It seems safe to say that if one mentioned this movie to the kids of today they’d look at you funny and wonder if this was a new cartoon they hadn’t heard about. Those of us that remember though can recall the Monster Squad when it came out and why it was so great. Unfortunately for those of us that might have liked the movie, Germain Lussier of SlashFilm and many others have reported the idea is DOA. That might be why it’s a good and a bad thing that we won’t be seeing any more of it, since quite honestly it was bad, bad in a way that made it good since it was so easy to enjoy as a kid, but upon looking at it through adult eyes we can now say ‘what were we thinking?’. In all fairness it was a fun and very entertaining movie back in the day since the Wolfman, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, the Mummy, Frankenstein, and even Van Helsing were still movie favorites that had a lot of pull when it came to pop culture. The generation of kids growing up back in those days were still entertained by the old movie monsters and found it possible to integrate them into an 80s way of thinking since the mashups that pop culture gave us now and again were done in a way that didn’t make us think too much. It’s hard to say but at this point I’d just have to go along with the idea that Mike Sprague from MovieWeb highlights, that the plot of the story would be too much like IT or Stranger Things.
It feels in a way like traitorous thing to say in regards to our younger selves that loved this movie but at the same time the evolution of the cast would have to come a long way towards doing something different and thereby distancing itself from the same feel as a lot of movies and shows that have attempted to do the same thing over and over. Fighting legendary and mythical monsters is all well and good but the idea that they would just keep coming and offer no hope of ever being finally defeated seems to kind of erase all purpose and logic from the story, making it almost like a Resident Evil or Zombieland idea where the future still has some hope, even if it’s mired by the constant idea that danger is going to be lurking around every possible corner for a while to come.
It’s amusing to think that back in the day when this movie came out there were still zombie movies and other films that had the same kind of idea, but one has to remember that back then we had to rely on the critics, their reviews, and the newspapers and gossip magazines to really understand the differences and similarities between them. Now we have phones and other devices that at a push of a button can remind us just which film is like another and to discover what show or movie is a ripoff or spinoff of another movie based on a handful of elements that they may or may not share. In truth you could compare an untold number of movies to one another if you looked at things from a certain point of view. But the whole idea of becoming monster hunters as they grew up is something that might water the cast down quite a bit since in many movies that feature kids the reality is that once they grow up most people tend to move on and do other things with their lives, and something that was cool and hip when they were younger becomes less of a concern unless a person can’t bring themselves to move on.
And on top of that, there would need to be an entirely new cast as well since there’s no telling if the original cast would even make it back since it’s likely that a number of them, if not all or most of them, haven’t been on screen all that much since their childhood days. The casting part wouldn’t be the hardest thing to accomplish, but gaining people’s interest in it would since as it was mentioned above it would contain too many elements that others might liken to other, more popular movies and shows that have either been released or are due to be released soon. Maybe years into the future when Monster Squad and several other movies and TV shows have been largely forgotten or laid to rest it might be feasible to bring this idea back, but for now it would seem that it’s best left where it is, on the shelf where it can be picked up and viewed from time to time by those wanting to relive a small part of their childhood. Even looking through the eyes of an adult it’s still an entertaining movie.
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