The Monster Squad (Two-Disc 20th Anniversary Edition)

Two decades after its brief and disastrous theatrical run, The Monster Squad holds up surprisingly well. Intended as a cross between the Our Gang comedies and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and marketed as Ghostbusters for the John Hughes crowd, Fred Dekker's comedy-horror treat is a lot more enjoyable than either unpromising pitch, not least because it's made not just with affection but some intelligence by people who love the classic Universal horrors, and more importantly it doesn't patronise or condescend - this is the kind of children's film that adults can genuinely enjoy themselves. (Just as well. In a typical fit of perversity, Britain's infamously unbalanced late film censor James Ferman gave the film a 15 certificate in the UK, thus preventing children from seeing it and ensuring its commercial death in that market: not because of the monsters but because he was offended that a six-year old girl is referred to - in the purely dictionary sense of the word - as a virgin!)

The plot is simplicity itself: a club of monster-mad school kids find themselves facing up to the real thing when their small town suddenly finds itself playing host to the Wolf Man, Frankenstein's monster (Tom Noonan), the Mummy, the Gill Man and Dracula (Duncan Regher, who avoided the other actors on the set to stay in character: "I thought he was just being a p***k" offers Noonan in the doc). Running a very tight 81-minutes, it never outstays its welcome or overplays its hand, for the most part playing it straight: rather than just go for cheap pratfalls, people do die at the hands of the monsters in the film, while Leonard Cimino's wonderful `Creepy German Guy' has one brief but memorably powerful moment that reminds the audience there are indeed real monsters in the world. The script could be a little sharper at times and most of the action is relegated to the last half-hour, where we find out just what happens when you blow up a werewolf (definitely need a silver bullet for that puppy), but the whole thing is just so darn likeable it barely matters.

The 2-disc Region 1 NTSC DVD offers a good widescreen transfer that highlights Fred Dekker's good use of the Scope frame and also boasts a good array of special features, though there are some deleted scenes that aren't included (but can be found on YouTube). Sadly the impressive feature-length documentary reveals that one of the squad died of pneumonia in his early 20s.

I saw this in the theater when I was in the 3rd grade, and fell in love with the movie. When it came out on video, it was a frequent selection of my little brother and I. As I grew up, the movie slipped my mind, until I realized my hubby had never seen it, and I tried to first rent, then buy a cheap used copy. Impossible!!! It was so frustrating, so it is so great they released this DVD. I rewatched it a few times, and although it wasn't the masterpiece I remember, it has held up pretty well. They jokes were still funny and the monsters scary. My fave character is "scary German guy." I'm on the fence about buying this, now that I've seen it again, I don't know if I would rewatch it much if I bought the DVD. My daughter is only 2 and 1/2 so it would be awhile before she could enjoy it. I guess I won't buy it, but I'm so glad I got to see it again and it got the rerelease it truly deserved. This is a wonderful movie and if you have kids in the 6-12 range, I think they would like it too.

When everyone kept talking about The Monster Squad and how good it was I wanted to see it for myself. I expected it to be a masterpiece having all the old Universal monsters in one movie and it was directed by Fred Dekker(Night of the Creeps), but it totally failed.

The plot was alright, but most kids won't be able to understand it. The movie also gets kind of boring, because the scenes focusing on the kids really weren't that interesting and jokes were not funny.

Anyways I would only recommend this to a fan of the Universal monster movies and fans of Fred Dekker, this defintly not better than his first movie "Night of the Creeps"

I have been watching this movie on an old vcr tape i copied from HBO years ago and was very happy to find it released on DVD and immediately added it to my collection. This movie would usually be classified as "for kids" but i am 50 years old and love it. It has a great story which is, in fact, centered about a bunch of kids, but hey, who doesent like to take a trip down memory lane once in a while? I am as entranced by it now as I was the first time i ever saw it. It has moments of humor though i suppose it would not satisfy someone who likes tons and tons of gore. It is a great movie to share with your kids, I always have.
The second disc had great features, I watched the whole thing and that is something I hardly ever do. it was nice to learn about the cast and what happened to them afterwards.

This it truly a great movie if you are tired of the same old monster movies. It's not scary. My family really likes the movie. Waited a long time for this movie to be released but it was well worth the wait.