The Monster Squad (1987) Retrospective / Review
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- The Monster Squad (1987) Retrospective / Review
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#themonstersquad #monstersquad #freddekker #oliverharper #wolfman #dracula #frankenstein #retrospectivereview
I was an extra in this film. I’m the one walking in the background in the green shirt at 2:26
I was 15 years old at the time
"Wolfman's got nards!" the line every kid who saw this remembers. Such a classic. 🤘
That and "Know any Virgins."
Sad to hear that kid dies in 1997
Watching this as an adult you realize they didn’t even need the sister. They are all virgins!
@@mojosodope45 it needed to be a female virgin
Lol and hearing it on the playground
The Goonies + Ghostbusters = The Monster Squad. An 80's teen classic!
Actually it's more like The House of Frankenstein + Stan By Me x The 80s = The Monster Squad
Explorer + Ghostbusters
@@scaccu all good points
@@mogensschmidt2498Dream Warriors
The Goonies + Universal Studios Monsters = The Monster Squad
Van Helsing laying siege to Dracula’s castle with machine guns on a zeppelin is possibly the coolest scene idea I’ve heard of.
Fits with Shane Black's sensibility, as his originally scripted ending for Lethal Weapon was a car flying off the Hollywood sign and Cocaine raining down on La La Land.
Now I want to see an Extended Director's Cut of Monster Squad.
"I know this is gonna sound pretty stupid" - The '80s
Also, this movie has no business being this good. Loved it as a kid.
I loved it as a kid and still love it as an adult.
None whatsoever! Better werewolf than most flicks I've seen
"as a kid" fuck that. I love this movie even now. I have the poster hanging on my wall and even met some of the cast. As a fan of the Classic Universal Monsters, this movie is a freaking dream come true.
@@KingKhan-my2lf yeah I really like the ww design here
@@thefanwithoutaface8105 I loved it as a kid because like Oliver points out well, the director/script writer did a great job letting kids be kids of the time, which I could connect with rather than it being very sanitized. I remember throwing the bird and cursing big time when I was in middle school. And yeah sorry, for me, as a kid. I'm sure I'd enjoy it now but, I'm not much of a fanatic in general. I can appreciate it though. (also loved night of the creeps)
I'm so glad that one of my favorite channels is covering a classic from my childhood.
I agree!!! this was one of my favorites as a kid, and one of the few horror/comedies that comes with a rather sad ending
This is one of my favorite movies ever, and probably my favorite portrayal of Dracula.
I know I’m gonna catch some heat for saying this BUT....I love this movie waaaayyyy more than the Goonies.
Correct answer.
Yep. It’s better in every way. I like Goonies. I love Monster Squad.
Hell no, not from me, I totally agree. 🤘
I never like The Goonies.
I get so much shit for that too, but whatev
That's only because you have good taste
I love the fact that the wolfman in this movie is Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite. No wonder he liked steak so much!
He also played a werewolf in "Fright Night Part II"...surprised Oliver didn't mention that
Also, Lazlo in Real Genius.
@@DrRiddlez2015 fairly certain he was a vampire in Fright Night 2.
@@oaktree1626 holy shit. That's uncle Rico?!
@@dakotachannel8142 Yep. Living in Val Kilmer's closet. 😄
As a little boy I remember seeing Van Helsing wrestling with Dracula at the end of the movie and thinking "that's the bravest man I've ever seen!"
Kid
“You know a lot about monsters”
Creepy German guy
“Yes I suppose I do”
Perfection
Subtle yet heartbreaking. Sadly most young adults wouldn't even get the clues to why that line had such weight.
Nazis = bad. Buddy. Being German has nothing to do with it.
@Disney is the Devil The Concentration Camp Tattoo is the evidence of bad, not that the guy's a German, you dipstick!
“The Monster Squad” is a enjoyable movie of the 80s. It’s campy & fun! I’ve always been surprised it didn’t do well when originally released . Cult classic with a following. As mentioned, Little Rascals v Universal Monster’s. Good SFX. Another Fred Dekkar movie worth watching is “The night of the creeps” also a lot of fun. Both are homages to old school horror/sci-fi. There is enough material for a remake with more edgy storyline & the kids being older. “Wolfman’s got nards!”
Dekkar didnt do Night of the Comet. he did Night of the Creeps. which is what i think you meant... maybe. but yeah oliover mentioned night of the creeps a few times in this.
If a remake happened, I'd absolutely love Edgar Wright to do it. I know he'd get the tone and manner just right. Maybe he could update it by bringing video game refs into it.
David James Definitely agree Edgar Wright would be the perfect choice!
“Wolfman’s got nards!” I love this movie so much.
I loved that beagle in this movie. Such a cute little pupper.
An underrated classic. Duncan Regher was great as Dracula. I remember watching him in the Zorro tv show growing up.
Some nice poignant moments with the scary German guy's concentration camp number on his arm and Frankenstein's reaction to the Frankenstein mask.
I love the heroic music where Van Helsing pulls Dracula into the portal at the end.
"Is she a Vir-shinn??"
Loved Eugene!!
Me & a buddy of mine, from time to time quote that exact line!
Steven Beoethy
I had to ask my mum was a “vershin” was... embarrassed conversation that was as a kid 😂
Such an underrated gem.
Performed by a top notch youtube content creator.
Man, this one was one of my favorites growing up. It's a damn shame it bombed at the box office.
Another point; I loved how Van Helsing and Dracula were interlocked in battle going down the drain of hell. It was like Holmes and Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls.
Of all the memorable scenes in this movie, the short moment of sean 's dad bringing him burger king and watching the movie with him, hits home every time.
"Night of the Creeps" was a frickin' masterpiece.
I cherish this film. Shame what happened with Fred Dekker. What a talent.
He could of made a good comeback. Every director makes a dud...
@@thejamesbondshowwithkrazyk4581 could *have
I love how they just GET Van Helsing’s diary. Like, they don’t find it in some old house, no discovery or museum heist or whatever, they just sorta buy it at a book fair.
Monster Squad is an absolute classic. It's up there with any of Amblins, and Joe Dante's Explorers and also Flight Of The Navigator as an 80's suburban kids adventure. Plus the kids swearing, and other naughty humour just adds to it, as it feels authentic.
I actually saw it at school! I think the teacher didn't notice it was a 15! And luckily was too busy chatting with a colleague to hear "know any virgins?" or "You Biiiitch!".
I always felt The Monster Squad and The Goonies we’re like cousins, like to make these a double feature and have loved the film since the VHS release. 👍🏻
This and My Science Project have a similar feel to it and I love them both. These are fun to watch on a lazy night or Sunday afternoon.
Dude you know about My Science Project and you like Monster Squad you get major points for that.🧛♂️🧟♂️👻👽👾 squad 4 life
@@robertmartinez3165 I'm like George C Scott in Patton when he tells his friend the story about all those great battles that took place in history
"I was there!"
Ha ha.
I love My Science Project, glad to know other people enjoy that movie as much as I do
Said it on multiple other vids, but the Dark Universe should’ve been an Avengers style accumulation based on the Monster Squad concept
I believe the plan was for each movie to introduce the character as an anti-hero with a tragic past, and then they'd do a team-up movie with them being an Avengers style outfit headed by Russel Crowe and his SHIELD like organisation, against actual villains.
@@davidjames579 And that's the problem right there.
We love these characters as villains, not as tragic anti-heroes. Like this Dracula Untold bullshit. If you wanna give him a tragic backstory, fine but don't make him a hero.
@@wjzav1971 Universal said we want an MCU. What have we got in our history that could fulfill that.
@@davidjames579 I'm not sure what you are trying to say here.
Please rephrase this sentence
@@wjzav1971 That Universal wanted a shared universe like Marvel's, and thought what characters have we used before that we could do that with. They took the copy the MCU memo so literally they wanted the characters to be heroes fighting together. Although as famous villains they'd have to start off bad, most probably because of a tragic backstory, and then they'd be redeemed. You could watch that story play out 5 times before a team up movie.
I have to say, just watching this retrospective made me smile. Well done!
I discovered your channel with Jurassic Park.... And I can't tell you how happy I was to see Monster Squad in your list of retrospect videos.
I love this series of videos, I hope you keep doing them.
I've heard of this film but never seen it. I'm definitely going to have to remedy that, it looks great fun. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Another great review! I loved this film growing up as it brought together all my favourite monsters in a film that somehow works.
The child actors were great, Stan Winston's creature designs were amazing, and Fred Dekker did a fantastic job directing.
A truly classic nostalgic film.
Very well acted, especially Dracula & the Wolf Man as when he was human his desperate attempts to stop the transformation felt so real and heartbreaking. When he’s finally shot w the silver bullet and his last words are “thank you.”
I always had a headcanon that Wolf Man was Rudy's dad. Phoebe saying, "I heard he killed his dad", the implication that Rudy didn't have much in the way of parental supervision (which might happen if your dad is struggling with being a werewolf), and the way Rudy appeared absolutely destroyed when he finally killed Wolf Man, even as he was saying, "thank you". And Jon Gries injected so much emotion into that line that I could imagine there was a subtext that it had even more implication than Rudy just ending that ordeal for him. IDK, you just get these weird ideas in your head when you're young and they take root there and can't be excised.
Loving your videos, I was an 80s kid, born in the early 70s, remember this well, preferred the goonies and still do, my nostalgia for the goonies is as much as raiders but...I remember the monster squad was so cool. No one at school had even seen it, or cared. But, this and the goonies inspired me and my friend Shaun to go trespassing in woods, farmers fields, building sites and abandoned houses - always looking for adventure. We took home made weapons, rope, swiss army knives, home made waterproof matches even, black widow catapults, Rambo knives with survival shit in the handle...good times, life was different then....and fun. Loved it and always look back with happiness...
Keep this stuff going mate. Thankyou Lee
Came across it as a teenager in 2007 and loved it and to this day as a adult I still love it.
One of my all time favorites from the 80s. Nostalgic, I listen to the soundtrack in my car still. The conviction of the kids and the quality of the monsters makeup really makes this hold up today.
This movie is why the 80's was an awesome time to be a kid. I caught this on cable with my brothers & sisters and just fell in love with it. This wouldn't have worked in any other era but the 80's. Great job Oliver.
Everything about this film, even the little quirks, are awesome. I'd even say that it's got as special a feel as The Goonies for me. The film's got a nostalgia connection but from the late 90's when I saw most of it around Halloween at my Gran's house I think, but I didn't know what it was until many years later because I'd missed the beginning of the film.
Brilliant video Ollie, always love how you put quite a good bit of the film at the end. It makes me want to watch the film you're featuring again =)
As iconic as Bela Lugosi and as masterful as Gary Oldman were in the role of Dracula, Duncan Regehr is by far the most badass intimidating Dracula. I love his unflinching no hold bars beat down of the cops. This Dracula even tried to blow up kids with dynamite!
I recently discovered this film a few years ago as well and I love it to bits and bobbies. It’s so sweet and endearing and I giggle like mad whenever I watch it.
This is so nostalgic for me, I’m born 96 and me and my mom bought it (VHS) on a sell out in a grocery store around 2000-2002 ish here in Sweden,for some weird reason I liked horror movies when I was little, we bought the monster squad and a Stephen king vhs 2 for price of 1! And this film was a masterpiece, damn I miss those times very very nostalgic movie! And I remember the excitement when we bought those 2 movies and how much I liked the movie even tho I was around 5 years old 😅
I'm so glad more people are talking about this classic film! I loved watching The Monster Squad as a kid and I still love watching it now
This movie is a family favorite. We’ve seen it upwards of 100+ times. It’s one of those childhood films that, upon revisiting, you go “holy shit this is actually really good”. Not only that, but very few kid adventure films nowadays would have the kind of violence, horror and profanity this film had. But that’s an important part of its charm. Such an excellent ensemble cast and Duncan’s Dracula is easily the coolest, most badass of interpretations. He’s like the T-1000 meets Dracula. Great breakdown, Oliver!
YES! Great movie, a childhood favorite. Nothing gets me in the mood for Halloween quite like this movie. It needs more love.
That was a good observation on the posters. When I was a kid I had posters of Star Wars, Star Trek and Batman on my walls.
I remember watching this movie on HBO. I was like 10 years back in 1988. Awesome movie, I will never forget this movie. 2 thumbs up 👍 👍🧛🏻♂️
Yep I'm a old film fan and a teen of the 1980s. I watched this great little fun horror film at the local cinema when it 1st came out in 1987. Loved it then and still love it now. Of all the crap remakes Hollywood is currently doing over the last 10 years, I'd actually like to see this film get a remake/reboot or sequel.
I saw this movie is a kid because I was videotaping another movie and I didn't know how to set the timer so I just videotape the movie and I went to bed and it recorded everything that came after that movie until the tape ran out. I didn't see this movie until sometime later when I watch the movie I recorded that I don't even remember now what it was at 1 and ended the Monster Squad came on and I watched it and then I proceeded to watch it again and again and again and again for about a year I watched it almost every other day. Have such a strong connection to me. I did not know it was a flop I always assumed it was a movie that everybody knew about and now years later finding out that very few people watched it at the time it came out but I was there appreciating every aspect of it from how scary it was to the comradery of the characters so how cool the monsters were and I got to say seeing clips of it now and seeing that it looks like a holds up pretty well warms my heart. Me there's a lot of nostalgia. Excellent review good sir.
Was one of my favorites as a kid. What I would do to relive that first time I watched this movie in wonder, bewilderment, and some measure of fear at seven or so years old.
This is an awesome movie! As was Night of the Creeps...
I was so proud I was able to explain the origin of the "Wolfman's got nards" quote, when a perplexed friend showed me the spine of an issue of Empire magazine where it appeared...
One of my Desert Island movies for sure.
Be safe, Dude. :)
These are so rare now. All we get from this guy are movie commentary videos.
I'm amazed to hear this only was out a couple of weeks. I remember seeing this at the theater. I remember the Date With An Angle poster as well as another horror film who's title escapes me but it had a monster fetus in a jar. The colors, the neon, the feeling of everything being so new.
I'm way late, but I believe the other horror film you mention is Prophecy. It's about a mutated bear monster, created from toxic waste from a logging company. It is cheesy horror goodness!
@@mermaid_at_heart213 No, Prophecy came out in the early 80's. The film I saw the poster for was called The Kindred. Still I agree, Prophecy is a great film. Side note Kevin Peter Hall played the mutant bear in some shots. This is the same actor that went on to play the original Predator.
Like most kids in the 80s, I also discovered both Night of the Creeps and Monsters Squad on home video. Those where some of the few movies I never got tired of renting multiple time. I still watch them today and even enjoy them more with my family. It's a crime those movies didn't find a bigger audience at the time. They are in my book, 80s classics.
I LOVED this film as a child! I had completely forgotten about it!
Watched this movie in the late 80s when I was 8ish. I think it must have gone to sky movies quickly after bombing at the cinema. I remember my friends and I loving it and having our own plans, supplies and preparations in place if monsters attacked
So glad to hear how much you enjoyed this movie even when you hadn't seen it as a child. I still love this movie but kind of assumed it was because I loved it so much as a kid. Thank you so much for the review.
I saw this when I was like 9 or so on a VHS copy. Perfect age really.
Olivier's got Nards!! I know that makes no sense but I had to say it...lol.
I shared a room with a brother 4 years older than me. Our wall and ceiling was covered in Iron Maiden posters.
The kids bedroom in Poltergeist has an Alien poster, so this 70's/80's pop culture worship was present even at the time.
Movie posters in bedrooms were very rare up until the mid-80's, simply because they had never been aggressively marketed to private consumers until then. That's why most all of the older movie posters you see carry the same white-frame and full credits format, they were just meant for movie theaters. If you wanted a poster for yourself, you usually had to buy or pilfer it directly from the theater. That all changed with Batman. That marketing campaign was insane, flipping all of the industry's standards. No frame, no text, not even the movie's title... madness! That's when the film industry learned that they could make a quick buck selling their own advertising. Before then, the only movie posters you saw were in the homes of theatre employees, their friends, and *hardcore* movie buffs.
I love Alien, and Aliens is my favorite movie of all time, and even I didn't have those posters. It was all The Doors, Grateful Dead, and Yes album covers for me. The Poltergeist poster just feels like a contrived nod from the director to one of his favorite films.
@@santiago451 I did not know that.
Up the Irons!
You nailed this. It's such an important film from my childhood. My best friend, her sister and my brother and I were obsessed with it. We wore out two copies i taped off of HBO watching it and passing it back and forth. Yeah, some of it doesn't make perfect sense, but it has such great world building and the kids are great that we never cared about the inconsistencies.
I'm born in 1975, always lived in Dallas, TX and saw every classic 80s movie there is. I've never heard of Monster Squad...weird but it looks pretty awesome, I woulda loved it at 12 years old in '87.
He was also a werewolf in Fright Night 2, and he's OD in Terrorvision
Adored this movie as a kid.
Watched it a few years back.
Sometimes, it's better to remember something fondly, than attempt to relive it; This is one of those times
Love this film, but it does suffer from being too short. Hopefully a director's cut will one day be released.
Fred Dekker is one of my favorite directors. He--as well as Shane Black-- had a knack for making movies that FELT like real blockbusters on a lower budget. His deft handling of action, comedy, horror and a bit of gore was masterful.
Lovely review for this absolutely charming film. Watching in May 2020 during lockdown!
This was my first favorite movie. My dad would take me to the video rental store down the street to re rent this everyday in the early 90's!
Dude i kno this movie front 2 back ur editing with the audio overlay during the intro segment almost makes it a seperate fan film .. bravo
I absolutely loved this movie and still do. My eyes well up when Frankenstein saves Phoebe.
Oliver Harper You're not alone, I didn't discover this movie until I was in my early twenties.
Epically underrated movie. Also a thousand times better than Universal Studios Dark Universe ever was.
I have a lot of cousins and this was always our go to movie when we were kids.
The Monster Squad was a solid video renter in the UK back in the day. It wasn't big or hyped, but I wouldn't say it went under the radar. This movie was lucky that it came out just at the time when video rental hits were becoming almost as important as theatrical ones.
When I was a kid, I had posters for movies by Cronenberg and Argento that I can remember. As well as nerdy art prints by Clive Barker and H.R. Giger. It wasn't that common a decorative taste at the time, but not unheard of.
I must have rented this movie at least 50 times when I was a kid. Sure, it’s goofy, and the story isn’t perfect, but I absolutely love it.
Watched this countless times after it came after it came out on vhs. I still remember just about every line. Great review!
I was an '80s kid in the '80s when I first saw this '80s moviefilm from the '80s when it first came out in the '80s and it was on '80s HBO with its '80s intro/promo in the '80s. It's one of the '80sest '80s movies that ever '80s'd. So it totally has a nostalgia effect for me. I recently rewatched it and the pacing seemed a bit too fast, plus everything you pointed out about plot holes and the movie being too short is spot-on. I didn't notice those details as an '80s kid in the '80s with a MacGyver mullet.
19:09 That's authentic to how we '80s kids talked in the '80s.
20:10 Why does he wear a Confederate soldier's cap, though? Canceled?!
20:27 Fact. That's what yer crazy '80s U.N.C.L.E. might have had on his '80s wall in the '80s.
20:33 A lot of the best '80s movies from the '80s were inspired by or were remakes of '50s classics from the '50s.
20:38 Those shoes don't match the rest of his getup. Those look more like something an '80s Boomer who was born in the late '40s would wear in the '80s. Or what someone from the Silent Generation who was born in the '30s would wear in the '80s.
22:24 Why do they have their helmets unfastened?! Why do movie people always do that?!
25:06 / 26:09 At night, though? Plus, the church's lights are on. Church's don't typically have a night shift. Or should I say "Graveyard Shift." [[cue Graveyard Shift theme song]]
R.I.P. Brent Chalem (1975-1997) 😥🙏🏻
There was a Saturday morning kids show on ITV in the 80s called Get Fresh, the one with Gilbert the Alien. Anyway, they were doing a live broadcast of the show from Glasgow and me and a couple friends went along to stand in the crowd. There were guys dressed up as the Monsters from the film handing out promotional stuff, badges, pens etc. Took a good few years for me to track down the film afterwards, and the promotional stuff was well lost before that.
*The Monster Squad,* *The Lost Boys,* *Near Dark* 1987 was a great year for horror!
Is *Weird Science* next??
yeah!
Near dark.. I forgot about that 1. Great movie
@@andyvenable4497 Oh! _The Gate_ too 🖐🏻👁
It’s no Fright Night (or Fright Night 2, which is also perfect somehow) but it truly stands the test of time and repeated watches. Shane Black + strong direction + practical effects and/or believably intense action = a hard combination to beat. For me, Fright Night, Phantasm and Halloween 3 are just the peak of the mountain.
Loved this when I was a kid, thought it was the coolest thing ever.
Saw this at a drive-in when I was around 7 , loved it then and have sent it over 100 times since!
THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH FOR THIS!!!!!.. This is one of my fav movies
so glad my dad took me to see this. I don't know how he knew about it, since I don't remember any publicity for this movie, and growing up no one I knew had seen it
Great video, love this movie alot. Really do appreciate the production design and the whole look of the monsters is instantly recognisable. I recently met fred at a horror convention in Manchester last month and he was such a nice humble guy.
One of my all time best kid films of the 80's. And I must say, the mistresses scared the living shit outta me for some reason.
Liam Neeson may not have been Dracula in Monster Squad, but he did star in a Sesame Street skit with The Count.
I'm a kid from the 80's...
I had posters for BOTH The Thing and Evil Dead in my room...no kidding....😉
Also, Van Helping showing up at the end was hardly 'random', it's called 'bookending', Oliver...c'mon, man...you know movies, you KNEW that...😅
Wolfman’s got nards!
Fun fact: Jon Gries played a werewolf twice, once here in Monster Squad and also in Fright Night Part II. (Haven’t finished the video, my apologies if you end up mentioning this, I’m currently on the actor roll call lol)
Oliver you forgot to mention Jason Hervey is in the movie who was famous for his role on Wonder Years soon after this
I only saw that film in the 80's or maybe early 90's. I have found memories of it and I always wanted to watch it again but I never got the occasion. Thank you for this excellent review and the memories it brought back :))
I had no idea Shane Black wrote the screenplay as well! He rewrote Predator!
They're mates. Tom Atkins from Night Of The Creeps was Black's choice to play Martin Riggs, and he got the part of Michael Hunsaker as a conciliation. Black cameos in Robocop 3, and Black And Dekker (!) co-wrote The Predator.
4:06, NIGHT OF THE CREEPS FTW!!!
One of my favorite flicks as a kid!🕺
I don't think anyone I knew at school had ever heard of or seen this film when it was out. I don't even remember it in the VHS rental places we went to. The first time it was ever mentioned to me was back in the mid 90's when a friend in America told me I needed to see it, she sent me a VHS because I couldn't even find it, but it was the wrong format... It wasn't until Sky started showing it all the time a few years back that I got around to seeing it, and I'm so glad I did as it's a whole lot of fun, if a little nonsensical and incoherent in places. The music really stands out as setting the tone for it and I love when all the monsters monster out together... and the "He's gonna kill your son!" line which would have no doubt terrified me as a child. It really was one of those odd moments where I was getting all of the nostalgic feelings without any real nostalgia for the movie.
Oliver the gift that keeps giving...damn!
I bought this movie the first time it came out on VHS back in 1988 and I recently bought the DVD version. Even though I was in my mid-20's I liked this movie very much (and still do!).
Thank you Oliver for this. I grew up watching this, definitely a favorite