Movie of the Day – The Monster Squad

by • Animated Gif, Awesome Stuff • Tags: creature from the black lagoon, dracula, fat kid, frankenstein, fred dekker, horace, horror, horror films, jon gries, monsters, mummy, scary movies, shane black, stan winston, the monster squad, van helsing, wolfman

He's so much cooler than Hugh Jackman.

From The Monster Squad – Buy it here

Yeah, I know.  Nostalgia can cloud one’s mind in regards to things they loved as a kid and can make things that are not good seem so much better than they are.   Well, fuck that.  This movie still works for me and thanks to the wonders of bullet points I will explain why I will always be down with the sqaud:

  • Shane “Jeez you got a big pussy” Black and Fred Dekker wrote it and it’s a pretty fun script.
  • It’s a movie for kids that doesn’t talk down to them.
  • Look at these awesome creature designs.  :
  • Duncan Regehr completely owns as Dracula.  It’s probably my favorite version of Dracula ever.  Apologies to Bela Legosi and Gerard Butler.
  • The kids all felt real and not completely over the top (which The Goonies falls victim to unfortunately).  This definitely helped me in enjoying the movie as a child and it helps now as I don’t feel the need to slap these kids’ shit.
  • It has one of the best werewolf designs ever. Jon Gries sells the hell out of the role. TRIVIA TIME: The face of the werewolf is modeled after Stan Winston’s face.  R.I.P.
  • Tom “THE RIPPER” Noonan is Frankenstein’s Monster.  That’s just super cool.  He is awesome.
  • The Creature design is one of the BEST VERSIONS of the monster ever.  Stan Winston and his team KILLED IT in the design department on this movie.
  • Leonardo Cimino as Scary German Guy and the out of place concentration camp backstory that is never brought up again.
  • The montage scene.
  • Horace and his redemption. R.I.P. Brent Chalam.
  • Hugh Jackman is nowhere to be found.
  • And of course, “Wolfman’s got nards!“