Director Fred Dekker’s 1987 cult classic monster mash The Monster Squad (watch it Here) features variations of the classic Universal Monsters characters Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and the Gillman, but it wasn’t actually a Universal production. So to avoid getting in trouble with Universal, the movie’s effects crew at the Stan Winston Studio had to create their own specific designs of the creatures… but that didn’t stop them from sneaking homages to the original monsters in there. It has been known for a while now that designers Steve Wang and Matt Rose hid the face of the original Creature from the Black Lagoon somewhere on the neck of their Gillman suit. Now – as pointed out by Monster Squad super-fan Shawn Robare of Plastic Rocket Pop – the exact location of that face has been found!
Thanks to a listing for a Monster Squad Resin Head Casting on eBay,...
Thanks to a listing for a Monster Squad Resin Head Casting on eBay,...
- 2/3/2024
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
With a love of cinema woven into its DNA, The Monster Squad helped indoctrinate ’80s kids to the classic monsters. The generation that grew up watching it on home video and HBO look back on the 1987 film with the same reverence director Fred Dekker had for the Universal monster movies, and now they’re passing it down in a similar fashion. There’s no better way to introduce the next generation than with the new 4K edition.
Conceived as “The Little Rascals meets the Universal Monsters,” the cleverly-plotted film clocks in at a tight 82 minutes. The punchy script by Dekker and Shane Black doesn’t have an ounce of fat on it, save for the casual homophobia, misogyny, and body shaming of the time. Drawing inspiration from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, human characters offer well-placed levity and a bevy of memorable one-liners, but the monsters are played straight.
The...
Conceived as “The Little Rascals meets the Universal Monsters,” the cleverly-plotted film clocks in at a tight 82 minutes. The punchy script by Dekker and Shane Black doesn’t have an ounce of fat on it, save for the casual homophobia, misogyny, and body shaming of the time. Drawing inspiration from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, human characters offer well-placed levity and a bevy of memorable one-liners, but the monsters are played straight.
The...
- 12/8/2023
- by Alex DiVincenzo
- bloody-disgusting.com
It’s not very often that you see the 1987 cult classic monster mash The Monster Squad (watch it Here) in the news, but we have some cool news to share about the movie today! Dawn of the Discs has revealed that Kino Lorber is planning to give The Monster Squad a 4K Uhd release sometime later this year.
A specific release date has not yet been announced, but it’s good to know that The Monster Squad will be hitting 4K later this year. As of right now, all we know that this release will contain is the 4K disc with a “Brand New Hdr/Dolby Vision Master – From a New 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative!“, plus a regular Blu-ray copy.
Directed by Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps), who wrote the screenplay with Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), The Monster Squad was inspired by the classic Universal...
A specific release date has not yet been announced, but it’s good to know that The Monster Squad will be hitting 4K later this year. As of right now, all we know that this release will contain is the 4K disc with a “Brand New Hdr/Dolby Vision Master – From a New 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative!“, plus a regular Blu-ray copy.
Directed by Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps), who wrote the screenplay with Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), The Monster Squad was inspired by the classic Universal...
- 6/26/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Longtime readers of Arrow in the Head will probably remember the article series The Test of Time. Now The Test of Time has been revived as a video series, and you can check out the new episode in the embed above! With this one, we’re looking back at the 1987 cult classic monster mash The Monster Squad (watch it Here)! To find out whether or not this one stands the test of time, check out the video embedded above.
Directed by Fred Dekker, who wrote the screenplay with Shane Black, The Monster Squad was inspired by the classic Universal Monsters movies (plus Abbott & Costello and The Little Rascals). The film has the following synopsis: A group of youngsters find themselves up against the combined might of Dracula, the Mummy, the Gill Man and Frankenstein’s Monster, who arrive in town in search of a magic amulet.
Andre Gower, Robby Kiger,...
Directed by Fred Dekker, who wrote the screenplay with Shane Black, The Monster Squad was inspired by the classic Universal Monsters movies (plus Abbott & Costello and The Little Rascals). The film has the following synopsis: A group of youngsters find themselves up against the combined might of Dracula, the Mummy, the Gill Man and Frankenstein’s Monster, who arrive in town in search of a magic amulet.
Andre Gower, Robby Kiger,...
- 4/26/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
If you were a kid in the eighties, you wanted to be part of The Monster Squad. While a box office dud that made under 4 million dollars at the box office, once this tween classic hit HBO and VHS, its cult status grew. Directed by Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps), who co-wrote with the legendary Shane Black, The Monster Squad revolves around a group of horror-obsessed boys who come face to face with a gaggle of classic monsters, led by the evil Count Dracula (Duncan Regehr). Now they have to battle Dracula, The Mummy, the Gil-Man and the Wolfman while getting help from a descendent of Van Helsing and the surprisingly gentle Frankenstein’s monster (Tom Noonan – in a performance that tugs at the heartstrings).
In the years following The Monster Squad’s release, the kids from the film went on to varied careers before reuniting after the movie...
In the years following The Monster Squad’s release, the kids from the film went on to varied careers before reuniting after the movie...
- 10/28/2022
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
It almost feels like people might have seen Ryan Lambert a time or two since his time as Rudy in The Monster Squad, doesn’t it? Well, kind of like his costar Andre Gower, he has been present on the movie and TV scene since his time in the movie that helped the kids to make a name for themselves, but there hasn’t been a lot of buzz around his name moving forward since also like Gower he’s been more or less stuck doing projects that have managed to gain him some attention, but not a lot. One can say that
Whatever Happened to Ryan Lambert?...
Whatever Happened to Ryan Lambert?...
- 12/25/2020
- by Tom
- TVovermind.com
In a packed Horror Highlights we have the teaser trailer and details on the Swissploitation film Mad Heidi, a release date and the trailer for Wolfman's Got Nards, info on Meet Cute's Spooky Sweethearts releases, details on the 2021 Nosferatu Festival, info on Trouble coming to Hulu, and a Horror Movie Guide for those looking for some horror highlights from the last 100+ years of horror!
Mad Heidi: "The little girl from the alps is back…she‘s all grown up and she‘s Mad as hell. Mad Heidi is an action-adventure-comedy-horror parody of the much-loved children‘s storybook character Heidi. Now all grown up, Heidi is just a girl from the Alps in an alternative Switzerland that has fallen under fascist rule. Little does she know that her yearning for personal freedom will be the spark that ignites a revolution. From fondue torture to death by chocolate, Mad Heidi is a true Swissploitation film.
Mad Heidi: "The little girl from the alps is back…she‘s all grown up and she‘s Mad as hell. Mad Heidi is an action-adventure-comedy-horror parody of the much-loved children‘s storybook character Heidi. Now all grown up, Heidi is just a girl from the Alps in an alternative Switzerland that has fallen under fascist rule. Little does she know that her yearning for personal freedom will be the spark that ignites a revolution. From fondue torture to death by chocolate, Mad Heidi is a true Swissploitation film.
- 10/19/2020
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
As a horror fan of a certain age (let’s just say older than 30 but younger than 40), I know I’m not alone when I say that The Monster Squad played a significant role in developing my love for the genre. The film has garnered such a rabid following in the decades since its release that the movie’s star André Gower teamed up with writer Henry Darrow McComas to make the documentary Wolfman’s Got Nards. The documentary takes a compelling look at The Monster Squad’s evolution from its development, to its disappointing box office run, to its discovery via home video and cable that would garner an audience that its creators would only come to realize decades later.
After catching the documentary at Salem Horror Fest, I was lucky enough to sit down and talk with Gower and McComas about their paths to horror, The Monster Squad,...
After catching the documentary at Salem Horror Fest, I was lucky enough to sit down and talk with Gower and McComas about their paths to horror, The Monster Squad,...
- 10/23/2018
- by Bryan Christopher
- DailyDead
Featuring: Fred Dekker, Shane Black, Seth Green, Andre Gower, Ryan Lambert, Ashley Bank, Adam Carl, Tom Woodruff Jr., Joe Lynch, Steve Wang, Adam F. Goldberg, Duncan Regehr, Stephen Macht, Zach Galligan | Written by Andre Gower, Henry Darrow McComas | Directed by Andre Gower
Wolfman’s Got Nards is a heartfelt documentary exploring the power of the 1987 cult film The Monster Squad and its 30-year impact on its rabid fan base, the cast and crew, and the future of tween horror comedies. Making his feature debut, actor-turned-director André Gower brings us behind the scenes on the making of the film and digs into what made viewing it such a defining part of many genre fans’ upbringing.
Being independent from the film, unlike the documentary that accompanied Lionsgate’s Us DVD release in 2007, means that Wolfman’s Got Nards has an absolutely refreshing honesty about the film, its production and its reception. It...
Wolfman’s Got Nards is a heartfelt documentary exploring the power of the 1987 cult film The Monster Squad and its 30-year impact on its rabid fan base, the cast and crew, and the future of tween horror comedies. Making his feature debut, actor-turned-director André Gower brings us behind the scenes on the making of the film and digs into what made viewing it such a defining part of many genre fans’ upbringing.
Being independent from the film, unlike the documentary that accompanied Lionsgate’s Us DVD release in 2007, means that Wolfman’s Got Nards has an absolutely refreshing honesty about the film, its production and its reception. It...
- 7/3/2018
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
If you’re a horror fan, then chances are you love The Monster Squad. With that in mind, I think anyone who generally reads a genre website already has a pretty good grasp on just why The Monster Squad has endured for over 30 years, becoming even more popular now than it was three decades ago, and so going into André Gower’s documentary, Wolfman’s Got Nards, I was intrigued to see what he was going to bring to the table for his directorial debut, because I felt like we’d seen a good amount of material out there thus far that has done a solid job of diving into the 1987 horror comedy.
But as Wolfman’s Got Nards weaves through a variety of talking head segments, Q&A footage, and delightful animatics, it becomes clear why Gower is the perfect person to capture all the happenings that coincided with...
But as Wolfman’s Got Nards weaves through a variety of talking head segments, Q&A footage, and delightful animatics, it becomes clear why Gower is the perfect person to capture all the happenings that coincided with...
- 6/25/2018
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.
Lineup Announcements
– The Human Rights Watch Film Festival will be presented June 9 – 18, with 21 topical and provocative feature documentaries and panel discussions that showcase courageous resilience in challenging times. In an era of global advances by far-right forces into the political mainstream, assaults on the free press, and the rise of “citizen journalism,” festival organizers hope that the films in this year’s program can serve as inspiration and motivation for the audience, from seasoned activists to those searching for a role in local and global movements.
Now in its 28th edition, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival is co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center. All screenings will be followed by in-depth discussions with filmmakers, film subjects, Human Rights Watch researchers, and special guests.
Lineup Announcements
– The Human Rights Watch Film Festival will be presented June 9 – 18, with 21 topical and provocative feature documentaries and panel discussions that showcase courageous resilience in challenging times. In an era of global advances by far-right forces into the political mainstream, assaults on the free press, and the rise of “citizen journalism,” festival organizers hope that the films in this year’s program can serve as inspiration and motivation for the audience, from seasoned activists to those searching for a role in local and global movements.
Now in its 28th edition, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival is co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center. All screenings will be followed by in-depth discussions with filmmakers, film subjects, Human Rights Watch researchers, and special guests.
- 5/11/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Many know him as Jason Voorhees, but you can get to know the real Kane Hodder behind the mask in the upcoming documentary To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story. Also in today's Horror Highlights is the trailer for the Wesley Snipes-starring The Recall, a new episode of the fun and frightening series Graves, and details on the Wizard World Horror Fest.
To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story Update: Press Release: "Los Angeles, CA May 9, 2017- Masterfully Macabre Entertainment (“Mme”) announced today that they have put the final touches on their latest documentary, To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story. This in-depth biographical documentary on horror icon, Kane Hodder, features interviews with cinema legends, including Bruce Campbell (Ash vs. Evil Dead), Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), and Cassandra Peterson (Elvira: Mistress of the Dark).
To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story has been submitted to...
To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story Update: Press Release: "Los Angeles, CA May 9, 2017- Masterfully Macabre Entertainment (“Mme”) announced today that they have put the final touches on their latest documentary, To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story. This in-depth biographical documentary on horror icon, Kane Hodder, features interviews with cinema legends, including Bruce Campbell (Ash vs. Evil Dead), Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), and Cassandra Peterson (Elvira: Mistress of the Dark).
To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story has been submitted to...
- 5/10/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
In less than one month, Bruce Campbell’s third annual Horror Film Festival will return to Chicago for its third year of celebrating horror movies both old and new. This year’s lineup includes Fede Alvarez’s Don’t Breathe and Darren Lynn Bousman’s Abattoir, the world premiere of Found Footage 3D, a 30th anniversary screening of Night of the Creeps, and much more:
Press Release: Rosemont, Ill., June 22, 2016— Bruce Campbell’s Horror Film Festival, presented by Starz and their hit original series Ash vs. Evil Dead, returns for its third annual festivities on August 18-21, in conjunction with Wizard World Chicago. Today, the Festival announced highlights of the groovy lineup, sponsored by Shudder and Bloody-Disgusting.com, featuring the critically acclaimed opening night nail-biter Don’t Breathe, directed by Fede Alvarez; a salute to genre hero Fred Dekker; an epic event featuring comedian Doug Benson; and a 25th anniversary...
Press Release: Rosemont, Ill., June 22, 2016— Bruce Campbell’s Horror Film Festival, presented by Starz and their hit original series Ash vs. Evil Dead, returns for its third annual festivities on August 18-21, in conjunction with Wizard World Chicago. Today, the Festival announced highlights of the groovy lineup, sponsored by Shudder and Bloody-Disgusting.com, featuring the critically acclaimed opening night nail-biter Don’t Breathe, directed by Fede Alvarez; a salute to genre hero Fred Dekker; an epic event featuring comedian Doug Benson; and a 25th anniversary...
- 6/22/2016
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
It’s finally October, the favorite month of fans of both Halloween and all the ghouls, ghosts, and goblins that come with that. The Universal monsters deserve much love when it comes to scary cinematic treats, which is why it’s high time we covered The Monster Squad on this little commentary column of ours. The film is a cult favorite and it sits in fans’ hearts as more than just a Goonies rip-off with classic horror icons. So let’s ring in All Hallow’s Month with all the great things we learned listening to the commentary for The Monster Squad. It’s got nards. The Monster Squad (1987) Commentators: Fred Dekker (co-writer/director), Andre Gower (“Sean”), Ashley Bank (“Phoebe”), Ryan Lambert (“Rudy”) 1. The commentary begins with Dekker questioning the heritage of Lambert’s character, Rudy Halloran. He believes it’s a Scottish name, to which Lambert responds that it’s Scottish for “badass.” Yep...
- 10/4/2012
- by Jeremy Kirk
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Ignored at the box office, 80s comedy horror The Monster Squad has since gained a devoted following. Glen takes a look back at a cult favourite...
As something of a monster-obsessed child growing up, I lapped up any kind of monster-related goodies I could get my hands on, whether it was things like Monster in my Pocket or monster-related movies or books, few things piqued my interest in the way that these little nasties could.
So, when I saw an ex-rental VHS copy of The Monster Squad offered up for sale at a local video store, I pestered my parents to buy it for me and soon discovered what would be one of my favourite and most watched movies as a child. It featured classic monsters and the protagonists were in the same age range as me. Sure, they would have been a little older and live on the other side of the Atlantic,...
As something of a monster-obsessed child growing up, I lapped up any kind of monster-related goodies I could get my hands on, whether it was things like Monster in my Pocket or monster-related movies or books, few things piqued my interest in the way that these little nasties could.
So, when I saw an ex-rental VHS copy of The Monster Squad offered up for sale at a local video store, I pestered my parents to buy it for me and soon discovered what would be one of my favourite and most watched movies as a child. It featured classic monsters and the protagonists were in the same age range as me. Sure, they would have been a little older and live on the other side of the Atlantic,...
- 1/27/2011
- Den of Geek
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.