The Monster Squad (1987)

Touches You

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Plot; A group of young monster enthusiasts find themselves having to battle Dracula, the Wolfman, the Mummy, Frankenstein and the Creature from the Black Lagoon for the fate of the world. Lacks the pedigree and pop culture cache of The Goonies, but this beloved cult film certainly makes for a good double feature w/its higher profile 80s brethren. In fact, I'd dare say it's the better of the two films. Its spunky and likeable young cast is complimented by some of the best portrayals of the classic monsters ever. Yep, you heard me right. Ever. Duncan Regehr's Dracula is flat-out scary and Tom Noonan's Frankenstein is a delight. Clocking in @ a breezy 82 minutes, The Monster Squad is cult film worthy of the hype.

I don't have any nostalgia for these sorts of children's movies, but I admit that "The Monster Squad" is charming in parts. And, as a comedy, it works about as well as, say, "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948), which isn't bad. The "Wolf man's got nards" line and the "dorking" comments, however, are atrocious. On the other hand, "The Monster Squad" almost seems daring compared to today's kiddie fare considering that it consists of some mild curse words, which I'm not even sure I'm allowed to repeat on IMDb. And, kids can be bigots, so it's realistic that the ones in this movie spout homophobic slurs and mock people for their appearances and other superficial qualities. One kid is called "the fat kid" repeatedly throughout, for example, and a Holocaust survivor is referred to as the "scary German guy." But, the kids are curious, and they have a passion that's contagious.Dracula and the Frankenstein creature make out the best among the monster rally: one is a solid villain and the other a sympathetic monster. The Wolf Man plays out his usual Jekyll/Hyde identity crisis, as a repentant man and a deranged animal, but the werewolf costume is pretty bad. Gillman and the Mummy have little to do, and the three brides of Dracula are especially too slow to be a menace. The semordnilap of "Alucard," also employed in other Dracula movies, "Son of Dracula" (1943) and "Dracula A.D. 1972" (1972), is repeated here for no apparent reason and for further no apparent reason the kid sees what he can spell by mixing up the words. The pairing of the little girl with the Frankenstein monster is a better reference and reworking of a classic horror film, "Frankenstein" (1931). In general, "The Monster Squad" is a sincere homage and charming successor to the classic monster movies.(Mirror Note: The German proves to the kids he's not a vampire by pointing out that he has a reflection in a mirror.)

This happens to be the highest ranked movie I'll review for Nostalgia Critic Month! Boy, am I happy to see it and I can gladly say that it's the best movie of the month. This movie features a bunch of kids who find out Dracula is returning to destroy a magic amulet that will keep him from going into another dimension. He gets help from the other movie monsters to help him. I will admit that this isn't the most suitable film for kids, but it's still quite fun. It's mostly because the pacing is so good. At first, I did think it was a little slow but it really caught up after twenty minutes.In a movie that's only 82 minutes long, that's important. The movie itself is basically just awesome. It's a meeting of classic movie monsters with stuff blowing up too! Unlike a Michael Bay film, it actually has the characters act like real people and the people are much smarter here. It's a great looking film and I really do show concern for what happens to everybody. It's not as good as "The Goonies" but is still a enjoyable Halloween flick. This happiness won't last long however. The next movie on my list is the infamous Garbage Pail Kids movie.

I remember going to see this on my birthday and...it was the coolest film I had ever seen...but then again I felt the same way about Batman, and Willow, and The Goonies, and Robocop, and so many other movies so....grain of salt there.Bit of a token here, like so many other kids in the '80s I was never censored as a child. And when it came to the old monster movies it was like parents went out of their way to make sure their kids saw them all. So my friends and I had a bit of background walking into this.That might have added to the appeal...or it could have been the fact that "Wolfman has nards" or just the fact that the mom was Mary Ellen Trainor and we knew her as the mother of the Goonies and Lethal Weapon and Romancing the Stone and she was sort of like the mom of the '80s so we had that family feel to it.She was everywhere wasn't she? At least she was in all the important movies that kids that were kids in the '80s watched. Emphasis on "important." And adventure horror comedy. Kids that grew up when I did loved horror-comedies, it has been a part of our souls since the days of Scooby-Doo. Scary and funny and perfect for little boys.It was "The Goonies" with monsters. Who wouldn't love it? Frankenstein instead of Sloth. "The Monster Squad" instead of "The Goonies" and a little girl instead of Chunk.It is a formula made for little boys, and, believe it or not, it aged just as well as The Goonies.