The Monster Squad

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The Monster Squad
Image:Monstersquadposter.jpg
US film poster
Directed by Fred Dekker
Produced by Jonathan A. Zimbert
Written by Shane Black &
Fred Dekker
Starring Brent Chalem
Leonardo Cimino
Michael Faustino
Lisa Fuller
Andre Gower
Jack Gwillam
Jason Hervey
Robby Kiger
Ryan Lambert
Stephen Macht
Tom Noonan
Duncan Regehr
Music by Bruce Broughton
Cinematography Bradford May
Editing by James Mitchell
Distributed by TriStar Pictures
Release date(s) August 14, 1987 (USA)
Running time 82 min
Country USA
Language English
Budget $12,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue $3,769,990 (USA)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile
This article is about the film. For the TV series, see Monster Squad

The Monster Squad is a comedy/horror film written by Shane Black and Fred Dekker and directed by Fred Dekker (who also wrote/directed Night of the Creeps). It was released by Tri-Star Pictures on August 14, 1987. The film features the reunion of a number of classic monsters, led by Dracula (Duncan Regehr) and including Frankenstein's monster (Tom Noonan), The Wolf Man (Carl Thibault), The Mummy (Michael Reid MacKay), and the Gill-man (Tom Woodruff Jr). The movie co-starred: late greats Brent Chalem and Jack Gwillam; Michael Faustino (brother of Married...With Children's David Faustino); The Wonder Years star Jason Hervey; Children of the Corn star Robby Kiger (whose real-life sister Randi is also an actress); and Ryan Lambert, former star of Kids Incorporated and current lead singer of Elephone.

Contents

[edit] Plot Summary

The Monster Squad is a society of young teenagers who idolize classic monsters and monster movies. In addition to a clubhouse in a tree, they actually have their own business cards. Club leader Sean (Andre Gower), whose younger sister desperately wants to join the club, is given the diary of legendary vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing (Jack Gwillam). Sean, his best friend Patrick (Robby Kiger), and the rest of the Monster Squad get their local "Scary German Guy" (Leonardo Cimino) to translate the diary from German to English. (When he is asked how he knows so much, he tells them cryptically that he has "some experience with monsters." When the children leave his home and he closes the front door, the concentration-camp tattoo is revealed on his forearm.)

The diary describes, in great detail, an amulet that is composed of concentrated good. One day out of every century, as the forces of good and evil reach a balance, the otherwise-indestructible amulet becomes vulnerable to destruction. The next day of balance falls within a couple days, at the stroke of midnight.

The kids realize they must gain possession of the amulet before the day of balance arrives; once they have the amulet, the kids can use that--with an incantation from Van Helsing's diary--to open a hole in the universe and cast the monsters into Limbo. Dracula's monsters, meanwhile, must obtain the amulet before the Monster Squad does...so that the Count can take control of the world.

The amulet turns out to be buried in a stone room, under a house that Dracula and the other monsters occupy. The aforementioned room is littered with holy symbols, including crucifixes, which prevents the monsters from simply taking it.

So does the Monster Squad prepare to save civilization from becoming one big Transylvania...or meet a fate worse than death trying. Luckily, they have the assistance of Patrick's lovely-but-nameless elder sister (Lisa Fuller)...because the incantation must be read by a virgin, and she's the only person they know who speaks German. Sadly she is failing German, and not a technicly a virgin, "Well, Steve but he doesn't count." Additional help comes from a single good monster: Frankenstein's Creature, who defects after befriending Sean's kid sister Phoebe (Ashley Bank), who ultimately is the virgin needed to read the incantation; with the assistance of "Scary German Guy".

[edit] Monster designs

The monsters' makeup and design differs from the original films that The Monster Squad draws from, as Universal Studios still owned the trademarks to those designs and would not allow the filmmakers their use. In all comparison, however, the designs which appeared in the film are produced utilizing what was then modern day technology to bring them to life, and so have a somewhat more striking visual appearance, particularly in the cases of the Frankenstein Monster, Gill Man costume, and Wolf Man costumes. Dracula's basic appearance in Monster Squad isn't entirely dissimilar from his Universal Studios incarnation, though there are enough differences that Universal was not able to sue over trademark infringement. Ironically, however, the movie was filmed on the Universal Studios backlot.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
Jon Gries, the actor who plays Uncle Rico in the film Napoleon Dynamite, plays the werewolf in human form. Gries also played a werewolf in Fright Night Part II, released the following year.

David Proval of The Sopranos and Mean Streets fame appears in the film as one of the pilots carrying Frankenstein's body aboard the bomber.

Andre Gower's character desperately begs his father to see a horror film called Groundhog Day Part 12, which spoofs multi-sequel calendar date themed horror movie-titles like Halloween and Friday the 13th. Groundhog Day, a romantic comedy staring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, was filmed in 1993.

Tom Woodruff Jr. who plays the Gill Man also played the role of the xenomorph in several of the Alien movies, including Alien vs. Predator.

On the 20th anniversary DVD, Dekker mentioned that The Little Rascals were character inspiration. There are three "Little Rascal" inspired details in the movie:

  • 1) The clubhouse where the gang gathers.
  • 2) The sign on the clubhouse door said "No Girls", a trademark little rascal rule
  • 3) Eugene's dog is named Pete, Little Rascals dog is Petey.

[edit] Availability

A 20th Anniversary Reunion of The Monster Squad was held with cast members and Director Fred Dekker in attendance in February 2007. Previously, Dekker had urged any interested fans to write the copyright holders via snail-mail.[1]

The Monster Squad two-disc 20th anniversary special edition DVD was released by Lionsgate on July 24, 2007, and contains a wide range of special features including a 5-part retrospective documentary, 2 audio commentaries, deleted scenes, the theatrical trailer, a tv spot, animated storyboards, and more.[2] Since the release date of the DVD it has remained on the Amazon.com top seller list as of October 7, 2007. A soundtrack album is available from the Intrada label.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=23100 MONSTER SQUAD Q&A with Dekker and Cast! Trivia! Pics! And DVD info!!! at Ain't it Cool News
  2. ^ http://www.realitytvdvd.com/the-monster-squad-dvd

[edit] References

Jones, Stephen, ed. The Illustrated Werewolf Movie Guide. London: Titan Books, 1996. (page 110) ISBN 1-85286-658-6

[edit] External links

ru:Команда чудовищ (фильм)

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