Hollywood-Monster

1987 film

June 25, 1987 (1987-06-25)

Running time

85 minutesCountriesWest Germany
United StatesLanguageEnglish

Hollywood-Monster (working title - released as Ghost Chase in the United States) is a 1987 horror comedy film directed by Roland Emmerich, about a film crew working in a haunted mansion.^[1] Emmerich's third film,^[2] it starred Jason Lively, Jill Whitlow, Paul Gleason, Chuck Mitchell, and Tim McDaniel.^[3]

A co-production between West Germany and the United States, the film was released theatrically in Germany on June 25, 1987.^[4]

Plot

Two cousins, Fred and Warren, live together in Hollywood. Fred, an aspiring horror-movie director with developed skills in SFX and animatronics, desperately tries to shoot his first movie in their house, but Warren, who plays the main male protagonist, keeps on flirting with Laurie, the main actress. When she can't stand it anymore, the project is over, and the bills are pilling up.

Out of the blue, Warren is called out to the reading of his grandfather's will and testament. The boys end up with an old clock, inhabited with the spirit of Louis, Warren's grandfather's deformed butler. The benevolent spirit, having appeared to Fred in the night, shows him a flashback of the day he and Warren's grandfather Karl died. Karl poisoned himself, and sealed himself in the basement with all his money to prevent his family from getting any. The butler coincidentally died by falling down stairs. The dream inspires Fred in making a new script for which he builds an animatronic version of the butler, whose spirit proceedes to inhabit the artificial body.

The butler and the boys will help each other as they face a new problem: the son of Warren's grandfather's partner who managed to swindle Warren's family out of their property, Producer Stan Gordon, who wants the grandfather's heritage to be kept secret, and try to get Fred's new movie made. It will all end in a race against the clock in an old house basement, and a fight against a demented ghost armor, as the movie pays homage to the late 1950s-to-1970s science fiction B movies.

Cast

Jason Lively as Warren McCloud
Tim McDaniel as Fred
Jill Whitlow as Laurie Sanders
Leonard Lansink as Karl
Paul Gleason as Stan Gordon
Ian MacNaughton as Frederick McCloud
Chuck Mitchell as Mr. Rosenbaum
Cynthia Frost as Secretary
Andreas Kovac-Zemen as Pawn Shop Owner
Toby Kaye as Laurie's Girlfriend
Ernie Lively as Production Manager
Julian Curry as Lawyer
Larry Pennell as Bum

Home Media

Ghost Chase was released on video cassette in the United States on February 7, 1990 by M.C.E.G. Virgin Home Entertainment. On March 13, 2001, the film was released on DVD by Image Entertainment.

References

^ Haase, Christine When Heimat Meets Hollywood: German Filmmakers and America, 1985-2005 Camden House, Rochester, NY (2007) p.107. ISBN 9781571132796
^ Fischer, Dennis, Science Fiction Film Directors, 1895-1998, McFarland (2000), p.170-171. ISBN 9780786460915
^ Ghost Chase entry in New York Times film database. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
^ "Ghost Chase (1988)". TCM. Retrieved June 2, 2023.