The Monster Squad
1987  PG-13  COMEDY  1h 22min
CAST—  Andre Gower, Duncan Regehr, Stephen Macht, Stan Shaw, Tom Noonan
MUSIC— Bruce Broughton  DIRECTOR— Fred Dekker

     Super silly yet totally tubular take on the old villagers vs. monsters bit, only this time the outraged townsfolk are forsaken for modern kids (“modern” being 1987). It seems that a hundred years ago Dr. Abraham Van Helsing and his crew devised to rid the world of evil monsters, but as the introductory scroll so eloquently states, they blew it. It’s now been a century and the reanimated Count Dracula has recruited a werewolf, a gill-man, a mummy and a Frankenstein-built monster to do his dastardly deeds (which includes something about stealing a mystic glowing amulet that can only be deactivated by a virgin reading a German incantation, or something). Little does Dracula know what’s in store. A group of monster mythos-loving kids dubbing themselves The Monster Squad begin to resist the horror of Dracula (Hammer Film pun!) and the chaos he’s about to unleash. Oh, and in true misunderstood monster pathos Frankenstein’s monster sides with the kids and helps to turn the tables on the vampire and his cadre of creatures. This can only possibly fall under the guilty pleasure category; there are so many reasons to hate it but one just may find oneself cracking smiles throughout. Add in a few eye-rolls and this movie (which has attained cult status) is pretty much covered.
OUR RATING— ** ½