MISFITS Video Picks for May 25, 2000
Monster Squad by Chris Jones
I've been pestering my friends for so long to see this movie it's become
something of a running joke. It seems no one's ever heard of it. It was directed
by Fred Dekker who's directing credits include Night of the Creeps (a low
budget, tongue-in-cheek horror film I actually LIKE) and Robocop 3 (no comment).
It's the story of a group of kids who have to fight Frankenstein's Monster, the
Wolf Man, The Mummy and the Gill Man led by Count Dracula because no one but the
kids will believe they exist.
Sounds AWFUL, doesn't it?
But I just LOVE this film. WHY? Because first of all, I love the old Universal
Studios monster movies. You know the ones I'm talking about. Frankenstein. Bride
of Frankenstein. The Bela Lugosi Dracula. Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man. Great
stuff. Lot's of style and atmosphere. Not a lot of on-screen violence
for its
own sake. Well you can tell that the people that made this film loved those
movies, too.
The Monster Squad gives you the classic versions of the characters you remember
loving as a kid, and treats them with love and respect, rather than making a
joke out of them. This isn't Gary Oldman's post-modern Dracula. This is Dracula
in opera clothes with the cape and the gold medal on a red ribbon around his
neck. This isn't a wolf-shaped lycanthrope from The Howling; this is the
friggin' Wolf Man with a ripped up shirt and pants. But this is classic design
married with state-of-the-art make up and prosthetics. The Monster Squad's Gill
Man has to be seen to be believed! The Creature from the Black Lagoon never
looked THIS cool!
The story is fun, clever, and well acted. The pace is brisk, and the kid
protagonists manage to be likable rather than annoying. These are young GEEKS,
and will be attending CONvergence in a few years, I'm sure. Their terribly
serious discussions about the rules for vampires or arguments over whether
there's more than one way to kill a werewolf sound awfully familiar.
I don't know if this is a film for everyone, but if you love the monster movie
marathons at Halloween, or those ads in 1960's comics for the Aurora monster
model kids, then this movie is for you.
And remember this:
Silver bullets. The ONLY way to kill a werewolf.
Unlike Chris's pick, my pick is actually not out of print. It is
a subject
of much debate to decide what Doctor Who story that would be a good
introduction to the series -- and this may not actually be it. However,
this is the final complete triumph of Doctor Who as a TV series
-- fresh direction, a script that recognizes that Doctor Who works
best when it goes to the same classic horror stories that Chris mentioned
in his pick (in this case The Phantom of the Opera), Peter Davison as the Doctor, as
intense as ever as he tries to save himself and his friend as they walk
literallly right into the middle of a guerella war on Androzani Minor,
a small planet that contains a valuable life-extending substance. There
aren't a lot of good guys in the story besides the Doctor and Peri, and
they'll be lucky just to survive the adventure, and sacrifices will need to
be made.
Most of our picks here have been movies -- but TV series have
their charm, with their history and flexibility, and Caves of Androzani
is an especially rewarding example of my favorite television program.
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Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani
