Monster Busters

Had very little in the way of expectations with this one, I'd heard a little here and there but nothing really praising or condemning it strongly. Actually watching it was a really pleasant surprise. It's super campy in all the best ways, it totally buys in and lives in it's own world and I really appreciated that. I totally see why this has cult status because it's absolutely the kind of movie that would get people to really fall in love with it's quirky charms. People should definitely give this a shot if they haven't seen it. At the very least, this should be added to people's Halloween repertoire but I think it's got a life outside of that as well.

"The Monster Squad" is a lot of fun. I wasn't surprised to see that it's become a cult classic. If I could give it 7.5, I would.

Why don't I score it higher than that? Unfortunately, I found some of the plot details needlessly obscure. Plot developments seem to happen off screen. It was like, suddenly the kids know about the monsters and are preparing to fight them, but I missed how they found out.

The movie has a lot of quotable lines. It's an example of a nostalgia trip done right: ie. Filled with affection for the movies the film references, and also filled with affection for its modern-day child characters, and thus they succeed in making a movie that nostalgic adults and kids could both enjoy.

"The Monster Squad" is fondly remembered by many, especially guys like myself who actually were part of "monster clubs" in the 60s. Fueled by the release of classic Universal horror films of the 30s to television at the time, and the ubiquitous Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine as well as the arrival of the great Aurora Plastics "long box" monster models....there were monster clubs nationwide. One suspects that director Fred Dekker was influenced by all this horrormania when choosing to helm TMS in 1987.

TMS hasn't aged particularly well. A recent viewing after first seeing this in a theater on it's original release reveals a number of problems with the film as a whole. TMS can never seem to decide exactly what it's going for. Horror? Comedy? Adults? Kids? For every silly moment and laugh, there's genuine unpleasantness. Characters are easily disposed of and instantly forgotten, such as the cop who gets blown up by Dracula. One minute he's spouting one liners and the next he's killed in a fairly grim fashion. No other character reacts to this in any fashion. The three vampire mistresses show up in classic Universal style, but are so obviously tacked on to the climax to provide the resident "badass" kid with a couple of kill shots we forget about them immediately. Only two are shown killed, so what happened to the third? The monsters, lovingly re-imagined by the late makeup genius Stan Winston, are so easily destroyed that we don't really care about them. They're simply there to be killed by a gang of kids, Scooby-Doo style. Only these kids use real weapons instead of their wits. Easier to shoot the Creature (known here as Gillman) and call it a day.

TMS appears to have been heavily edited since the "extras" on the new DVD release show a number of scenes that were cut. The simple plot of TMS could have used some of the deleted scenes to help fill the many, many plot holes in the final version of the film. What remains to be viewed really does play out like a cartoon. Heavily Un-PC in places (mostly some gay slurs hurled by resident mega-jerk actor Jason Hervey) firmly root TMS in the awesome 80s. Two things to look for here though, the startling reveal of Dracula as half-man and half-bat lying on the floor, and the jaw-dropping "head lift" of the little sister by Dracula, calling the tyke a "bitch".

The real hero of this monster mash is Eugene. He's little, has a dog named Pete, and no one, except for the US Army pays any attention to his encounters with the monsters. He has a couple of the movie's best lines, including the great "creature stole my Twinkie". In any event, TMS is still worth a viewing, decent effects for the time in which it was made and the natural inclination to see this homage to the Universal monsters as a low-budget rip-off of "The Goonies".

A good Halloween treat for adults who want to share a few thrills with their kids without excess amounts of violence and bloodshed. Despite the flaws, TMS still invokes that shuddery frisson in those who remember the good old days.

The Monster Squad is a terrific re-telling of the House of Frankenstein, set in the late 80s. A group of young boys unearth an evil secret within the diary of vampire hunter, Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Dutch, not German, but forgivable). Dracula has returned, and has re-animated Frankenstein's monster, and brought along a innocent, but tortured werewolf, the frightening, Creature of the Black Lagoon-esque Gill-Man, and a 2000-year old Mummy.

The SFX are spectacular, and the make-up and costuming are very well-made. This movie closely follows the the myths and folklore of popular monsters (only wooden stakes and garlic are effective on vampires; even dynamite cannot stop the silver-prone werewolf; etc.)

The acting is somewhat lacking, but this is a kid's Saturday night drive-in type movie. Only Duncan Regehr (syndicated TV's Zorro) as the truly and unrelentingly evil Dracula is worth mentioning. However, Tom Noonan as the kindly and gentle Frankenstein's monster is a great departure from the malevolence of his counterparts.

Highly recommended.

Some kids who are really into those old Universal horror flicks have this club they call The Monster Squad. But soon enough their knowledge about how to kill some of these legendary creatures comes in mighty handy in their small town.

Andre Gower and Robby Kiger head the group and it's a good thing their services were needed right at this point in time. By the look of them in another year these kids would be hitting puberty full stride, one of them Ryan Lambert is already showing inclination of interest in the opposite sex.

Best scene in the film is during the climax when a virgin is needed to read an incantation and when it doesn't quite work because the virgin's not quite a virgin Gower's little sister is brought in as a pinch hitter.

Duncan Regehr makes a fine, menacing Dracula topping the cast performance list. Regehr plays it absolutely straight for the young audience this film was aimed at.

With an original premise based on how Bud&Lou got tangled up with all their monsters in Abbott&Costello Meet Frankenstein and a climax which liberally borrowed from the Back To The Future films, The Monster Squad is still an enjoyable film for young audiences.