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The Monster Squad
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The Monster Squad is a comedy/horror film written by Shane Black and Fred Dekker and directed by Fred Dekker (who also wrote/directed Night of the Creeps). It was released by Tri-Star Pictures on August 14, 1987. The film features the classic monsters (re-imagined by a team of special effects artists including Stan Winston), led by Dracula (Duncan Regehr).
Monster Squad is a society of young teenagers who idolize classic monsters and monster movies.
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Encyclopedia
The Monster Squad is a comedy/horror film written by Shane Black and Fred Dekker and directed by Fred Dekker (who also wrote/directed Night of the Creeps). It was released by Tri-Star Pictures on August 14, 1987. The film features the classic monsters (re-imagined by a team of special effects artists including Stan Winston), led by Dracula (Duncan Regehr).
Plot
The Monster Squad is a society of young teenagers who idolize classic monsters and monster movies. In addition to a clubhouse in a tree, they actually have their own business cards. Club leader Sean (Andre Gower), whose five-year-old sister Phoebe (Ashley Bank) desperately wants to join the club, is given the diary of legendary vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing (Jack Gwillim) - but his excitement is somewhat toned down when he finds it's written in German. Sean, his best friend Patrick (Robby Kiger), and the rest of the Monster Squad get their local "Scary German Guy" (Leonardo Cimino) to translate the diary. (When he is asked how he knows so much, he tells them cryptically that he has "some experience with monsters." When the children leave his home and he closes the front door, a concentration-camp number tattoo is revealed on his forearm.)
The diary describes, in great detail, an amulet that is composed of concentrated good. One day out of every century, as the forces of good and evil reach a balance, the otherwise-indestructible amulet becomes vulnerable to destruction. The next day of balance falls within a couple days, at the stroke of midnight.
The kids realize they must gain possession of the amulet before the day of balance arrives; once they have the amulet, the kids can use it -- with an incantation from Van Helsing's diary -- to open a hole in the universe and cast the monsters into Limbo. As shown in the prelude, van Helsing had unsuccessfully attempted this one hundred years ago in order to defeat his old adversary Count Dracula; he subsequently hid the amulet in America, where it was out of Dracula's immediate reach. Dracula, meanwhile, must obtain the amulet before the Monster Squad does, so that the Count can take control of the world. To this end he assembles several monstrous allies: Frankenstein's monster, a werewolf (a reluctant ally in his human form), a mummy, and an amphibious gill-man, in addition to three young women whom the Count transforms into his vampiric consorts.
The amulet turns out to be buried in a stone room, under a house that Dracula and the other monsters now occupy. The aforementioned room is littered with holy symbols, including crucifixes, which prevents the monsters from simply taking it. Luckily, the Monster Squad has the assistance of Patrick's lovely-but-nameless elder sister (Lisa Fuller), because the incantation must be read by a virgin, and she's the only person they know who speaks German. Sadly she is failing German and technically not a virgin ("Well, Steve... but he doesn't count.") Additional help comes from Sean's father, a local police detective who was at first highly sceptical of Sean's hobby and the seriousness of the case, and Frankenstein, who defects after befriending Phoebe, who ultimately is the virgin needed to read the incantation with the assistance of "Scary German Guy".
Cast
The Monster Squad
- Andre Gower ... Sean Crenshaw (as André Gower)
- Robby Kiger ... Patrick
- Brent Chalem ... Horace
- Ryan Lambert ... Rudy
- Michael Faustino ... Eugene
- Ashley Bank ... Phoebe Crenshaw
The Monsters
Supporting Cast
Home video
The film was first released by Vestron Video in 1988. It was the film's only VHS release.
A 20th Anniversary Reunion of The Monster Squad was held with cast members and Director Fred Dekker in attendance in April 2006 in Austin, Texas at the Alamo Drafthouse. This reunion was put together by the staff at Ain't It Cool News, who were longtime fans of the film and on a whim decided to reach out and try to connect the cast for a special screening. Two shows were held at the theatre; both sold out with lines formed around the block; some audience members flew from as far as California to watch the film. It was at this screening that Dekker had urged any interested fans to write the copyright holders via snail-mail.. Aint It Cool News also broke the news of the dvd release in January, 2007. Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures approached Lionsgate Studios to produce and release the 20th anniversary edition.
The Monster Squad two-disc 20th anniversary special edition DVD was released by Lionsgate on July 24, 2007, and contains a wide range of special features including a 5-part 90 minute retrospective documentary, 2 audio commentaries, deleted scenes, the theatrical trailer, a tv spot, animated storyboards, and more. Since the release date of the DVD it has remained on the Amazon.com top seller list as of October 7, 2007. A soundtrack album is available from the Intrada label.
The special edition DVD also makes a few references to the death of Brent Chalem, who played "Horace", of pneumonia in 1997. Chalem's childhood film career failed to generate much success into adulthood, forcing him to become a paralegal.
Remake
According to Bloody Disgusting, a remake of The Monster Squad is being produced by Rob Cohen and is currently in the planning stages.
External links
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