Hollywood-Monster

{{Infobox film | name = Ghost Chase | image = Ghost Chase.jpg | alt = | caption = Theatrical release poster by Renato Casaro | director = Roland Emmerich | producer = | screenplay = Roland Emmerich Thomas Kubisch | story = Roland Emmerich Oliver Eberle | starring = Jason Lively Tim McDaniel Jill Whitlow Chuck Mitchell Paul Gleason | music = Hubert Bartholomae | cinematography = Karl Walter Lindenlaub | editing = Pia Fritsche | studio = Centropolis Film Productions <ref name="FischerFilmAlmanach">{{cite book|title=Fischer Film Almanach|first=Horst|last=Schäfer|publisher=Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag|year= 1988|page=150}}</ref> | distributor = Filmverlag der Autoren | released = {{Film date|1987|6|25}} | runtime = 85 minutes | country = West Germany United States | language = English | budget = | gross = }} '''''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.<ref name=Haase>Haase, Christine [https://books.google.com/books?id=O-CAXVjNvFoC&dq=Roland+Emmerich%27s+Hollywood+Monster+Ghost+Chase&pg=PA107 ''When Heimat Meets Hollywood: German Filmmakers and America, 1985-2005''] Camden House, Rochester, NY (2007) p.107. {{ISBN|9781571132796}}</ref> Emmerich's third film,<ref name=fischer>Fischer, Dennis, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7msrAwAAQBAJ&dq=Ghost+Chase+Emmerich&pg=PA170 ''Science Fiction Film Directors, 1895-1998''], McFarland (2000), p.170-171. {{ISBN|9780786460915}}</ref> it starred Jason Lively, Jill Whitlow, Paul Gleason, Chuck Mitchell, and Tim McDaniel.<ref name=NYT>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140903145555/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/19631/Ghost-Chase/details Ghost Chase entry in New York Times film database]. Retrieved August 28, 2014.</ref> A co-production between West Germany and the United States, the film was released theatrically in Germany on June 25, 1987.<ref name="TCMVidRelease">{{cite web|title=Ghost Chase (1988)|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/501877/ghost-chase#notes|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211022140743/https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/501877/ghost-chase#notes|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 22, 2021|website=TCM|access-date=June 2, 2023}}</ref>

==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.

==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

==Production== Filming took place primarily in the Swabian town of Sindelfingen utilizing old factory buildings as shooting locations.<ref name="GermanCinemaRE">{{Cite book| last1 = Bock | first1 = Hans-Michael| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_Z4kDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA359| title = The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema| last2 = Bergfelder | first2 = Tim | date = 2009 | publisher = Berghahn Books| isbn = 978-0-85745-565-9 | page = 11| language = en}}</ref> Roland Emmerich secured financing on the film by preselling distribution rights to foreign territories.<ref name="GermanCinemaRE" />

==Release== The film was theatrically released in Germany by Filmverlag der Autoren on June 25, 1987.<ref name="FischerFilmAlmanach" />

==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== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb title|0093201}}

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