That being said, the films in this year's Halloween Movie Madness are a little on the tamer side (especially compared to last year's line-up). But, despite being a bit on the tamer side of the scary stuff, they are still enjoyable films nevertheless. This series is a celebration of the diversity in horror films.
The first movie we are screening is The Monster Squad next week, October 1.
The Monster Squad was originally released in 1987 and is directed by Fred Dekker. The Monster Squad is arguably the movie Dekker is most well-known for, though he did only direct four films (Robocop 3 is the other well-known movie). Despite being directed by an unknown director and starring a cast made up mostly by unknowns as well, the movie has developed an extremely large cult following over the years. When one of you're characters is Scary German Guy, you are bound to develop a strong cult following.l
The premise of the movie is built like that of The Goonies. It revolves around a backyard club that some local middle school boys have formed called The Monster Squad. They meet in their tree house to discuss monsters, naturally. Discussions range from where monsters come from, how to kill them, and they even debate whether Wolf Man really does deserve the "Man" half of his name. Little does The Monster Squad know that their world of monsters is about to become much more real than they could ever imagine. Count Dracula shows up and has brought together his fellow Universal monsters from the classic 1930s-40s films: Frankenstein, Wolf Man, the Mummy, and Gill Man (Creature from the Black Lagoon). His plans are, of course, to take over the world with the use of an ancient amulet that has been hidden in the kids' little suburb.
As I said, The Monster Squad borrows a great deal from The Goonies and definitely attempted to ride its popularity coat tails. Unfortunately, it was not as immediately as successful in the theaters and became destined for underground and cult followings. Despite it's disappointments in its early years, The Monster Squad has become a classic film that any fan of 80s films should see at some point in their life. Seeing it for the first time, you won't be able to help yourself from comparing it to The Goonies, but it does separate itself upon further viewing. It is easily just as funny as The Goonies and has just as many quotable lines.
The film's idea has it's origins in the classic Universal horror films from the 1940s. After each of these monster had their solo movies, the studios began bringing them together to spare off against each other. The Monster Squad goes a step further and brings them ALL together and has the kids fighting them all at once; the ultimate in Good vs. Evil. The filmmakers acknowledge the source material for their movie and pay dutiful homage to those films. One moment was particularly poignant for me (poignant isn't exactly the word you'd expect to be used with a movie like this, but...). In the original Frankenstein, there is a scene where the Monster approaches a little girl throwing flowers into a stream. She shows him how to do it, but when they run out of flowers he throws her in, thinking she will float as well. There is almost a shot for shot recreation of that scene in The Monster Squad, but it does not end so tragically.
The similarities to The Goonies are much more evident and some of the characters seem like exact copies. The Monster Squad fights through these comparisons and establishes itself as its own being. On close inspection, it is clear that this movie is not nearly as family-friendly as The Goonies. There are frightening scenes in this film that would be right at home in an average horror movie. The director cleverly laces some of these frightening scenes with just the right touch of humor and absurdity, and that is what makes this film great in my eyes. It is able to find a delicate balance between being a good horror film for kids and adults and being....The Goonies.
The Monster Squad will be screened on Wednesday, October 1 at 6:00pm in the Freedom Regional Library Community Room. It is free of charge and there will be free popcorn as well! Hope to see you there!
Until next time....
P.S. The creature make-up for the movie was done by the late, great Stan Winston and his studio. Stan Winston never disappoints.
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