aesgaard41 Review of Monster Brawl

Monster Brawl (2011)

Night Of The Ridiculously Far-Fetched Concept

[3/10 · 13 November 2012]

You take the good, you take the bad… You merge wrestling and a fondness for Hollywood movie monsters, and you get something called "Monster Brawl," a scenario that pits monsters against monsters in a highly improbable setting: the wrestling ring. (Somewhere Hulk Hogan is asking, "Are you freaking kidding me?") There's no plot, no script and no logic. It's a highly fictionalized horror movie sports match done very tongue in cheek with Dave Foley and Art Hindle reporting at ring side and Eighties icon Johnny "The Mouth Of The South" Hart at ringside with two busty babes to spar the monsters. What bothers me most is watching the so-called monsters fighting like… wrestlers. The Wolfman doesn't come teeth gnashing, claw ripping and growling like a werewolf; he comes like an actor playing a wrestler in werewolf make up. The Mummy does come dragging and the Frankenstein Monster is still a mindless monster, but the problem is, these creatures should be coming out no holds barred and just tearing loose. The lady vampire doesn't exploit her mystical powers to turn into a bat or mist. They should be fighting like monsters, but some of so-called monsters, like the witch, are actually human outcasts, which should put them at an obvious disadvantage, and to get really nit-picky, some of the background facts are just plain wrong, especially in the case of the Cyclops. With the vast array of classic and movie monsters out there, some of the creatures are invented solely for this film, (Witch Bitch? Swamp Gut?) which leans more to horror fans than for wrestling fans. Actor Lance Henriksen narrates the whole mockumentary with all the intensity and verb of Boris Karloff for a truly creepy atmosphere. It's a fun, raucous display with excellent make-up creations, and Johnny Hart gets the funniest lines here, but I still expected much more than just actors in costume beating the crap out of each other.