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The Monster Squad I remember seeing ads for this one when I was a kid. I was obsessed with the Universal monsters from a very young age, and I knew that this was something I had to see. I was too young to go to this during its theatrical release, but several years later I convinced my parents to rent it for me. I would probably end up renting this movie at least half a dozen more times before finally acquiring a DVD copy. The plot involves Dracula trying to destroy an amulet so that he can tip the balance of good and evil in evil’s favor. Dracula assembles an army of the Wolfman, the Gillman, the Mummy, and the Frankenstein Monster to assist him. Only a group of outcast kids stands in his way.  Director Fred Dekker and writer Shane Black create a loving tribute to the Universal Monsters of the 30s, 40s, and 50s. It is a stark contrast to the slasher films that dominated the box office at the time. This is more of a PG13 movie that balances humor with horror. The movie definitely has comedic scenes at the expense of the monsters, but it never downplays their potential as threats. Dracula, in particular, seems much more villainous than ever. A lot of the credit for the atmosphere of this movie should go out to Stan Winston and the rest of the special effects team for the amazing creature design. The main downside to this movie is that while it captures childhood really well, it does include a lot of casual homophobia in the kid’s dialogue. While there is a certain degree of authenticity in this, that wouldn’t make it any more palatable for someone watching this outside of its original context. This is very much the definition of a cult film. While it’s somewhat well-known, it is really isn't the easiest movie to track down – the blu ray is out of print, and this isn’t on any major streaming services. Although this doesn’t have the lasting pop-cultural impact of its influences such as The Goonies or The Ghostbusters, this still remains a staple of my October viewing and one that I will watch every Halloween. The Complete Movie of the Month Listing: 1776 | 2001: A Space Odyssey | 24 Hour Party People | 8 1/2 | The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension | Aguirre: The Wrath of God | All That Jazz | American Movie | Baraka | The Battle of Algiers | Being There | Beyond the Valley of the Dolls | Bicycle Thief | Black Hawk Down | Blade | Branded to Kill | The Brave Little Toaster | Breaking Away | The Bridge on the River Kwai | Bullet in the Head | Charade | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang | Close-Up | The Conversation | The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover | Day For Night | The Court Jester | Death Race 2000 | Dead Man | Darkman | Detour | Devils on the Doorstep | Double Indemnity | Downfall | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | El Topo | Falling Down | A Face In The Crowd | Fanny and Alexander | Fat City | Funny Bones | Galaxy Quest | Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai | Glengarry Glen Ross | Gremlins 2: The New Batch | Horor of Dracula | La Haine | The Ice Storm | The Intruder | It's a Wonderful Life | Judgement at Nuremberg | Jumanji | The King of Comedy | Last Train From Gun Hill | The Leopard | The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp | Little Shop of Horrors | Living in Oblivion | The Long Goodbye | Love & Death | M | Masculin Féminin | Man on Fire | The Man Who Would Be King | Modern Times | | The Monster Squad | Mousehunt | Mulholland Drive | My Best Friend's Wedding | My Darling Clementine | My Own Private Idaho | Naked | Outland | The Panic in Needle Park | Peeping Tom | Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Play Time | The Proposition | Punishment Park | The Pusher Trilogy | Rififi/Rashômon | The Ref | Rock 'n' Roll High School | Ronin | The Rules of the Game | Safe | Schizopolis | Son of Frankenstein | The Squid and the Whale | Stop Making Sense | The Super Inframan | Sunset Boulevard | Surviving The Game | The Sweet Hereafter | The Third Man | Titicut Follies | Vampyr | The Vanishing | Videodrome | The Wild Bunch | Wit | Withnail & I | The Young Girls of Rochefort | Zardoz
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Oct 1, 2014 03:43
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 19:38 |
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I saw this at a special screening in Los Angeles around 6 years back or something. The director, some of the actors, and I believe one of the producers was there. They did a little Q&A after the film as well. It was a great time, they were all quite nice and told some great and interesting anecdotes about making the film. It was also the first time I had ever seen the film. I went with a friend who loved the movie from their childhood. I must have been the only one there who hadn't seen the film. I enjoyed it, but it certainly is one of those films you had to see when you were a kid to truly love it. Maybe I should give it another go this Halloween. I also had the exact same experience with Return of the Living dead maybe 7 years ago oddly enough. Special screening with cast and crew, never had seen the film before that night. However I enjoyed the film much more and it remains one of my favorite zombie flicks to this day. Damo fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Oct 1, 2014 |
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Oct 1, 2014 06:43
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Damo posted:I saw this at a special screening in Los Angeles around 6 years back or something. The director, some of the actors, and I believe one of the producers was there. They did a little Q&A after the film as well. It was a great time, they were all quite nice and told some great and interesting anecdotes about making the film. It's funny you mentioned ROTLD because I almost ended up switching to that one yesterday. It also balances horror and humor really well. The reason I didn't switch though is because ROTLD always gets hyped up around here. I wanted to go with something that's not talked about as often. I also felt there's a bit of relevance with the Monster Squad right now as Universal is planning on getting all the monsters together again, and I really don't think their efforts will be as successful as this. There's been a few attempts since this one to recreate the old monster rallies - there's a made for TV of House of Frankenstein (1997) that uses werewolves, Frankenstein and Dracula. It's exactly what a bunch of producers thought what "goth" was. There's also that lovely Van Helsing movie from 2003 or so. The new Dracula looks terrible, but there's an off chance that it might be good.
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Oct 2, 2014 00:48
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Monster Squad is superior to the Goonies in almost every way.
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Oct 2, 2014 02:36
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If you like The Monster Squad you should watch Night of the Creeps. A few of the same people are behind it, and it's a bit more adult in nature.
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Oct 2, 2014 18:18
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Dynamite-chucking Dracula is the superior incarnation of the character.
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Oct 2, 2014 21:12
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It's a genuine 80s classic that everyone should see at least once if they like Halloween at all.
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Oct 3, 2014 05:11
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Something that I really like about The Monster Squad is that it has a sense of danger to it, which really gives it an edge that is missing from other kid-centric movies. Like, yeah, it's goofy and weird and whatever, but it's made explicitly clear that the monsters aren't screwing around. And by acknowledging that, the film doesn't feel like it's talking down to its audience. The violence, when it does occur is dark and visceral (see: the exploding Wolfman, or the Creature From The Black Lagoon getting shotgunned to death). It's a movie that acts as both an homage, and a worthy addition to, the horror genre. Plus, you have Stan Winston riffing the classic Universal monsters, a fairly tight script by Shane Black, and bonus Tom Noonan. What's not to love? "Rudy, where you going?" "I'm in the goddamn club, aren't I?"
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Oct 6, 2014 03:30
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If you're in the Toronto area, you can catch screenings of Monster Squad all month at the Royal. I saw it there today (I usually watch it every year around this time), and the theater was depressingly empty. I'm very heartened to see that everyone in this thread seems to feel exactly like I do about this absolute gem of a movie.
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Oct 6, 2014 03:50
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Poor Rudy, he always felt like he strolled off the set of the R-rated version of this movie and found himself stuck saving the asses of these annoying kids. He's literally forced to murder half the opposition, it being like 90% of the opposition that actually *gets* killed, and all the ones that look like people. You know he's not walking that off.
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Oct 6, 2014 04:47
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Much like Blues Brothers taught me the address of Wrigley Field as a youth, The Monster Squad taught me the important facts concerning Wolfman and his nards.
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Oct 8, 2014 00:13
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Watch this movie if you wanna see Dracula use the line "Give me the amulet, you BITCH!" Also, there is an entire (now out of print) Lego series called Monster Fighters loosely based on this film. LOOSELY.
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Oct 9, 2014 19:35
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This is one of my all time favorite movies, I wore the vhs tape down to a nub when I was a kid. It makes me sad to see how toothless a lot of children's movies these days are. If Monster Squad was released today I'm almost sure it would get an R rating. Exploding wolfman, gently caress up Bat Dracula and the Black Lagoon Monster taking a shot gun shell to the neck were all really gory for a kids film. Is there any news on the remake? I see an article about it every now and then but nothing ever seems to come of it.
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Oct 10, 2014 08:09
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Your Gay Uncle posted:
I haven't heard anything solid about a remake. The new Dracula movie coming out tonight is supposed to kick off a shared universe for the Universal monsters though.
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Oct 10, 2014 12:56
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zVxTeflon posted:Monster Squad is superior to the Goonies in almost every way. The Goonies always struck me as popular purely for the nostalgia factor - I was an adult the first time I saw it and thought it was really dumb. I'll admit that The Monster Squad seems like I'd have the same reaction, so I've avoided it. I didn't know Stan Wilson was involved though, that makes me want to check it out.
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Oct 10, 2014 17:29
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Daveski posted:The Goonies always struck me as popular purely for the nostalgia factor - I was an adult the first time I saw it and thought it was really dumb. I'll admit that The Monster Squad seems like I'd have the same reaction, so I've avoided it. I didn't know Stan Wilson was involved though, that makes me want to check it out. Yea Goonies isn't a BAD movie but it's really not one that holds up when you watch it again as an adult. I haven't seen Monster Squad in ages either so yea maybe this is the same but I do know Night of the Creeps fuckin rules still.
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Oct 11, 2014 16:49
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The Goonies is a loving loud movie. Those kids scream and yell the entire time.
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Oct 11, 2014 21:26
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Monster Squad is one my all time favorites. There was a point in the mid-90's where it seemed like it almost didn't exist and then there was finally the DVD release. I hadn't seen it for years and was pleasantly surprised at well it held up. I wish more people made kids films with an edge. Super 8 was good but always seemed skewed toward the audience that grew up with those types of films rather than making it for the younger generation.
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Oct 11, 2014 22:50
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Crow_Rodeo posted:I wish more people made kids films with an edge. Super 8 was good but always seemed skewed toward the audience that grew up with those types of films rather than making it for the younger generation. It's weird, because those movies seemed to come and go as a genre solely in the '80s. I was trying to think of movies with child stars that have that little bit of edge where they curse and stuff, that puts it into that gray area where you could get your parents to let you watch it but you had to be sneaky about it, and I can't think of one from any other decade.
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Oct 12, 2014 15:25
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I loved Monster Squad growing up. I always thought Rudy was the coolest cat around. Sad about Fat Kid dying, though  Especially since he has one of the better lines in the movie: "My name" (cocks gun) "is Horace."
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Oct 14, 2014 13:44
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Dingleberry Jones posted:I loved Monster Squad growing up. I had no idea Horace was dead As a husky boy myself growing up he was my favorite character. The best part of the movie for me was when he slammed the garlic bread into Dracula's face.
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Oct 16, 2014 10:31
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...of SCIENCE! posted:Dynamite-chucking Dracula is the superior incarnation of the character. I just watched this movie recently for the first time and that scene sold me on the movie entirely. I had no idea that was gonna happen. The whole movie was fun though. I would have loved it as a kid, I think.
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Oct 20, 2014 07:18
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Tatum Girlparts posted:Yea Goonies isn't a BAD movie but it's really not one that holds up when you watch it again as an adult. I haven't seen Monster Squad in ages either so yea maybe this is the same but I do know Night of the Creeps fuckin rules still. This was kind of my take on Monster Squad. I absolutely adored it as a kid, but I saw it again last year and was thoroughly bored. It has some interesting scenes and effects, and I really dug the new takes on Wolfman and The Creature, but overall it just wasn't something I could get into.
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Oct 21, 2014 01:25
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CopywrightMMXI posted:The Goonies is a loving loud movie. Those kids scream and yell the entire time. I had the bad luck to watch it for the first time as an adult and to this day I swear it really is "like babysitting without getting paid for it." On the other hand, "Monster Squad" was pretty awesome. I watched it during a binge of Halloweeny horror-comedies I'd missed as an extremely sensitive preteen and it was one of the best of the lot along with "Evil Dead 2" and "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes".
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Oct 21, 2014 22:43
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Great choice! My cousin and I would rent the hell out of this movie back in the day. I haven't seen it lately so I'm not sure if the nostalgia holds up but I'm a goofy guy so I'd probably get a kick out of it, still. 
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Oct 24, 2014 20:09
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jeeves posted:Watch this movie if you wanna see Dracula use the line "Give me the amulet, you BITCH!" I always loved the story behind the scene. The guy playing Dracula refused to do another take because he legit scared the hell out of the little girl and felt horrible about it.  I grew up on this movie and recently revisited it. The main thing I take away from it now is random Holocaust reference out of nowhere!
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Oct 25, 2014 19:53
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Wasn't one of the actors a child molester? I just quickly need to substantiate my words by adding that Donner/Black really knocked them out of the park when he was firing on all cylinders. But we have Rattner and Bay now, so it's all good. verdigris murder fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Oct 26, 2014 |
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Oct 26, 2014 23:20
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 19:38 |
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I remember friends talking about this years and years ago. I must've been in grade school. It's geared for kids obviously so I found it to follow a pretty formulaic route. When that opening segment ended I said aloud "present day" and then those words appeared  In the horror genre one of the tests I use to gauge if I'm buying into the story is whether or not I want the protagonist(s) to survive. Well, this group of punks didn't pass.
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Oct 31, 2014 00:17
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