Monsters: Fools' Gold starts as underground workman Gerry (Greg Safel) accidentally exposes a large cavern next to where he is digging, poking his inside Gerry is attacked & killed by something in the shadow's. Gerry's boss Sherrie (Mary Cadorette) & two workmates Phil (Jeff Conaway) & Joe (T.J. Castronova) find his badly burned body clutching several pieces of solid gold. Phil goes inside the cavern & finds a huge chest of gold but also runs into an evil little Troll (Debbie Carrington) there to guard it & kill anyone who wants to steal it. Phil, Joe & Sherrie all agree that they want the gold but must first find a way to get past the evil vicious little Troll...
Episode twelve from season one of Monsters this originally aired in the US during January 1989, the one & only directorial effort from special make-up effects man Greg Cannom (whose higher profile make-up effects credits include the likes of Titanic (19970), Blade (1998), Hannibal (2001), The Passion of the Christ (2004), Van Helsing (2004), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) & Watchmen (2009) as well as a whole slew of low budget horror) & isn't a bad installment but isn't amongst the show's best. The one surprise is that the script doesn't go down the moralistic route in the sense I thought the character's involved would either die or be killed because of their own stupidity or greed trying to steal the gold & I actually think Fools' Gold would have been much more satisfying if that's the way the script had gone. The fact two of the three main character's survive seems a little pointless & to me this episode felt like a missed opportunity. A bit. Still, at only twenty odd minutes in length it moves along at a good pace & at least merits a watch if nothing else.
This one has an 80's horror film feel to it with the lighting & the sets being quite atmospheric. The featured monster in Fools' Gold is an ugly little Troll that looks like a smaller version of the monster from The Crate segment from the fun George A. Romero anthology horror Creepshow (1982) & the creature effects here are pretty good although it's kept mostly in the shadow's until the end & you can tell it's just a person in a monster suit although to be fair it's a good monster suit. There's not much gore here, there's a burned face & some bright green spraying Troll blood but little else.
Monsters: Fools' Gold is a decent enough way to spend twenty odd minutes but there's not that much to it & the ending isn't very satisfying either, not too bad but not that great either.
Episode twelve from season one of Monsters this originally aired in the US during January 1989, the one & only directorial effort from special make-up effects man Greg Cannom (whose higher profile make-up effects credits include the likes of Titanic (19970), Blade (1998), Hannibal (2001), The Passion of the Christ (2004), Van Helsing (2004), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) & Watchmen (2009) as well as a whole slew of low budget horror) & isn't a bad installment but isn't amongst the show's best. The one surprise is that the script doesn't go down the moralistic route in the sense I thought the character's involved would either die or be killed because of their own stupidity or greed trying to steal the gold & I actually think Fools' Gold would have been much more satisfying if that's the way the script had gone. The fact two of the three main character's survive seems a little pointless & to me this episode felt like a missed opportunity. A bit. Still, at only twenty odd minutes in length it moves along at a good pace & at least merits a watch if nothing else.
This one has an 80's horror film feel to it with the lighting & the sets being quite atmospheric. The featured monster in Fools' Gold is an ugly little Troll that looks like a smaller version of the monster from The Crate segment from the fun George A. Romero anthology horror Creepshow (1982) & the creature effects here are pretty good although it's kept mostly in the shadow's until the end & you can tell it's just a person in a monster suit although to be fair it's a good monster suit. There's not much gore here, there's a burned face & some bright green spraying Troll blood but little else.
Monsters: Fools' Gold is a decent enough way to spend twenty odd minutes but there's not that much to it & the ending isn't very satisfying either, not too bad but not that great either.
