The Monster Squad (1987)
A group of kids with a shared interest in monsters, particularly those of 1930s and 40s movie fame, form a gang. They call it "The Monster Squad". After school, they hang out in a treehouse talking all things monster. While watching the film, I could never figure out how many kids are actually in The Monster Squad. It looks like there are five, maybe six, members. There's club leader Sean (Andre Gower) and his best friend Patrick (Robby Kiger). There's also Horace (Brent Chalem) who is mostly referred to as "Fat Kid" by both his bullies and his friends. And there's Rudy who wants to join the gang for whatever reason. He's older and clearly much cooler than the other members, and doesn't really know much about monsters, but is allowed in anyway. Sean's five-year-old sister Phoebe also wants to join, but is usually refused entry to the tree house by her brother. And there's finally Eugene, a young kid who seems a bit of a random inclusion.
Making things more exciting for The Monster Squad is the convenient arrival of real monsters in their town. 100 years before the movie's events, Van Helsing attempted to defeat Dracula and his cronies, but failed. Every one hundred years, an indestructible amulet containing good becomes vulnerable. If this can be destroyed, evil can become the dominant force on Earth. Dracula failed to destroy it during his encounter with Van Helsing, and the amulet was hidden somewhere in the USA. But, as 100 years have passed, Drac's back, and he's looking for the amulet. Find it, destroy it, and evil can rule the world. Accompanying Dracula on his mission is Frankenstein's Monster, The Creature from the Black Lagoon ("Gill-man"), The Mummy, The Wolf-Man, and three of Dracula's brides.
Somehow, Sean's mum has managed to purchase Van Helsing's diary from a yard sale. Unfortunately, it's written in German, because clearly a Dutch vampire slayer would write his journal in German. Fortunately, a Creepy German Guy who spends the earlier part of the movie peering at the kids through his curtains, isn't actually a Creepy German Guy. And he reveals that the day that the amulet becomes vulnerable is actually the following day. Convenient or what?
As expected, The Monster Squad make it their mission to prevent this. It turns out they have Frankenstein's Monster on their side, as although Dracula sent him out to kill the kids, Frankenstein's Monster just wants a friend.
Although the plot is clearly very contrived, it still seems to have promise. Sadly, it isn't executed very well. The film is all over the place. It feels like a chunk of the story's development was cut out of it, as it's never really explained how Dracula knows where to look for the amulet, or how the kids make the decision that they must take on the monsters. There are also scenes that seem largely irrelevant. The police are investigating things, but they aren't really. Why aren't they concerned that a mummy appears to have gone missing from a museum, or there's a violent man who actually asks them to arrest him because he's a werewolf? Sean and Patrick are warned about their behaviour by their headteacher early in the film, but this goes nowhere. And Sean's parents are going through marriage difficulties, and although they try not to argue in front of the kids, they fail. But the kids are more interested in fighting monsters, so there's no real need for the film to have that plot element.
And just who is the target audience of the film? It feels like the filmmakers couldn't decide whether to make it for kids or teens - so they aimed for both, and nailed neither. The young cast and Scooby-Doo style storyline seem to put it firmly in family-film territory, but the language, sexual references, and some of the monster effects and death scenes put it in more teen movie territory. None of the content is explicit or horrific, but it just felt imbalanced.
Of course, when done well, family films can remain suitable for children, and can contain references and in-jokes for the adults - films in the Shrek and Toy Story franchises manage this brilliantly. The Monster Squad feels a lot like The Goonies, but whereas the latter got the balance just right - a kids' film that contains just enough grown up stuff to not feel like a kids' film, The Monster Squad has Dracula calling five-year-old Phoebe a "bitch" to her face, while Eugene complains about monsters living in his closet and stealing his Twinkies. And if the intended audience was an older one, make sure this decision is clear and stick to it. Gremlins, Ghostbusters and Adventures in Babysitting are three other 80s films that managed to do so, and became much more successful for it.
Despite its flaws, The Monster Squad does have some things going for it. It pays homage to the movies that provide its subject matter. The monsters all look great, and some of the effects are brilliant. The temptation is to make them cartoon villains, but the characters are all played straight. Dracula is menacing, you kind of feel sorry for the Wolf Man. And Frankenstein's Monster's befriending of the group is well done. There's even a scene which almost mirrors the lake scene in the original Frankenstein movie from 1931. The squad themselves though aren't all that endearing. They're quite obnoxious and you don't find yourself rooting for them like you would with The Goonies. Still, it's got a great soundtrack, and has a very vibrant, colourful, 80s feel. It's only a short film, around 80 minutes in length, but because it feels quite unstructured, it actually feels longer. The film's climax seems to take up about a third of the film, and feels drawn out rather than being as intense as it could have been if it was shorter. Not bad, but it's understandable why it flopped on its original release. For some reason, it has something of a cult status nowadays. It does certainly capture a certain era, and maybe the idea of kids forming gangs and having adventures recaptures some nostalgic feels from the time. So it's not about the film itself, but about how it makes you feel. Hmmm, that's quite a philosophical end to this review. I impress myself sometimes.