Review by
Jason Abbey
Starring: Andre Gower, Roby Kiger, Duncan Regehr, Tom Noonan, Brent
Chalem
All Hail The Monster Squad, possibly the best kids horror film you have never seen. Created by
Black & Dekker. That's director Fred Dekker, creator of the
nifty
Night of the Creeps
and the stinkier than a Camembert-smeared tramps vest
Robocop 3, and Shane Black, the yo-yo creator of '80s action series
Lethal Weapon and now a box office success directing
Iron Man 3. This should have been a barnstorming success, however, with a gross of
just over $3 million in the States and a decidedly low key release in the
UK, this film has undeservedly slipped from the public view. It's ripe for
reappraisal.
The Monster Squad of the title is a group of pre-adolescents, a gang
devoted to horror and gore, whose knowledge of the Arcane and Fangoria
come in handy when their small town is invaded by a who's who of
Universal's horror back catalogue looking to take over the world with a
special amulet. If the likes of JJ Abrams were to pitch this today the
studios would be throwing money at him. A film with Dracula, The Mummy,
Wolfman, Frankenstein's Monster and the Gil Man (guessing they didn't have
the rights to Creature from the Black Lagoon) being made now would have the fanboys frothing and the Internet abuzz
with excitement.
Maybe it was just too quirky for its own good. Visually it still looks
solid and the make up effects from the Stan Winston studio still hold up
today. OK, the songs are an audible travesty but that pretty much covers
most '80s Hollywood films. What it does have is a sharp-as-a-razor script
with genuinely funny moments, a surprisingly filthy mind for a kids' film,
and it does that immensely difficult balancing act for this type of thing
in making the film funny when it's supposed to be and also genuinely scary
and frightening at the same time.
This is a film so clearly invested with love by the creators for its
genre, so infused with the sheer pleasure of childhood old school horror
marathons that it's impossible not to be swept up in its charms. Its
awkwardness and idiosyncrasies make it distinct from so much of the Amblin
blandness that Spielberg's family unit was churning out and more in tune
with the spiky "anything goes" sensibilities of Joe Dante at his best.
It's difficult to imagine a modern day kids' film revealing that town
Bogeyman “Scary German Guy” is in fact a holocaust survivor with the lines
“Man, you sure know a lot about monsters”, “Now that you mention it, I
suppose I do”, before closing a door to reveal his Concentration
Camp tattoo.
Far better than the overly earnest Super 8, far more caustic than The Goonies, this is a film to watch with a nostalgic glow as an adult or, even
better, sitting down with your kids and creating a whole new generation of
horror fans.
Ill served by Universal's recent horror retreads, you can't help but think
they would have been improved by Emily Blunt kicking Benicio Del Toro in
the unmentionables and uttering the immortal line “Wolfman's got
nards”.
