The Monster Squad finally hits DVD

Today marks the release date of a DVD that fans have been waiting a decade for, The Two-Disc 20th Anniversary Edition Monster Squad DVD. It's been on the top of a lot of people's most wanted DVDs list since the format was first introduced, and for whatever reason it's taken this long to come out. I always just figured it to be a rights issue, since it featured five of the classic Universal Horror creatures, I thought that might've somehow made matters more complicated and would explain why a popular title like this would take so long to come out. I've actually had pretty high quality bootleg DVDs of both The Monster Squad and Fred Dekker's other horror film Night of the Creeps for a while now, but it's good to see an official release of at least one of them after all this time. Despite not having the original artwork, the whole package still looks very nice and I've already gotten used to the new cover. Plus it's a great set with 2 commentaries and a documentary longer than the movie itself. The movie is about 76 minutes, this documentary is about 90. There's also a funny interview with Frankenstein. I don't mean an interview with Tom Noonan in the Frankenstein costume, I mean an interview with Frankenstein, the actor. He talks about being in the business for 50 years, what he's really like and his personal feelings about the Wolfman. Despite what you've seen in movies, Frank is actually very eloquent and really has a lot to say.

I never noticed the amount of Burger King product placement there was in the Monster Squad. First Sean and his Dad eat Burger King on the roof while watching Groundhog Day part 12. Later Fat Kid jokingly says "Why don't we just go over and do it in Burger King?" Then you've got people and monsters running back and forth in front of the BK several times during the finale. I'm not one to bitch about product placement, I'd rather have someone say Google instead of making something up (although jokes with Google or eBay in the punchline drive me nuts). Just saying with all this product placement where the hell were the Monster Squad toys? I would've loved to have had a chance to get my hands on a Scary German Guy figure or a Hot Wheel modeled after Dracula's phantom hearse.

Now that this one is out, and seems to be selling very well (it's currently #12 on Amazon's top selling DVDs list, right alongside stuff like 300, House and Zodiac) let's hope they haul ass and get the official Night of the Creeps DVD out. The Monster Squad is a blast, but NOTC is better in my opinion.

Also, in case you missed it, Bruce Broughton's score is available here. They've announced an official limited soundtrack that will be released soon, so grab this one now before I have to take it down.

Wolfman's Got Nards! Bruce Broughton's score to The Monster Squad

This is the Bruce Broughton score to Fred Dekker’s The Monster Squad. This one seems to be quite hard to find and doesn’t appear to have a legitimate release available. Everyone loves this movie and I’ll tell you why, it’s great assortment of loveable characters. You get Dracula, Frankenstein (the kids acknowledge Frankenstein being the guy and not the monster, yet they just call him Frankenstein the whole time anyway), The Mummy, The Creature (or Gill Man, as he‘s called here), A betesticled Wolfman, Fat Kid, Wayne Arnold and of course Scary German Guy. Watching the movie now makes you notice it’s a bit more violent than it should have been given it being a bit on the kid-movie side. They shoot some vampire brides with stakes, Dracula picks up a little girl by the head and says “Give me the amulet, you Bitch!“ before being impaled on some really dangerous looking railing, they even explode the Wolfman for God’s sake. Pretty gruesome for a movie like this. But who knows without all that I might not be demented bastard I am today, so I still love it.

Watching it today also brings up a few questions. For example, why did “Fat Kid” have an aluminum foiled wrapped, half-eaten slice of pizza in his jacket pocket? I can understand Fat Kid has a candy bar, or Fat Kid has a bag of Skittles, but a slice of pizza? How fat was this kid supposed to be? I’ve also always wondered, does the Frankenstein monster really need the platform shoes? The man is pushing like 7 and a half feet as it is. Seems a bit unnecessary. Did they even have platform shoes in the 19th century?

Also, I thought I’d mention Ryan Lambert, who played the film’s badass, Rudy, sings in a band called Elephone. Pretty good band actually from the little bit I heard from their page.

Anyway, the tracklist I found has no titles, just numbers so that will have to do unless one of you out there have the tracklist. But download, and enjoy.

If we pull this off, I'm gonna shit!