 men encounter a victim who claims his brain was eaten. After confirming the story, they attempt to fight off the alien invader responsible.
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.
A husband rediscovers a part of himself that he thought he lost long ago when he gave up his music career for his wife.
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 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.
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.
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.
Two teenagers think the barber shop across the street may be a secret meeting place for town vampires.
A young family tries to cope with having a meat hungry deformed baby.
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 planetary station commander discovers the identity of a monster that operates a mining project on a hostile planet.
A young man expecting to be freed from prison by his rich father discoveres he's been placed in the wrong cell.
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 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.
Mutant rats threaten pesticide wielding scientists in a laboratory.
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.
Karen Grossman
Tribune Entertainment ,
