Flashback Friday

- Commentary by Travis Tidmore

Wolfman's Got Nards!

When I was in 4th grade I had a friend named Jesse. Jesse and I used to spend the night at each other's houses all the time. Now, I remember playing cops and robbers (mainly because one time I had my hands handcuffed behind my back and fell and busted my face since I couldn't use my hands to stop me), but more than any of the games we played I remember the movies we watched, specifically the one movie we watched every time we stayed over together, The Monster Squad.

If you're not in the know, Monster Squad is basically The Goonies with the Universal Monsters. Except the producers couldn't get the rights to the Universal Monsters and had to make slight changes to make them just different enough to not be copyright infringement. So it's basically a rip-off of The Goonies and a rip-off of the classic Universal Monsters. And it's also amazing!

I can remember Jesse and I pretending we were the Monster Squad and playing like we had to fight the monsters to save the day, and I remember I had the movie pretty much memorized. But that's about all I remember.

Jesse and I parted ways the grade after and since it was his movie I said goodbye to the Monster Squad. Years later in high school I began my search to find one of my most beloved childhood movies. I searched the video stores, and since that was pretty much all there was, that's as far as my search took me. Every few months it would pop in my head and I'd search for it again to no avail. Then the internet developed into the huge mega-connectedness it is today and about five years ago I found a bootleg DVD of the movie on eBay, which I gladly paid for. It came in the mail in a homemade DVD case, with quite good artwork and it was copied from an old VHS tape, which somehow made it more awesome.

When I sat down to watch Monster Squad five years ago it had been 14 years since I had watched the movie. I was amazed at the things I could remember, some lines were clear as day, but I was also amazed at how much I had forgotten, and how much I hadn't understood. I remembered the montage of the weapons being made, I remember the creepy old guy, and of course I remembered that Wolfman has Nards! But I had forgotten some of the great scenes like the mummy in the little boy's closet. I think I liked the things I had never understood as a kid that much more, because I hadn't understood them then and now I did. While I remembered that the creepy old guy was actually a very nice man, I had never understood what the tattooed numbers on his arm signified and that when he mentions having dealt with monsters himself it was all allusions to him being a Holocaust survivor. And I can guarantee you that at the age of nine I did not know what a virgin was.

A couple of years later, after I had moved to California, I was having dinner at the home of some college friends and was delighted to find that he too had a bootleg copy of Monster Squad. So we were both very happy to hear that the movie was finally being properly released on DVD in the summer of 2007, and even more excited to learn that a theater just a few miles away was having a screening with director Fred Dekker and several members of the cast. We went to that screening and had a blast and a couple of days later I bought my copy on DVD, I swiped the last copy just as someone else was coming up to grab it!

But it wasn't until a couple of days ago that I finally sat down to watch that DVD and I have to say, it looks amazing. Now I'll admit I'm a little disappointed that it's coming out on Blu-Ray because part of me really wants to buy it and knows I can't. But after watching the DVD I realized I don't really need the Blu-Ray, the DVD is pretty dang perfect itself.

I will say some of the humor in the movie is a bit dated, and it can be a bit hokey, but for someone who grew up loving it, it's still great. Plus it's great to see Napoleon Dynamite's Uncle Rico running around trying to convince people he's a werewolf! Most of the cast didn't do much after this, and sadly Brent "Fat Kid" Chalem died in 1997 at the age of 22, but they all do a pretty great job here.

For those of you who haven't seen it. I'll give you a very brief synopsis, because honestly you should just run out and rent or buy it today. Basically, the (Not) Universal Monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and The Mummy come to town searching for an amulet that will give Dracula lots of power, but in order to get the power he must complete a ritual involving a virgin sacrifice by midnight of a certain day. A group of kids, ranging in age from five-ish to teenagers, team up to fight them off, since no grown-ups believe them. Along the way they befriend one of the monsters and an old (not-so) creepy guy, and discover that Wolfman has Nards!

It's a great Halloween movie, and one that can be watched with the kids, although I'd advise a prior viewing so you can determine at what age your kid should be watching this, as it does contain violence, scary scenes, and some language.

And with that I invite you to share your thoughts on The Monster Squad.