Kenny Myers | Through the Shattered Lens

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing Monsters, which aired in syndication from 1988 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on YouTube.

This week, Monsters comes to its conclusion.

Episode 3.24 “The Moving Finger”

(Dir by Kenny Myers, originally aired on April 26th, 1991)

Monsters comes to a close with an adaptation of a Stephen King short story.

Nerdy Howard (Tom Noonan) is shocked to discover that, every time he goes to any of the various drains in his house, a bony finger pokes out. Howard’s wife can’t see the finger but Howard becomes obsessed with it, attacking it with a corrosive liquid and eventually a hedge trimmer. No matter how much damage Howard does to it, the finger comes back, longer and stronger….

Despite the Stephen King pedigree and the presence of the usually reliable Tom Noonan, The Moving Finger makes for a disappointing conclusion to Monsters. King’s style, and this is especially true of his short stories, often doesn’t translate well into visual adaptations. The signature inner monologues and the building sense of dread can be difficult to recreate visually. (One reason why The Shining is the best King adaptation is because Stanley Kubrick made the material his own and didn’t worry about trying to recreate all of King’s trademark ~~bullshit~~ literary flourishes.) Tom Noonan doesn’t have much of a character to play and the finger itself becomes less effective as the episode drags on.

Oh well! Monsters was a generally uneven show so it’s perhaps appropriate that it ended on an unsteady note. It’s the curse of the anthology format. When Monsters was good, it was really, really good. When it was bad, it was kind of boring. There were a lot of good episodes that aired during the final season but, sadly, there were a few bad ones as well. That said, the good Monsters episodes to outweigh the bad and forgettable ones.

That’s it for Monsters! Next week, something new will premiere in this time slot. What will it be? I have no idea but I look forward to finding my next show!

It’s time to return to Monsters!

Episode 3.3 “Bug House”

(Dir by Kenny Myers, originally aired on October 14th, 1990)

Ellen (Karen Sillas) visits her sister, May (Juliette Kirth) and is shocked by what she discovers. May is living in a cabin that was once owned by their father and she’s allowed the place to become infested with roaches and other bugs! May is pregnant and appears to be mentally unstable. She lives with her boyfriend, the handsome but creepy Peter (Robert Kerbeck).

What’s interesting is that, even though Ellen is disgusted by how May is living, one gets the feeling that Ellen is also secretly happy to see that her sister is struggling. It’s obvious that there are a lot of complicated feelings between the two of them. Their conversation at the start of the episode is a masterclass in passive aggressive communication. And even though Ellen claims not to trust Peter, it’s easy to guess what’s going to happen between them.

Unfortunately, Peter’s not just some creepy guy with a condescending attitude. He’s actually an insectoid creature who just happens to be wearing a human mask. And when May gives birth, she gives birth to a giant roach. While Peter gazes adoring at the roach, May is devoured by maggots. As terrifying as that is, the episode ends with Ellen pregnant….

AGCK!

This was an episode of Monsters that actually lived up to its name. Peter was a horrifying creation and the scenes with the bugs were among some of the most effective that I’ve seen on this show. With this episode, Monsters moved beyond the deliberate campiness of the majority of its episodes and instead embraced Cronenbergian body horror. The atmosphere was full of dread and the cabin was an effectively macabre location. (What made the cabin especially disturbing was that it was obvious that it had once been quite nice before Peter moved in. Bugs ruin everything!) Everything from the dilapidated set design to the dark lighting to the ominous music came together to make this episode feel like a filmed nightmare. Speaking for myself, there’s nothing more terrifying than a giant roach. Seriously, I hate those things! Even the name — Roach — sounds like something that would kill you if it got a chance.

But what truly made this episode work were the performances of Karen Sillas and Juliette Kirth as the two sisters. They not only captured the bond that all sisters share but they also captured how that bond can sometimes lead to competition. The sisters love each other but there’s also a lot of resentment behind almost everything that they say to each other, which brings a whole extra layer of meaning to this episode’s story.

This was an excellent episode and a great way to return to Monsters!