Rating of
4/4
Personal Thoughts and a Review
Matthew Sanchelli - wrote on 09/27/07
This is by far, one of my all-time favorite movies. Right there next to Halloween.
This unsung hero of movies is just now (20 years later) getting the up front recognition it deserves.
The remember renting this movie with my parents when I was young.....like very young (at least 7 or 8) and I fell in love with this movie. Kids...Monster...it was a dream come true for me.
Fortunately I was able to retain a VHS copy of this movie while it went out of print and MIA. I've had said VHS for over 15 years now (if not closer to 20) and I never tire of watching it.
Before knowledge of the DVD was publicly known I was getting worried that the next time I watched this movie would be the last.
Now the DVD is out and everyone has the chance to see a movie I grew up with and can recite line after line.
This (along with Halloween) is the movie that got me interested in film making.
Sure this movie is a bit dated. But it's a film where we travel back into our childhood and can enjoy all the classic monsters and imagine ourselves as kids doing battle with evil.
I realize this wasn't so much a review about the movie but more so a review of my passion about this movie.
Which I hope will turn on a light bulb to those reading saying....."Maybe I should check this movie out".
So, here is also a review I wrote on my myspace page March 10, 2006.
"Back in 1987 TriStar pictures released a movie that would set the standard for the classic Universal monsters in regards to future features.
This movie was The Monster Squad , directed by Fred Dekker.
This movie has been one of my all-time favorites for years; probably since 1987/1988, so for almost 20 years.
Though it has it's typical 80's attire and montages and music, it's a timeless classic. The story is basically flawless. The effects are great for the time it was made. And the monster effects/costumes/make-up are absolutly incredible. I have yet to see a movie pull off the look of the classics like Dracula, Wolfman, Creature, Frankenstein and the Mummy. All have a new updated look (for 1987) but all retain respect to their original origins.
This movie, in opinion, has the best portrayal of the Wolfman that I have not seen matched, nor beaten. So many werewolf/wolfman movies have come out since then but they are more beast than man. They lose all signs of humanity in the beast and that's where it all goes wrong. The best things about The Wolfman is that you know there is a man inside there...a man who has lost control when in a beastial form and not even his innocence can control his feral alter ego.
It is a dream of mine to be able to re-make this movie. Not to try and better it, but just to bring the basics of the story and the monsters back to this present day. To introduce this story into the minds again. Rebirth to the classics that has been lost over the years. This remake would be a homage to the original. Keep some of the original characters; age them a little bit. Maybe try and get some of the original cast to appear in the movie in some sort of way.
Alas, I have also lost a little bit of my muse behind writing this. It wasn't until recently that I learned, or was made aware, that the agency I work at represents the actor who played Dracula; Duncan Regehr. Though I'm sure he's done much more than The Monster Squad this is the movie that I am awed over and that I am, for lack of a better word, star-struck over. Never would I have imagined almost 20 years ago that down the line I'd be in close connection to someone who had incredible involvement of one of my favorite movies that helped spawn my love for monsters and the entire genre."
