The Henderson Monster (1980) is the “talkiest” TV-movie, if not movie-movie, I think I’ve ever seen. About a third of the way into it, I had to ask myself if it was based on a play. (It's not.) In and of itself, this isn’t a problem. However, if you’re going to spend an hour and three-quarters with characters that do nothing but talk, they’ve got to have something interesting to say.
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The best way I can describe it is with something that coincidentally happened this weekend. I participated in a book club over Zoom (A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles) and we discussed turning books into movies and how hard it might be because you lose the inner monologues. Not with The Henderson Monster. The characters leave nothing inside their heads.
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Dr. Louise Casimir (Christine Lahti) is the worst offender. She rambles on and on about her past and how she feels about this and why didn’t she do that. She even takes us through the process of figuring out why she didn’t sleep with her boss, Dr. Tom Henderson (Jason Miller), during recent events. She was going to, then he went to the bathroom, then she… blah, blah, blah.
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With the multiple references to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the movie Frankenstein, and Boris Karloff, you’d think The Henderson Monster was building to something horrific. I kept waiting for the weakened strain of K12 bacteria Louise accidentally washed down the drain to spread through the sewers and emerge as a “Henderson monster.” Spoiler: it never happens.
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Oh, but they talk about what might happen. What starts as an ethical disagreement between Louise and Tom about whether they should contact the biohazard committee turns into a town-wide debate over whether or not it’s “right” to conduct genetic engineering on campus of the unnamed local university… or anywhere else.
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The movie opens oddly, with a technique usually saved for the end of a movie: a shot of each member of the cast with the actor’s name and the character they play. They’re all at some kind of garden party that may or may not happen later in the film. Then we see a group of students in front of a sign that reads, “Trust God.”
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We later (much later) learn that they’re members of the Unified Church of the Children of Grace and they like to distribute lollipops. We then get a complete segment of one of their rallies where the religious implications of genetic engineering are neatly explained. There are no mysteries of life; the truth is in the Bible.
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The overall moral debate is conducted physically through a ban the newly elected mayor of the unnamed town, Frank Bellona (David Spielberg), imposes. Honestly, he’s not asking for too much. He simply wants to ensure that all safety precautions are being taken. The problem is, Tom is racing to make a breakthrough before his West Coast colleague.
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For a movie with a character’s last name in the title, Dr. Henderson doesn’t have a lot of screen time. In fact, Miller isn’t even top billed. That honor goes to Stephen Collins as Pete Casimir, Louise’s drunk husband, who beats to death the comparison of Henderson to Frankenstein. It is funny, though, that Pete calls Tom “the baron” every time he sees him.
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Pete adds something new to the tedium of the story; he’s annoying. Then again, although he’s as talky as the others, his hijinks at least add a little add life. It’s interesting, then, that I ultimately had the most emotional connection to him when, near the end as he watches his wife speak in front of the city council, it’s with quiet admiration and pride.
Visit the TV Terror Guide: 70's TV Movies playlist at ClassicHorrors.Club TV on YouTube to watch The Henderson Monster and other great movies from this series.
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