Turnbulll (Donald Moffat) steps in to handle the situation. Monster eventually shows up, looking like a brown-skinned, huge-mouthed imitation of Carlo Rambaldi's oft-copied 'Alien' creation, and the military, led by no-nonsense Gen. He soon teams up with science prof Diane Bennett (Denise DuBarry) and her brilliant child nicknamed Professor (Paul Walker) to follow the clues. Writer-director Bob Dahlin carefully apes the rigid format of the traditional monster opus (with corny dialog intact): an unknown creatures is killing Californians living in the small town of Chestnut Hills in their closets an San Francisco obituary writer Richard Clark (Donald Grant) is sent by his editor to cover the story.

It will be appreciated by fans of old B-pictures but is out of step with the tastes of contemporary audiences. 'Monster in the Closet' is a pleasant, occasionally funny combination of homage and spoof directed at the science fiction monster films popular in the 1950s. My review was written in May 1986 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.