MONSTER MASHUPS #45

I'd largely forgot this 1979 short-- broadcast as THE HALLOWEEN THAT ALMOST WASN'T, and retitled on VHS as THE NIGHT DRACULA SAVED THE WORLD-- prior to stumbling across it on Youtube.

Since I saw it in my twenties, HALLOWEEN was a little sophomoric for my tastes then, particularly with a jarring SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER joke at the end. But compared to some monster mashes-- particularly the 2000 animated feature MONSTER MASH-- at least HALLOWEEN "stakes" (ouch) out its daffy slapstick territory and doesn't venture outside those borders.

The short starts with Dracula (Judd Hirsch) calling a convocation of monsters in response to a televised rumor that 1979 may be the first year without a Halloween. The ghouls all come to his humble abode, including a "Frankenstein Creature," a mummy, Warren the Werewolf, a zombie called Zabarr, and a witch (Mariette Hartley). On top of that, Dracula has borrowed a page from the Universal Studios book by employing a hunchbacked servant named Igor, who in this context I would not consider a true "monster." But it hardly matters, since only two monsters get to do very much, beyond setting up jokes.

Dracula briefly considers the possibility that his favorite holiday may be doomed because humankind no longer fears him or his kindred. But instead of running this idea into the ground, as MONSTER MASH does, the short flick dumps that notion and reveals that the Witch is the true threat to Halloween. Seems she resents both Dracula's sovereignty over the creatures of the night, and the fact that people don't like ugly chicks. Dracula tries various strategies to bend the sorceress to his will, but in the end only the pleas of cute children ensure that Halloween goes on.

As long as one has a sizable appetite for borscht-belt jokes and Judd Hirsch's Lugosi accent, HALLOWEEN is at least passable. There's an odd moment in which the Witch defends herself from her enemies by bringing the Three Musketeers to life. I assume the production just ran out of monster costumes and borrowed some studio's musketeer outfits to save a buck.