The Monster Squad
Hey, Do You Remember...?
Christopher Schrader
4.8 • 676 Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2015
⏱️ 96 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's so surprising and awesome that The Monster Squad has been one of most requested titles from our listeners. Although the film received a lukewarm response when it was released in the summer of 1987, it quietly amassed a dedicated following in the ensuing years and is now regarded as a bonafide cult hit. Carlos wasn't able to join us for this episode, so Mike from The Sunnydale Stacks sat in to discuss how we all first discovered the movie and how well it's held up over repeated viewings.
Topics include: how licensing issues prevented the filmmakers from using the more traditional cinematic depictions of these monsters and why it actually worked in their favor, the incredible cast of kids they assembled, some questions about why Rudy's hanging around, a more effective way the squad might have been formed, Eugene's allegiance to the confederacy, the pitch-perfect tone, the amazing creature effects, and much much more!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, do you remember the Monster Squad? |
| 0:07.2 | Hello and welcome to Hey Do You Remember, a show where we reminisce about a movie or TV series we grew up with, then take off the rose tinted glasses to see how it holds up. |
| 0:32.4 | I'm Chris. And I'm Donna. And today we're revisiting the Monster Squad. |
| 0:53.5 | Yeah. I'm Donna. And today we're revisiting the Monster Squad. What if the Little Rascals went up against the universal monsters? |
| 0:57.6 | That simple one-sentence pitch was the genesis of the monster squad. |
| 1:01.8 | Director Fred Decker had vivid memories of watching Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein as a kid, |
| 1:06.6 | and he was interested in trying to duplicate that feeling for a new generation. |
| 1:11.0 | In Decker's own words, you're never hotter than right before your movie comes out, |
| 1:14.9 | and in the summer of 1986, his first feature film, Night of the Creeps, was just about to be released. |
| 1:20.6 | He took advantage of the buzz surrounding him and was able to get the monster squad set up at TriStar with relative ease. |
| 1:27.0 | All across the board, everyone involved with the |
| 1:29.0 | project seemed to recognize its potential, which is perhaps one of the reasons production went as |
| 1:33.7 | smoothly as it did. The marketing for the film, though, that was another matter entirely. The mix of |
| 1:39.7 | horror and comedy, as well as some of the more risque elements, proved to be a tricky sell. Rather than |
| 1:45.2 | target one specific demographic, the advertising tried to appeal to everyone, and the result was a |
| 1:50.5 | film that appeared to be too scary for kids and too childish for adults. Not surprisingly, |
| 1:55.6 | the Monster Squad quickly came and went from theaters. But it quietly began to develop a dedicated cult following. So quietly, |
| 2:03.2 | in fact, that even the cast and crew were left in the dark about it for the better part of a |
| 2:07.0 | decade. It wasn't until several of them reunited for two sold-out screenings at the Alamo Draft |
| 2:11.8 | House in 2006 that they got a taste of just how much love and goodwill existed for the film. |
| 2:17.8 | So as you've probably already figured out from the intro, |
| 2:20.3 | Carlos was not able to join us for this episode, |
... |
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