The early ‘80s must have been an exciting time for Jeff Goldblum. He was starting to get bigger roles in movies like The Big Chill and the wildly underappreciated cult classic, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. By the mid-’80s, he was scoring his first starring roles, most notably with 1986’s The Fly.
In ‘85, he released three movies, one was a Western that helped launch Kevin Costner’s career, Silverado, and one was John Landis’ Into the Night, which is mostly remembered for not being a very good movie. The third movie is one that I think is kind of underrated and definitely mostly forgotten: Transylvania 6-5000. If you’ve never heard of it or don’t remember it, the good news is that you can stream for free on Tubi. The bad news is that I can’t promise you’ll love it like I do.
If You’re A Fan Of Old Monster Movies, You Might Dig It
Transylvania 6-5000 is named after a hit by Glenn Miller from 1940 called Pennsylvania 6-5000. Why it’s a play on that isn’t exactly clear to me, but the movie does (mostly) take place in Transylvania, so I suppose it’s just because the song is so catchy. The plot of the movie is catchy, too. Goldblum plays a reporter named Jack who writes for a low-level supermarket tabloid in New York City alongside the son of the owner, Gil, played by Ed Begley, Jr.
Jack and Gil are tasked by the tabloid’s owner to travel to Transylvania to chase down a report that Frankenstein’s monster has been spotted. Along the way, they meet a Wolfman (played by Donald Gibb of Revenge of the Nerds fame), a Swamp Thing, and other classic monsters. The monsters are augmented by all manner of odd townsfolk, all drawn from old horror movie tropes. If you love old Universal monster movies, you’ll have fun spotting the tributes and cliches. It’s part of what makes the movie so fun.
The Cast Is Pretty Awesome
In addition to Goldblum and Begley, the cast is filled with up-and-coming comedians and actors. Geena Davis, in just her third movie (working with her future husband, Goldblum), plays a sexy vampire. Carol Kane, who steals every scene she’s in, plays Lupi, a maid at the hotel. Michael Richards plays the stereotypical creepy butler, who is wonderfully absurd. Jeffrey Jones, Norman Fell, and Teresa Ganzel also play funny roles.
It’s really the cast and the satire that make this a worthwhile movie, especially for horror fans. It was never going to win any awards, and it’s not like it’s going on my top ten comedies of all time, but if you’re a horror fan and you want something to entertain you and make you laugh, you can worse, like say, the Dan Aykroyd disaster Anything but Trouble, that attempts to have the same vibe, but lacks all the charm of Transylvania 6-5000.