Recap: “Monster Movie”
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Thereās a body bag and Sam and Dean are on the scene, which isnāt any better lit.Ā Shouldnāt someone turn on some lights for the investigation?Ā Sam finds the novelty company tag on the sarcophagus.Ā Dean finds a bucket of dry ice inside to which a now very frustrated Sam replies, āThis is stupid!āĀ Thereās another reminder that we are watching a Supernatural episode.Ā Hollywood heroes would take the developments seriously.Ā
Dean rushes off to meet bar wench, but is running late.Ā She waits alone, which is the typical setup for the visit from Count Dracula.Ā He appears from the shadows, talks in his scary vampire voice complete with accent, but instead of quivering she responds with a mace spray, and he agonizes over the pain in a normal voice.Ā Modern meets classic!Ā In those days, the woman would never fight back.Ā Dean shows up to rescue the damsel and fights the vampire, who easily overtakes him.Ā We get the dramatic show of vampire teeth inching slowly toward Deanās neck just like in the movies.Ā Dean grabs his ear, and it comes off.Ā Uh oh!Ā Yes folks, back for another engagement, the shapeshifter!Ā
Faux vampire runs, disappears over the fence, leaving one confused (hilariously confused)Ā Dean behind.Ā Instead of disappearing into the shadow though, he escapes on a Vespa.Ā Oh, this is nuts!Ā Dean watches from behind the gate in frustration, and we hear the high pitched ābeep beepā that comes from the scooter.Ā Modern meets classic is funny too!Ā
On comes the hokey intermission sign, complete with soothing and very out of place music.Ā Time to get up from your theater seats and get your popcorn and candy!Ā I wonder how many years it took for āintermissionā to become the dancing snacks singing āletās all go to the lobby.ā
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Sam shows up to the bar in regular clothes, and the dark shadow mood lighting is back.Ā I love the way it just lights up enough of Jaredās face to where-, sorry, Iām drooling.Ā Sam touches the ear and his āoh manā is right.Ā Jamie hears the theory, naturally thinking itās all ridiculous and pulls the āX-filesā reference.Ā āNo, the X-Files is a TV show.Ā This is real.āĀ Dean is doing his macho act now, taking a drink of whiskey for dramatic effect while still dressed in his nice suit, again showing off the leading man mannerisms.Ā
Sam, being the really smart sidekick heās supposed to be, clarifies this guy is following the exact MO from the Dracula movies and novels, down to the use of character names.Ā Jamie is Mina, Dean is Jonathon Harker, so what is Sam?Ā We find out later, and itās cool.Ā They ask Jamie if anyone has fixated on her lately like a real Dracula would (???) and the lines between real and imagined are really blurred.Ā She mentions Ed Brewer.Ā Sam, because heās the loyal and lovable sidekick, goes to check it out while Dean protects the girl.Ā
Jamie finally figures out that Dean and Sam arenāt FBI and chasing all these evil things for a living.Ā āSo this is what you do, you and your partner, just tramp across the country on your own dime until you find some horrible nightmare to fight?āĀ Dean shrugs.Ā āSome people paint.āĀ Jamie thinks their lives suck.Ā Ask Sam and sheāll probably get an agreement.Ā Dean changes into sweet sensitive guy (Hollywood leading men must show this quality) and openly shares his touching, back from the dead perspective.Ā He declares heās saving people and itās ākind of like a Mission from God.āĀ Ha!Ā There, he said it!Ā He believes now.Ā Itās about time.
Jamie melts in his hands, they lock lips, and itās all ruined from lipstick on a napkin waitress.Ā Jamie invites her for a drink and a frustrated Dean sarcastically agrees.Ā Iād say thatās a mood breaker.
Here we go, Samās one scene to shine.Ā He arrives at spooky theatre and Bach is shrieking from the pipe organ, a la Phantom of The Opera, which just happens to be the picture showing.Ā Creature from behind the screen plays and we see the silhouette of Sam sneaking up on him.Ā After some more drawn out suspense, we find itās Mr. Brewer in his underwear really playing a Casio.
Sam grabs him, shoves the gun in his face and tugs his ear hard. A shocked Sam declares, āItās supposed to come off.ā āNo, itās not!ā Mr. Brewer so correctly replies. He may not be a shapeshifter, but heās one hilarious guy. Sam apologizes with a set of embarrassed and apologetic looks that are his trademark. How many of the funniest scenes come from Sam playing straight guy is beyond me, but I love it. Heās funny without trying to be.
Dean, Jamie, and Lucy are drinking and talking, and Jamie is three sheets to the wind.Ā Then Dean gets woosy.Ā Uh oh!Ā Something tells me, ignoring all the prior hard to miss clues, that Lucy is our culprit.Ā Hereās another classic device, hero is drugged and has a long, drawn out collapse onto the floor.Ā Oh, but we get a slight detail error here.Ā Thereās a full shot from the floor, which is a trick not used in this films.Ā Considering films during these times were shot on set, they didnāt create ceilings for the scenes, so there were never any ceiling shots.Ā Citizen Kane again was the first film to change that rule.Ā The shot up to Lucy, just before she says āend sceneā and stomps her foot down, clearly shows a ceiling.Ā Ah well, itās cool anyway.Ā
Just when I think that this bizarre episode canāt get more disturbing, Iām proven wrong.Ā Dean Winchester, meet lederhosen.Ā I admit I havenāt seen the old Dracula, Werewolf, and Mummy pics, but Iām pretty certain they donāt involve dressing the victim in ridiculous clothes.Ā Iām chalking up that one up to the costume crew having great fun with Jensen.Ā Dean and said outfit are strapped to a long table in a Dr. Frankenstein lab recreation.Ā Funny, but this setting actually reminds me more of Young Frankenstein than anything else.Ā This show is known for its mixed bag of tricks, so why not copy a film that was a copy of other films?Ā Ā
Alice Jester is the founder, editor-in-chief, head writer, programmer, web designer, site administrator, marketer, and moderator for The Winchester Family Business.Ā She is a 30 year IT applications and database expert with a penchant for creative and freelance writing in her spare (ha!!) time.Ā Thatās on top of being a wife, mother of two active kids, and four loving (aka needy) pets.
My friend and I have the same conversation about the whole Soda and Pop thing. Here in Canada most of us say Pop but in Florida they say Soda. Both are right as the whole term is “soda pop” but I digress. Michael Ecklund is the actor who plays our poor Mr. Ed Brewer. If you want to see more of his awesome acting you need to check out his role in Blood Ties. He plays Norman and he’s fantastic. I was so excited to see him in this episode. I’m just sorry his part was small.
I loved this episode and I get the giggles just thinking about it. It was a welcome break from the awesome but intense path this season has been on so far. And a note to Dean. Doesn’t matter how newly minted your body might be coming out of Hell – you will never, ever be a virgin again. Not with your mind. GRIN
Great review Alice.
Great review as always. You write with great insight and humour. Did not enjoy Sam as a sidekick. Even Bob Singer recently said in an interview that Jared was amazing in comedy, so why he was so sparingly used I don’t understand. All the other comedy episodes were gems because both boys had equal screen time. As much as I love Jensen and Dean, I am getting bored of the Dean Show and I am more shocked by this statement than anyone.
wow, great as always.I loved this episode and I saw it more than 10 times:-) Not kidding!
My first point is, how many months has it been between this episode and Dean’s return from hell? I can’t believe Dean, of all people, would wait that long to get laid after coming back from hell! I mean…there must have been countless hot waitresses and bartenders along the way…
Second, the scene in the bar where Dean’s tells Jamie what he really does, I always thought he said ‘some people pay’. Just checking.
Third, thank goodness they didn’t go with the grainy quality pictures, all the better for us to drool at black and white Winchesters! š
My first point is, how many months has it been between this episode and Dean’s return from hell? I can’t believe Dean, of all people, would wait that long to get laid after coming back from hell! I mean…there must have been countless hot waitresses and bartenders along the way…
Second, the scene in the bar where Dean’s tells Jamie what he really does, I always thought he said ‘some people pay’. Just checking.
Third, thank goodness they didn’t go with the grainy quality pictures, all the better for us to drool at black and white Winchesters! š
Hi, Narcissus,
I’m thinking Monster Movie is rather quick in the whole scheme of things. FIrst off this was meant to follow right after Are You There God but it got shuffled back in order to be mytharc heavy the first four. Are You There God is only three days after the end of Lazarus Rising (as stated by Castiel when he speaks with Dean in Bobby’s kitchen) and while In The Beginning is possibly a few weeks after that it’s likely not much further as Castiel and Dean do not have much of a rapport and and it’s not likely he would have waited too long to alert Dean to Sam’s ‘extracurricular activities” so a couple of weeks to a month at the most and we know MEtamorphosis is right after that so Monster Movie is perhaps a month after Dean was resurrected…that’s my guess.
As for the line, yeah, Dean says…some people paint. Maybe an inside joke on painters????
Hi, Narcissus,
I’m thinking Monster Movie is rather quick in the whole scheme of things. FIrst off this was meant to follow right after Are You There God but it got shuffled back in order to be mytharc heavy the first four. Are You There God is only three days after the end of Lazarus Rising (as stated by Castiel when he speaks with Dean in Bobby’s kitchen) and while In The Beginning is possibly a few weeks after that it’s likely not much further as Castiel and Dean do not have much of a rapport and and it’s not likely he would have waited too long to alert Dean to Sam’s ‘extracurricular activities” so a couple of weeks to a month at the most and we know MEtamorphosis is right after that so Monster Movie is perhaps a month after Dean was resurrected…that’s my guess.
As for the line, yeah, Dean says…some people paint. Maybe an inside joke on painters????
Yo! I had not realised Dean and Jamie got it on, until I read the comments. Because, simply, I had never realised what ‘with a happy ending nonetheless’ meant šÆ Is that like a pun? š³
Yo! I had not realised Dean and Jamie got it on, until I read the comments. Because, simply, I had never realised what ‘with a happy ending nonetheless’ meant šÆ Is that like a pun? š³
I was re-watching Monster Movie, so funny, and I read this article about it, so funny! What I don’t get is why the Shapeshifter would do that lipstick-on-handkerchief thing, or was that just a BOOM!Clue, suckas moment?
I was re-watching Monster Movie, so funny, and I read this article about it, so funny! What I don’t get is why the Shapeshifter would do that lipstick-on-handkerchief thing, or was that just a BOOM!Clue, suckas moment?
Haha, thanks, Alice! You are so … painfully omniscient. A walking encyclopedia of … supernatural references š
I liked Jamie! She was cool. She goes down in the trivia books as ‘just another one’. When will Dean ever fall in love? š
Haha, thanks, Alice! You are so … painfully omniscient. A walking encyclopedia of … supernatural references š
I liked Jamie! She was cool. She goes down in the trivia books as ‘just another one’. When will Dean ever fall in love? š