Hi! Welcome back to the theater!
Tonight, continuing the horror comedy theme, we'll be looking at 1987's 'The Monster Squad.' Directed by Fred Dekker, the plot is essentially "The Goonies vs. the Universal Studios Monsters."
Going into more detail, a group of neighborhood kids begin to suspect monsters are planning on invading their town, and with help from an eccentric elderly man known simply as 'Scary German Guy,' they learn why this is happening. Essentially, the forces of good and evil, while constantly struggling with each other, usually remain more or less evenly balanced. There is apparently a magic glowing talisman made of pure concentrated good which helps keep things that way, and is normally indestructible. However, on one night every hundred years, the talisman becomes vulnerable, and if it is destroyed on that night, that will enable the forces of evil to prevail and conquer the world. Count Dracula of course desires for this to happen, so he enlists the aid of a resurrected Mummy, a Wolf Man, the Gill- Man (Aka the Creature from the Black Lagoon), and Frankenstein's Monster to help him track down the talisman -Which of course happens to be located in our heroes' home town- so he can destroy it on the night in question. He also turns three young women into his vampire brides to make things a little more interesting.
When the kids, who call themselves 'The Monster Squad,' learn about this, they also learn about a special ritual that can stop this from happening and send all the monsters to Limbo. They befriend the Frankenstein Monster, create whatever monster- killing weapons they can (In an amusing 80's montage, no less), and get ready for a showdown with the fate of the world in their young hands.
There are some problems I have with 'The Monster Squad,' mainly revolving around Dracula. He doesn't seem that effective of a villain in this one, he doesn't get truly threatening and evil until the last third or so of the movie. When your henchmen are more intimidating than you (More on that a little ways below), that tends to be a problem. There's also what I think is an error; Early on in the film, you see that Dracula and the crate containing Frankenstein (He wouldn't be revived until a later scene) get to America by plane, and he drops himself and the crate out of the plane when spotted; Problem is, it looked like it was still daylight out when that happened. One final issue is that it seems like 'The Monster Squad' isn't sure whether it wants to be a family comedy or a serious monster film, as shown by contrasting the goofy and lighthearted jokes early in the film and the two cute little kids that are the youngest members of the Monster Squad, to the frightening and rather graphic showdown in the film's climax.
That being said, there's still plenty to like about 'The Monster Squad.' Even though, as I said towards the start of the review, the kids in it are mostly the sort of archetypical characters that the Goonies were (The main kid who learns to be a leader, his wisecracking best friend, a cowardly fat kid who learns to be brave, a tough and cool older boy, a hot teen girl, etc.), they're all still a very likable bunch that are easy to sympathize with and root for. It has a lot of funny moments, usually involving the kids interacting with each other when there aren't any monsters around. There's also a now- legendary scene in which the fat kid Horace briefly stops the Wolf Man in a rather crude but freaking hilarious way.
While Dracula's not that great, the other monsters more than make up for it, due both to the great creature effects by the late Stan Winston and just generally the way in which they're presented. Frankenstein looks great, and Tom Noonan gives a wonderfully sympathetic performance as him. The Wolf Man is played by two actors: Jon Gries for the scenes when he's human (He does a great job playing him as a terrified, desperate man, particularly the first scene with him in which he's literally begging the police to lock him up for the night), and Carl Thibault for the scenes when he's a werewolf. He looks quite good as a werewolf and probably puts up the most fight of any of the monsters, with an awesome transformation scene about 2/3rds of the way into the movie. There is a VERY freaky scene in which you see what happens when someone tries to kill the Wolf Man with something other than a silver bullet. The Mummy is an appropriately shriveled- looking living corpse with a good shuffling walk. The Gill- Man is genuinely scary, between its face (It sort of resembles a piranha), its weird hissing and snarling sounds, and the fact that it tends to pop out at people quite a bit, like an underwater jack- in- the- box. Dracula's brides are terrifying, between their floaty walk and their hideously snarling faces. The big confrontation between the kids and the monsters in the climax and ending is intense, very satisfying, and even quite moving in the end.
And so, there you have 'The Monster Squad.' A good, entertaining movie which still holds up 24 years later. See you guys tomorrow!
