“I’m in the Goddamn club, aren’t I?
-Rudy, Monster Squad (1987)
Nostalgia is a powerful emotion. It taps into deep-rooted memories using any and all of our senses. The smell of leaves at Fall can take you back to Halloween night when you were 9. Hearing an album can teleport you back to your friend’s bedroom when you first heard it and it changed your life. I don’t care who you are, everyone has a few pieces of nostalgia that they hold close to their heart. It’s that one thing that triggers a sense of belonging comfort, discovery, happiness or even sadness. For me, one of those pieces of nostalgia was renting and watching the 1987 film, Monster Squad. I mentioned renting because how I got to see the film is as important to this essay as the film itself. Nowadays, streaming media overwhelms us with the number of choices we can click and rent at our fingertips. While I love having so much access to films and TV shows, the modern process of renting a movie on streaming media lacks the commitment and investment it once had. The experience of renting movie in 1988 was exactly that, an experience. You can appreciate why films got the label “cult classic” when you see the process of renting films in the 1980’s.
When I was a kid we lived within walking distance of a very small video rental store called JTL Video. The store was family owned and operated. They employed mostly family members except for the one or two locals who got jobs there because they were friends with the owner’s kids or they just hung out there long enough until they were eventually put to work. The shop itself was barely bigger than a studio apartment. You’d walk in, and immediately there was that video store smell. It was mixture of new plastic and cheap carpet. If they made a candle scent for this, I’d buy it in bulk. You’d walk past a cardboard standee or two and the small rack of video games available for rent (which was market just starting to take off thanks to the boom on the NES). Then you’d come upon the glory of the wire racks and makeshift peg board shelves that were home to a couple hundred VHS boxes. Movies were separated into sections: new releases, horror, comedy, children, and drama. If you ventured toward the back of the store, you’d came upon a room with saloon style swinging doors and a sign above the doorway with two words, “Adults Only”. It wouldn’t be until years later that I learned that that room wasn’t where the really violent rated R movies were. When you bring the empty VHS box of the movie you wanted to rent to the counter, you’d get the grey or black case containing your rental. You’d also have the option to pick up a bag of generic microwave popcorn or maybe package of Reese’s Pieces.
My Mom and I would frequent JTL Video 2-3 nights a week. We’d rent just about anything, comedies, action, sci-fi or musicals. There was almost no limit to what we’d rent. I mean, Beastmaster was rented easily once a month as was Ice Pirates and Krull. But one genre we would never rent was horror. My parents weren’t into horror films. Which meant I wasn’t allowed to watch horror films. I was about 10 years old at the time and had never seen a horror film! I knew of the characters, (Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein’s monster etc) from other media like comics and TV shows. Oddly enough I was allowed to watch Dark Shadows (1966 and then eventually 1991 reboot), but only cause my mom liked it and didn’t see it as a horror show. But that was about to change.
Renting a film felt a bit like a ritual. First, you’d have to make plans to rent and watch a movie. There was usually a discussion with friends or family that to you were going to be renting a movie because acquiring that movie would have to be worked into your day. You would have to make time to drive, bike or walk to a video store. Which could take anywhere from 5-20 minutes in one direction. Then, on your way to the store, you’d make a mental or physical list of a few choices of what you hoped to rent that night. The list was crucial because there was no guarantee they’d have your first choice, especially if it was a new release. The smaller video stores could usually only afford to have 1-2 copies of a blockbuster like Aliens or Back To the Future. There was also a good chance everything on your list had already been rented out. If this happened, you took a chance on a movie based on box art or a well written synopsis. Quite frankly, the reality of not knowing what you may come home with was half the fun. Taking a chance on box art or a synopsis is what made the home video market so important. This approach to renting a movie breathed new life into films that may have not done well in the theater. This is how my Mom and I came upon a movie that didn’t do well in theaters in 1987, but would change my life forever.
One day, everything we wanted was rented out and we were in box art/synopsis mode. My Mom picks up a new release and asks the guy behind the counter,“What’s this about?”
He replies “Oh, you haven’t seen that?!? It’s awesome! It’s like The Goonies but with monsters! It’s really fun!”
My Mom’s face lights up and she say “ Oh we love The Goonies! What do you think Drew?
I asked my Mom, “What’s it called?” she turns, shows me the box art and says in her best movie trailer narrator voice ”Monster Squad!”
I smiled and replied: “lets get it!”
While i didn’t know much more about it than my Mom, i knew it had classic movie monsters in it, which meant I was FINALLY going to get to watch a horror movie! While it wasn’t Nightmare on Elm Street or Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it didn’t matter. It was finally going to happen! My Mom had said yes to a horror movie. Albeit on a technicality, because it was hidden in a Goonies wrapper like a pill hidden in a piece of cheese for a dog. Monster Squad is the perfect gateway drug to horror. It was crafted and molded with pieces of DNA from 50 years of Universal and Hammer Films. Monster Squad was going to be my first horror movie. I was not prepared for what this movie was going to do to me.
The second my Mom and I finished watching Monster Squad I rewound it and watched it again. I couldn’t remember loving a movie quite like I loved this. I showed this film to my friends the next day and we immediately started a monster club. We built a clubhouse, similar to the club house in the movie. We fashioned wooden stakes, got holy water from the church and the kicker to all of this, none of us were allowed to watch monster movies! So, all we knew about monsters was what was in Monster Squad! We relied on its source material to make up our own continuation of the characters in the movie. Looking back on our decision to build on the world Shane Black created doesn’t seem all that different from what he did by building on the world of monsters created by Universal Studios and Hammer Films.
Monster Squad follows a group of monster obsessed teenagers led by Sean (Andrea Gower) who eat, sleep and breathe monster movies. When Dracula (Duncan Regehr) and his gang of classic movie monsters, the Wolfman, the Mummy, Gillman and Frankenstein’s Monster (Tom Noonan), comes to their small suburban town with plans to plunge their world into eternal darkness and rule for eternity. It’s up to Sean and the Monster Squad to stop him. Written by Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Iron Man 3) and directed by Fred Dekker (Night of The Creeps) Monster Squad wants to know “Are you in the Goddamn Club?”
It goes without saying that Monster Squad is commonly remembered for one of the most famous lines in monster movie history, “Wolfman’s got nards”. While Black may have struck gold with that line, this film has so much more going for it. It’s important to point out that Black is a guy who looks at what came before him and builds on that. Whether he’s bringing heart, comedy and deeper relationships to the crime film genre in Lethal Weapon or breathing new life into the detective/thriller genre with fun witty banter in Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang. He’s not here to just give some fan service. He’s all in on these characters and ready to expand their stories.
If you’re looking for the best example of a screenplay being a “love letter” to a genre or movie, look no further than the screenplay Black (and Dekkar) wrote for Monster Squad. Scene after scene is brimming with appreciation and love for the 50+ years of horror films before it. Since I hadn’t seen any other monster movies at the time, I had no idea how in touch it was with the Universal and Hammer horror films. I recently went through a deep dive of the Universal and Hammer films and realized just how much Monster Squad is referencing them. Black includes more than just the classic monsters, he includes smaller details that illustrate his love for those films. From the appearances of brides of Dracula and Van Helsing, to details like the cane Dracula carries which is very similar to the cane seen in The Wolfman (1941).Or Rudy (Ryan Lambert) making silver bullets be in a device that is very reminiscent to how silver bullets are made in Curse of The Werewolf (1961). This is the kind of love you want in a screenplay. It’s the kind of screenplay written by a fan for fans.
Monster Squad’s source material has a lot of history. Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein in 1818, Bram Stoker put out Dracula in 1897, and stories of Werewolves go back as far as Sîn-lēqi-unninni’s The Epic of Gilgamesh. On top of those characters being around for hundreds of years before the Squad, there were around 200 movie adaptation of those characters in some capacity by 1987. At this point, these characters have a persona, look, history and general vibe about them. Even if you aren’t a seasoned veteran in the horror genre, you know enough about these monsters to know what to expect; strengths, weaknesses, powers etc. Which is exactly what this movie wants you to do, come in thinking you know what you’re going to get, before it subverts all those preconceived notions.
Black opens the film with a prologue text crawl establishing the stakes:
Once the audience sees what’s at stake, he lets this clear the screen before this crawls onto the screen:
This could arguably be one of the best uses for a prologue crawl outside of Star Wars. Black delivers a classic Hammer/Universal story set up with a serious gothic tone/font and follows it up with what sounds like an irreverent teenager responding to what happened. “They Blew it” is so important to establishing the tone of what you are about to watch. It adds unexpected humor to a set up you’ve seen two dozen times before in other horror movies. It’s this subverting of expectations that Black will continually do throughout the film. This open wants to acknowledge your preconceived notions about monster movies and what you expect to happen and flip that on its head. Again, he’s building on what came before it not just regurgitating it.
This movie is packed with great unexpected moments like these. From the reveal that Scary German Guy is a sweet old man, who likes pie. To the virgin they end up using who ends up being 5-year-old girl named Phoebe. But my favorite subverted moment in the movie is when Frankenstein’s monster comes up on 5-year-old Phoebe while he is on a mission from Dracula.
His instructions from Dracula are to retrieve Van Helsing’s diary and kill the children if they do not cooperate. When Frank arrives on the scene to retrieve the diary from the children, he comes upon 5-year-old Phoebe playing by the Squad’s treehouse near a pond. Everything about the shot sets the scene for what we’ve seen before. Phoebe is playing by the pond, similar to Maria playing by the lake in Frankenstein (1931). Phoebe is wearing a collard dress, similar to Maria’s. We assume Frank is going to toss her into the water and kill her similar to Maria. Not just because of Dracula’s instructions, but the visuals are reminiscent of the scene when Frank tosses Maria into the pond and she drowns in the original Frankenstein. Black knows exactly how he wants you to feel in this moment and him and Dekker do everything to prepare you to accept Frank kills phoebe off camera.
But that’s not what happens. Instead, we come back to see Phoebe not only alive and well, but she has made friends with Frank. She takes his hand and introduces him to the squad where they all become friends and walk off into the sunset. Black does so much more than just subvert expectations by not having Frank kill Phoebe. This is the moment Monster Squad becomes more than a movie about kids fighting monsters, it becomes a film about acceptance and redemption. It’s what the Squad represents. Different ages, personalities, and even a certified monster can all come together. Also, Frank finally got what he always wanted, to be understood and accepted. At its core, that’s what Monster Squad is about, it’s a film about asking you to be open to things and not judge a monster by its mask.
While the writing gives Frank the redemption story he’s waited 56 years for, it’s Tom Noonan who brings him to life like a bolt of lightning. Noonan has made a career as a very recognizable character actor in movies and TV (Manhunter , X-Files, Last Action Hero & Heat, just to name a few). His performance as Frankenstein is one of his earlier roles where he really shines. His performance is tragic, innocent, and full of the heart. Noonan takes us past the face of the monster and brings the audience into the inner mindset and soul of Frank. We see his childlike wonderment, reminiscent of Karloff’s performance, to his heartbreak when he realizes that his face is the face of a monster.
Noonan does something really special during the scene when Dracula is telling Frank he has to retrieve the diary from children and kill them if he must. You can see his mind processing Dracula’s orders and I swear we can see him feel the shame and remorse for what he did to Maria back in 1931. That’s what Noonan brings. It’s in his goddamn eyes. There is a simple softness in his eyes that pull you in. Every moment of Frank’s journey is earned thanks to Noonan’s performance.
If we’re going to talk about compelling performances, we need to talk Jon Gries performance as the Desperate Man (Wolfman pre-transformation). Gries is arguably the best actor in the film, and my favorite portrayal of pre-wolfman in history. While he would go on to become a very recognizable working actor in Hollywood and television after Monster Squad (Napoleon Dynamite, Get Shorty,White Lotus), he had already been building a consistent body of work with memorable roles in Real Genius, Terrovision and Running Scared. But his portrayal of the Desperate Man allowed him to explore a more raw and intense side of himself. We meet the Desperate Man early in the film, during the police station scene. He is unhinged, erratic and begging to be locked up because he is claiming to be a werewolf. Gries goes all in on it for this performance. He encapsulates the terror, anxiety and pure fear of knowing what’s going to happen once the moon rises. His body language, tremble in his voice and the sheer panic in his eyes when he sees the full moon, brings us right into the mindset of the character, “Lock me up or you’re going to die.” The look on his face when he fires the gun and shouts “Lock me up!!” This the look of a man out of options. Gries lives in suffering and dread throughout most of the film. But, he gets one opportunity to approach the character differently toward the end of the film and he doesn’t squander it. After Rudy takes down the Wolfman and he transforms back into just a man. Gries notices the bullet in his chest is a silver bullet. The relieved “thank you” he delivers to Rudy just before he collapses, and dies is the perfect send off for the Desperate Man.
In any battle of good and evil the hero is only as good as their villain. In steps Duncan Regehr as Dracula and he DOES.NOT.DISAPPPOINT. Regehr’s Dracula is pure fucking evil. His Dracula isn’t trying to be sexy, mysterious, or alluring. He ain’t about the glamour or the seduction. He is consumed with acquiring the amulet so that he can plunge the world into darkness and rule for eternity; and literally nothing is going to stop him.
A former Olympic boxing contender, Regehr’s size (6’4”) and build bring a physicality of intimidation to the character that you never really got in previous performances of the character. His size enables him to demand and control the screen when he’s on it. Regehr revels in every dark things his character does. He has no shame terrifying parents and threatening children, all with a sinister sneer on his lips. He brings such pettiness and intensity to the character. Almost every scene he is in is a memorable performance.
One of my favorite examples of this is when he destroys the Squad’s treehouse. In the beginning of the third act, after Sean and the squad make off with the amulet, Drac plows through the Sean’s yard in his hearse, rips the back door off in frustration, takes a stick of dynamite and tosses it up the Squad’s treehouse. As he walks away, he feels the need to drop a one liner to no one but himself “Meeting adjourned.” And then BOOM! The treehouse explodes into millions of toothpicks. Then, he walks out front of Sean’s like he owns the place, and is stopped by Sean’s Dad, Del (Police officer played by Stephen Macht). Del pulls his sidearm and draws down on Drac. The deliciously defiant smile Regehr gives him while a gun is pointed at him says all you need to know. Regehr’s Dracula doesn’t give a fuck about mortals. He proceeds to light dynamite (with just a look!! WTF!), blows Del’s partner to smithereens, then takes four bullets in the chest, and doesn’t bat an eye. He then says to Del, “I will have your son.”, transforms into a bat and takes off to go kill Sean. I mean, if you’re Del what can you say or do? The answer is not a goddamn thing. That is as bad ass as Dracula can get in my opinion.
It’s a shame he didn’t find more villain work after this. He really took the character and modernized it, while keeping it classic. He made his Dracula more than a threat, he made him down right deadly. I could write an essay on every great moment Regehr brings to the screen as Dracula. His performance would go on to be one of the more memorable performances of not only his career, but of the character itself. While his portrayal of Dracula didn’t get the accolades it deserved at the time, it’s become regarded as one of the best portrayals of the character in history.
Let’s take a moment to talk about Cimino’s character, who is credited only as Scary German Guy. He embodies all the best traits of this movie. First off, he subvert expectations. He’s introduced to us from the Squad’s perspective. To them he’s a creepy old German guy who lives in a spooky old house, only to reveal that he is a sweet, caring old man who loves pie. He is instantly accepted into their group once they drop their preconceived notions about him. He is another character perceived as a monster who is accepted into the Squad. Which continues the message of not judging a book by its cover.
Scary German Guy has minimal moments in the film, but is important for so many reasons First, he is the only adult character who, from the beginning, believes what the Squad is saying about Dracula and all the monsters. Which leads to one of the best reveals in the film.After the Squad has pie, Pepsi and discuss the diary with Scary German guy, Horace (Brent Chalem) says “ Man, you sure know a lot about monsters.” Scary German guy replies, “now that you mention it, I suppose I do.” He closes the door and we see he has an Auschwitz tattoo on his arm, revealing he is a Holocaust survivor. What a really smart way to tie the idea of made-up monsters with real monsters. Scary German Guy doesn’t question the existence of Dracula and company because he has seen and survived the worst of humanity.
While Cimino’s character only has a few scenes, he brings a tender softness and understanding to the film while still allowing the kids to continue to be the focus of the film. A few years after this film you’d see characters like Buffy’s watcher Giles, take up a similar mentor role in a group dynamic like this. Again, Black & Dekker revolutionizing a genre that sent ripple effects for decades to come.
In the 1980’s, the demand for practical special effects was at an all-time high. The limits of what FX houses could create was being pushed further than it ever had been thanks to technology and the brilliant minds of Baker,Savini, Nicotero and Winston. From creature creation to transformation, to all out gore, many films lived and died by what their practical special FX department would deliver. Monster Squad falls into a unique category where it didn’t rely on scenes designed around special FX work as much as creature design and subtlety. Not to say there aren’t some great, unique special FX moments (mid transformation Dracula comes to mind), but some of the looks of the monsters Stan Winston designed are just fantastic.
Similar to Black, Winston built on existing style and designs from the universal movies and modernized them a bit. Dracula and Gillman aren’t too much of a departure from their original styles, but Frankenstein’s monster has been given face lift. Winston made him less brow heavy, allowing Noonan to give a more expressive face performance. This is essential to the more human version of Frank mentioned earlier. Wolfman has been updated to look less human and more feral. Starting with the head design being closer to an actual wolf, he is also given him a larger body that almost seems like a wolf standing on its hind legs, with limited arm movement. My favorite creature design though, is the Mummy.
While the Mummy is one of the weaker characters in the group, his design is one of his most impressive in the film. I love his design and the creepiness he brings. While all the other monsters bring size and strength to intimidate, the Mummy brings the fright factor. His look is nothing short of unsettling. His emaciated body, toothy sneer and cold stare would stop me dead in my tracks. What’s crazy is, I don’t know what he could do to hurt me but I sure as shit don’t want him touching me. Winston went for it on this one. He wanted creep factor and he brought it with his Mummy design. One of the coolest images in the movie is when the Mummy is in Eugene’s closet. It’s an image reminiscent of the original Mummy(1932)when he’s first revealed.
On this last viewing, I just realized the Mummy tries to kill Phoebe when he is hanging from the back of the jeep that’s flying down the road at 60 mph. He is reaching for her and her alone. Why? Because she’s the virgin to read the diary and open the portal. The Mummy is trying to throw a 5-year-old girl from a jeep speeding down the highway. That’s nuts! He goes after no one else, just her. Seriously straight up gangster.
Monster Squad juggles a lot of different characters, stories, and themes, all masterfully kept in the air by director, Fred Dekker. Dekker has made some films that have found cult following, Night of the Creeps (1986) and Monster Squad (1987), but only has a few other notable credits. He did some writing for Robocop 3 (1993), as well as stories for Ricochet (1991) and If Looks Could Kill (1991). With Monster Squad, he directed a fun, well paced, dynamic film. When you think about all the plates he has to keep spinning, it’s pretty remarkable and kind of disappointing he never got more work. This dude was basically Spielberg to me when I first saw this. Dekker had to manage all the members of the Squad, giving time to each one’s story and character journey, as well as the members Dracula’s group. If that isn’t enough, he’s also got supporting roles of Sean’s parents, Scary German Guy, and somehow find a way to get all these characters from point A to B in the smoothest way possible. Dekker does so with absolute precision. You watch Monster Squad and see Dekker putting all the pieces in place for ensemble “team” TV shows like Buffy, Angel, Smallville and Charmed that would eventually rule broadcast and eventually streaming television.
Black & Dekkar make some really interesting and fun choices in Monster Squad to keep the film and its characters fresh. But their decision to keep the fight ultimately between the squad and monsters is one of my favorites. I know the idea of teenagers saving the day isn’t limited to this film. The Goonies save their town from rich assholes, and Last Star Fighter protects a planet from an invasion, but Monster Squad establishes a different dynamic. Making some foul mouth teens the last line of defense against some of the most legendary monsters in film history is so clever. It’s nothing short empowering to any kid 9-16 years old. Black & Dekker make it clear adults aren’t invited to this fight, because lets face it “They blew it.”
I love the idea that adults don’t entertain that monsters are real. Even when presented with evidence they exist, they still choose to ignore it. It almost seems like adults need to ignore all the signs (like how teens ignore the signs in a slasher film). It’s a great analogy to how teenagers feel about their parents, right? Your parents don’t understand how big or important your problems are to you when you’re a teenager and what better way to show how big a teenagers problems are than to have them fight pure evil monsters?
Monster Squad never found its footing when it was released in theaters, but found its place in cult history thanks to home video rental stores. Monster Squad isn’t just good, its real fucking good. I think what Black did here was reboot all these classic monsters without actively rebooting them. Nowadays we’d have to get each monster their own movie and back story before they could all come together, and Black didn’t need to do that. He used 50+ years of monster movies and modernized it in a way that really should have spawned more of these films. I would love to have seen what the Invisible Man would have done in a sequel to this film. He was batshit crazy back in 1931, imagine him running side by side with Regehr’s Dracula 1987?
Monster Squad is timeless. In a lot of ways, monsters and horror movies are their own language that you either get or you don’t. People speak of these characters and movies as if they’re common knowledge. That’s important. Monsters movies allow us to see ourselves and our struggles. They’re a shorthand for those that “get us.” These characters and stories have transcended years and still carry relevance almost 100 years later. I think that’s why it works so well. I still have conversations like these kids have in this movie with my brother and friends at 45 years old. I wanted to be in the Monster Squad in 1987 and still do in 2024. Shane Black probably felt the same way and wrote this movie. There is no doubt in my mind Shane Black saw himself in the Squad while writing this.
I had mentioned earlier about having a monster club with my friends, and how we built on Black’s world to make our own. I look at what I do for a living and a lot of the work I’ve done on the true crime shows was build on existing formats and add my own spin to it. I also get to work with most of my friends, I’d argue that in the end “I’m in the Goddman club.”