Monsterland is easily one of the most fun movies I have seen in a very long time. It’s a collection of short films put together by Dread Central and presented as anthology, sort of. I say sort of because there isn’t anything that ties this short films together really, though there is a pretty good wrap around that attempts to make sense of it all.

Our movie picks up the middle of some kind of apocalypse. There are creatures and monsters all over the place, people dead in the streets and panic everywhere. This is basically hell on Earth. We latch onto one man with a bat who runs into a movie theater.

The inside of the theater is much like the outside world. It’s torn to shreds, more dead parties sprawled about and various creatures moving around. The man with the bat is deterred by none of this as he grabs some popcorn and heads into a theater. He then settles in and gets ready to watch some shorts. This is what we’d all do in his situation.

Don’t Go Into the Water
Dir. Corey Norman

Don’t Go Into the Water is the perfect kind of short to kick off an anthology like this. It’s short in story but wastes no time in giving horror fans what they want – scares, gore and boobs. A group of college-aged friends decide to go skinny dipping late one night in a lake. What they don’t realize is there’s something in that lake that is out for blood. Not much to it, but fun and enjoyable.

The Grey Matter
Dir. Peter & Luke McCoubrey

In The Grey Matter a man has a parasite attached to his brain which sort of makes him a zombie. Not the out-for-brains kind of zombie but like the mindless kind of zombie. But this parasite is more than your average parasite, instead of merely eating brains he offers up some sage dating advice. Seriously. The advice leads to this fellow landing the hot girl in the office. The Grey Matter is genuinely funny and the parasite looks cool. Plus you have to wonder if the McCoubrey brothers have spent any time working in an office environment. If they have this whole short could be a metaphor for the 9-5 office life. Regardless, it’s good stuff.

Curiosity Kills
Dir. Sander Maran

If it weren’t for Hellyfish this would have been my favorite. I can see a lot of people not liking this one and making the argument that it doesn’t belong on a horror anthology, but they’d be fools.+ A little boy’s father is a scientist. He comes home one day with some beakers full of red and green liquid and makes it very clear that his son is not to mess with them. The boy can’t help it though and grabs the beakers, pouring the liquid onto his pet rat. The rat then begins to mutate and cause havoc in the house. This is like a live-action Tom & Jerry. Lots of energy and lots of fun.

Hag
Dir. Erik Gardner

Erik Gardner’s Hag is probably the scariest short in Monsterland. At the very least it offers up the creepiest moment. In this one a man is experiencing some very strange nightmares that severely hampers his sleep. There’s also something weird going on with his wife and he may or may not have a visitor stopping by his bed every night. The final shot in this one will stick with you.

Monster Man
Dir. Frank Sudol

This strange piece of animation features an old man killing monsters with his walker. Short, but filled with kills and animated gore.

House Call
Dir. Graham Denman

A man breaks into the home of a dentist demanding that the dentist operates on him immediately. The man’s problem – he thinks he’s turning into a vampire. This notion is of course absurd, or is it? If you’re a normal human being and hate seeing teeth stuff this has a scene that will make you cringe.

Happy Memories
Dir. Jack Fields

Uhm, Happy Memories is weird. It’s interesting, that’s for sure, but weird. You just have to watch it.

Stay at Home Dad
Dir. Andrew Kasch & Jonh Skipp

While Happy Memories is weird I’d still say Stay at Home Dad is without a doubt the strangest short in the bunch. Basically a father decides to stay at home to raise his infant daughter while the mother goes off to work. In doing so he takes part in an experiment that gives him female breasts and he begins to produce milk so he can breastfeed. That’s pretty weird, right? It’s like a strange follow up to Junior*, but then it gets every crazier. Very bizarre, but very fun.

Hellyfish
Dir. Patrick Longstreth & Robert McLean

Hellyfish is so much fun! While I enjoyed every short in Monsterland, this was my favorite. In a nutshell, Hellyfish is the final ten minutes of a monster movie. All hell breaks loose as a swarm of jellyfish, some of which are gigantic, attack a beach. This short is heavy with digital effects but they look amazing. SyFy needs to hire Patrick Longstreth and Robert McLean immediately. These dude must make at least one full length feature creature. Extra points for the wonderful use of “Old Monster” by Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun.

I think Monsterland is great and fully recommend it. I didn’t Dread Central’s their first anthology, Zombieworld, but now I have to backtrack and check it out. You may not like all the shorts and that’s ok because none of them last long, but I can guarantee you’ll have fun with at least most of them. If you’re looking for scares you’re not likely to find that here outside of Hag, but you will get plenty of horror-themed fun.

Monsterland is available on DVD now from RLJ/Image Entertainment.

+ Please note that I’m not actually calling anyone a fool if they dislike Curiosity Kills. People are entitled to their own opinion and I was merely making a joke, if you can even call it that.
* I’ve actually never seen Junior and am making this reference based soley on the poster.