Everybody knows “The Monster Mash.” If a movie or TV show is set during Halloween, chances are it’s being played in the background. It’s one of only a handful of songs that has topped the Billboard charts in multiple decades (and at this point, centuries!) To this day, it is unequivocally the official anthem of Halloween.

But very little is known about the song’s creator, Bobby “Boris” Pickett.

In 2017, a friend showed me a video of Bobby performing on “American Bandstand.” I was expecting a creepy old man in a lab coat. Instead, an awkward, grinning young man in a too-tight suit graced the stage. My jaw dropped in amazement as Bobby performed “The Monster Swim,” a half-baked “Monster Mash” sequel that was note for note the exact same song (a “graveyard smash” becomes a “poolside smash.”) The video is mesmerizing, a man trying to squeeze a few more seconds out of his 15 minutes of fame for an audience of completely disinterested teenagers. After seeing it, I couldn’t get Bobby out of my head. 

I soon discovered he had recorded DOZENS of monster songs, and even some non-comedic originals. I became obsessed, listening to every recording and watching every video I could find of Bobby performing “The Mash” at state fairs and horror conventions. There was something so off about him, something so simultaneously silly and sad, that I just couldn’t get enough.  

I purchased his 2005 self-published memoir, which is, for lack of a better phrase, batshit crazy. My guy lived a WILD life; He was a groundskeeper at a nudist colony, an avid early user of LSD,  and for a brief time,  a South American drug runner! He was also a consummate name dropper, writing about his run-ins with The Beach Boys, Jack Nicholson, even an ill-fated love affair with Cloris Leachman. The only person that could confirm any of this really happened was Bobby himself, who passed away in 2007. His memoir, while poorly written and at times colossally misogynistic, was from the point of view of a content man who had made peace with what his life had amounted to. He couldn’t believe that 50 years later, his song was still so beloved. 

At first my vow to write a Monster Mash biopic was a drunken joke among friends.  But the more I learned about Bobby’s life, the more I wanted to sincerely tell his story. Most biopics focus on geniuses and trailblazers, but here was a man whose fame was almost accidental, a big Boston lug who got lucky too early, and spent the rest of his life chasing that high. While it is a classic cautionary Hollywood tale of fleeting fame, it is also the story of a song that, like the best horror movie monsters, just would not DIE, saving Bobby’s life over and over again.

Bobby Pickett lived a funny, sad, and categorically insane life, and this script is a tribute to him. But it’s also a tribute to one hit wonders, stubborn social climbers, and of course, the greatest novelty song of all time.