Halloween Horrorfest: The Monster Squad

"Wolfman's got nards!"

Oh, sweet nostalgia, that's what The Monster Squad is to me. Directed by Fred Dekker from a script by Dekker and Shane Black, this film can be best summed up at The Goonies with the Universal Monsters. Really, it's a tribute to the great, classic monsters while updating it to modern day America (well, modern day circa 1987). 

The film centers on a group of kids, Sean (played by Andre Gower), Patrick (played by Robby Kiger), Rudy (played by Ryan Lambert) and Horace (played by Brent Chalem). The group is an unofficial monster club, hanging out in Sean's tree house, which is decorated by plenty of monster memorabilia. Unbeknownst to them, real life monsters, lead by Dracula (played by Duncan Regehr) are descending on their small town, on a mission to destroy an amulet that can open a portal to banish the monsters forever. Sean and the others stumble onto the plan and realize they are the only ones equipped to stop them. 

There are several things about this movie that I've always loved. First, the kids in this film were well drawn characters. I know I always could relate to them, especially Sean as I was likewise very much into the horror genre (never quite grew out of that one). Two, I loved that they didn't water down the monsters for the kiddie crowd and it definitely earns it's PG-13 rating. These guys were seriously scary, especially Dracula, which has been cited more than once as one of the best renditions, ever. To add to this, the monster designs by Stan Winston are a nice update of the original Universal renditions and are still impressive to me to this day.  

Of course, the movie is firmly planted in it's Eighties roots, with it's pop song montages and styles, but at the same time I feel like that's part of it's charm. The film never takes itself too seriously and is the better for it. From knowing winks to the audience to taking shots at teen slasher franchises like Friday the 13th, it has it's tongue firmly planted in it's cheek. Yeah, there are a few cheesy moments here and there, but by and large it is a very entertaining little film and perfect Halloween viewing for the entire family.