Fred Dekker’s The Monster Squad was released on this day in 1987. Considering it’s basically The Goonies (a film nine-year-old me already adored) meets the Universal Monsters, I instantly became a fan. If you’ve never seen it before, it has a handful of aspects that may shock modern viewers, but these aspects are what place the movie firmly in cult film territory as opposed to the children’s classic milieu.
A prolog set in 1887 Transylvania sees legendary vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing (veteran actor Jack Gwillim) fail to destroy the nefarious Count Dracula (Duncan Regehr). Flash forward 100 years to Baton Rouge and we get to know a gang of horror-loving preteen misfits who call themselves “the Monster Squad.” Led by Sean (Andre Gower), there’s also his best friend Patrick (Robby Kiger), the bullied Horace aka “Fat Kid” (Brent Chalem, who later tragically died at the young age of 22), rebellious older kid Rudy (Ryan Lambert), precocious younger kid Eugene (Michael Faustino, brother of Married with Children’s David Faustino), and Sean’s kid sister Phoebe (Ashley Bank). When Dracula and his monstrous minions come to town searching for Van Helsing’s diary and a mystical amulet, the squad puts their knowledge of horror films to good use in an attempt to prevent the world from falling into darkness. Besides the king of the vampires, we also get Frankenstein’s monster (fan-favorite Tom Noonan), the Wolfman (Jon Gries and Carl Thibault), the Gillman (makeup effects guru Tom Woodruff, Jr), and the Mummy (Michael MacKay). There are subplots involving Holocaust survivor “Scary German Guy” (Leonardo Cimino) and the troubled marriage of Sean’s parents (Stephen Macht and Mary Ellen Trainor). Additionally, familiar faces Jason Hervey and Stan Shaw have minor roles.
Dekker coaxes naturalistic performances out of his young performers. They’re all very believable as fairly ordinary kids. However, my favorite efforts are probably from Regehr, whose Dracula is imposing and confident, and Noonan, who is funny and sympathetic as Frankenstein’s monster. Dekker co-wrote the script with best buddy Shane Black (writer of Lethal Weapon and writer/director of recent films The Nice Guys and The Predator). The duo does a nice job of paying tribute to the beloved Universal monster catalog while still leaving enough room for their preteen characters to breathe and own the film. At a brisk runtime of 79 minutes, they get in, tell their story, and get out. They do go a little overboard with the edginess, though, making junior high schooler Rudy a constant smoker, and deploying several homophobic slurs throughout the first fifteen minutes or so. Add that in with sexual references in a handful of spots and kids bloodily dispatching monsters and the tone of it all starts to feel a little odd. For me, it just seems of its time, but those elements may explain why it took so long for the movie to be released on DVD (it received a VHS release in ’88 but it didn’t show up on disc until 2007). In any case, the effects work is pretty great, with the legendary Stan Winston putting in some work on creature design. The Wolfman’s transformation, the realization of the Mummy, and the Gillman’s suit are all particularly well done. Additionally, Bruce Broughton delivers a memorable score, keying in on light creepiness and childlike wonder.
First-time viewers of Fred Dekker’s The Monster Squad may need some context, but the film has achieved cult status for a reason. I always thoroughly enjoy revisiting it. Recommended for fans of the Universal Monsters and The Goonies of course, as well as the original Bad News Bears and The Lost Boys.
Michael Cavender