The Monster Squad is an 80s Horror Movie with Tons of Camp and Cheese
The Monster Squad also shows a huge amount of respect for the Universal classic creature-features.
Written by The Horror Czar, Don Sumner
July 25, 2007
Release: 1987
Written and Directed by: Fred Dekker
Also Written by: Shane Black and Keith Barish
Starring:
Andre Gower as Sean Crenshaw
Robby Kiger as Patrick
Stephen Macht as Del Crenshaw
Duncan Regehr as Dracula
Tom Noonan as Frankenstein
Brent Chalem as Horace
Ryan Lambert as Rudy
Ashley Bank as Phoebe Crenshaw
I love the Universal monsters. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Mummy…these are the monsters that filled the screens with wonder and hearts with terror in the early days of horror cinema.
Fred Dekker, writer and director of The Monster Squad, clearly loved these classic characters also.
The squad in question is a group of twelve-year-old kids led by Sean Crenshaw (Andre Gower). They are obsessed with monsters and often get in trouble in school for drawing 
pictures of scary monsters in science class. Their excuse is that they NEED these pictures to decorate the walls of the tree house headquarters of their monster club…and because science class has a boring teacher who looks like a cat.
One evening Sean overhears his father (Stephen Macht), a police officer, ranting about his crazy day…a 2,000 year old mummy disappeared from a museum, a guy claiming to be a werewolf is shot then disappears and a man named “Alucard” (check the spelling on that) called the house asking about Sean’s ancient copy of Van Helsing’s diary…there are real monsters!
The Monster Squad must mobilize to save the world from an evil plot of global domination masterminded by Dracula and supported by most every other monster from the Universal roster.
The Monster Squad is a kid’s movie, or at least has kids in it. It is not scary at all, but instead oozes cheese and camp. The performances by the children are great, and the monsters themselves are surprisingly well done.
It is interesting to watch The Monster Squad and see the horror movie monsters that we love done in a way that protects the moviemakers from copyright infringement. The identity of each creature is very clear, and yet the look is not quite the image we expect from the classics. Normally this would be a recipe for disaster causing creature-feature fans to complain that the integrity of the creatures has not been maintained – but The Monster Squad pulls it off by changing what is necessary legally while still respecting the integrity of the characters and providing clean believable visuals.
I particularly enjoyed the re-enactments of some classic horror scenes in new contexts. When the little girl Phoebe (Ashley Bank) is shown kneeling by the bank of a lake you just know that the Frankenstein monster is about to make his appearance.
The Monster Squad is a cheesy 80s horror movie that plays a bit like The Little Rascals meets Universal. At the same time The Monster Squad is a homage to the great horror characters of years past. This movie is incredibly fun and answers one of the eternal questions of classic horror: Yes, The Wolf Man has nards. Questions or comments about The Monster Squad? Discuss it on The Ossuary Forums!
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