''Hollywood-Monster'' (working title - released as ''Ghost Chase'' in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

) is a 1987

horror comedy Comedy horror (also called horror comedy) is a literary, television and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as having three types: "black comedy, parody and spoof." Comedy horror can a ...

film

directed Direct may refer to: Mathematics * Directed set, in order theory * Direct limit of (pre), sheaves * Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces Computing * Direct access (disambiguation), a ...

Roland Emmerich Roland Emmerich (; born 10 November 1955) is a German-American filmmaker. Emmerich is widely known for his science fiction and disaster films and has been called a "master of disaster" within the movie industry. His films, most of which are Eng ...

, about a

film crew A film crew is a group of people, hired by a production company, for the purpose of Filmmaking, producing a film or motion picture. The crew is distinguished from the Ensemble cast, cast, as the cast are understood to be the actors who appear ...

working in a

haunted Haunted or The Haunted may refer to: Books * ''Haunted'' (Armstrong novel), by Kelley Armstrong, 2005 * ''Haunted'' (Cabot novel), by Meg Cabot, 2004 * ''Haunted'' (Palahniuk novel), by Chuck Palahniuk, 2005 * ''Haunted'' (Angel novel), a 200 ...

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

.Haase, Christin
''When Heimat Meets Hollywood: German Filmmakers and America, 1985-2005''
Camden House, Rochester, NY (2007) p.107. Emmerich's third film,Fischer, Dennis
''Science Fiction Film Directors, 1895-1998''
McFarland (2000), p.170-171. it starred

Jason Lively Ronald Jason Lively (born March 12, 1968) is an American actor and director. He is best known for '' European Vacation'' (1985), ''Night of the Creeps'' (1986), and '' Ghost Chase'' (1987). Lively has mostly retired from acting since the 1990s. ...

Jill Whitlow Jill Whitlow (born November 11, 1963) is an American film and television actress who achieved her greatest recognition during the 1980s. She is best remembered by American audiences for her role as Cynthia Cronenberg in the 1986 cult horror film ' ...

Paul Gleason Paul Xavier Gleason (May 4, 1939 – May 27, 2006) was an American film and television actor. He was known for his roles on television series such as ''All My Children'' and films such as '' The Breakfast Club'', ''Trading Places'', and ''Di ...

Chuck Mitchell Charles Thomas Mitchell (November 28, 1927 – June 22, 1992) was an American actor, singer and entertainer. He is known for his role as "Porky" in the 1981 movie '' Porky's'' and its 1985 sequel '' Porky's Revenge!'' Career Mitchell is ...

, and Tim McDaniel.Ghost Chase entry in New York Times film database
Retrieved August 28, 2014. A co-production between

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

and the

, the film was released theatrically in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

on June 25, 1987.

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 piling 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 A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second half of a double feature, ...

Cast

as Warren McCloud *Tim McDaniel as Fred *

as Laurie Sanders *

Leonard Lansink Leonard Lansink (born 7 January 1956) is a German actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films since 1983. Selected filmography References External links * 1956 births Living people German male film actors German male telev ...

as Karl *

as Stan Gordon *

Ian MacNaughton Edward Ian MacNaughton (30 December 1925 – 10 December 2002) was a Scottish actor, television producer and director, best known for his work with the ''Monty Python'' team. MacNaughton was director and producer for all but four of the forty ...

as Frederick McCloud *

as Mr. Rosenbaum *Cynthia Frost as Secretary *Andreas Kovac-Zemen as Pawn Shop Owner *Toby Kaye as Laurie's Girlfriend *

Ernie Lively Ernie Lively (born Ernest Wilson Brown Jr.; January 29, 1947 – June 3, 2021) was an American actor and acting coach, the adoptive father of actors Lori Lively, Jason Lively, and Robyn Lively, and father of actors Eric Lively and Blake Live ...

as Production Manager *

Julian Curry Julian Burnlee Curry (8 December 1937 – 27 June 2020) was an English actor best known for playing Claude Erskine-Browne in ITV's legal comedy-drama ''Rumpole of the Bailey''. Early life The son of William Burnlee Curry (1900-1962), headmaste ...

as Lawyer *

Larry Pennell Lawrence Kenneth Pennell (February 21, 1928 – August 28, 2013) was an American television and film actor, often remembered for his role as Dash Riprock in the television series ''The Beverly Hillbillies''. His career spanned half a centu ...

as Bum

Production

Filming took place primarily in the Swabian town of

Sindelfingen Sindelfingen ( Swabian: ''Sendlfenga'') is a city in Baden-Württemberg in south Germany. It lies near Stuttgart at the headwaters of the Schwippe (a tributary of the river Würm), and is home to a Mercedes-Benz assembly plant. The current mayor ...

utilizing old factory buildings as shooting locations.

secured financing on the film by preselling distribution rights to foreign territories.

Release

The film was theatrically released in

Filmverlag der Autoren ''Filmverlag der Autoren'' is a German film distributor that was founded in 1971 to help finance and distribute independent films by German ''Autorenfilm'' directors, who are renowned for predominantly adapting their own screenplays. Called "The Fl ...

on June 25, 1987.

Home media

''Ghost Chase'' was released on

video cassette Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocasset ...

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 The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

Image Entertainment RLJ Entertainment (formerly Image Entertainment) is an American film production company and home video distributor, distributing film and television productions in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 34 ...

References

External links

* {{Roland Emmerich Films directed by Roland Emmerich 1987 comedy horror films 1980s ghost films Films about Hollywood, Los Angeles 1987 films 1980s English-language films English-language German films Films with screenplays by Roland Emmerich Films about filmmaking Films about inheritances Films set in country houses Films shot in Germany Domestic workers in films Films about spirit possession English-language comedy horror films