A 1987 film directed by Fred Dekker and written by Shane Black about a group of genre savvy kids who have to stop Dracula from getting his hands on a mystical amulet or it's The End of the World as We Know It.An out-of-print classic for a long time, it was given a new spiffy DVD release in time for its 20th anniversary (with a Blu-ray release two years later). A lesser-known effort of the late Mr. Stan Winston, better known for his frighteningly realistic puppets that appeared in such classics as the Terminator and Jurassic Park franchises of films.Not to be confused with the Saturday morning TV show.
Affably Evil: Dracula can come across this way when talking to his fellow monsters, particularly Frank and the Wolfman. But when he's dealing with people...
All Boys Are Perverts: When not discussing monsters, most of the time spent in the treehouse is spent trying (in vain) to snap a picture of the Girl Next Door undressing.
Only Rudy (and by accident, Franky) takes the pictures, since the boys aren't old enough to have those kind of feelings yet (They don't really understand what a virgin is), and one of them is said girl's brother!
All Germans Are Nazis: Teased with the Scary German Guy, but he turns out to be a concentration camp survivor. So apparently Germans are Nazis except the Jewish ones.
Artifact of Death: The Amulet may be concentrated good but it's just as dangerous to innocents as to monsters, as the opening scene shows us.
Danger Takes A Back Seat: The man who becomes the Werewolf causes an incident at the police station when he tries to get the cops to lock him up, and when he grabs an officer's gun he's shot several times and apparently dies. He's taken away in an ambulance and transforms during the ride, grabbing the driver from behind and killing him.
Dying as Yourself: The Wolfman, who thanks Rudy with his dying breath.
Fridge Brilliance: Scary German Guy mentions how he knows about real monsters. Then as he closes the door, you can see a concentration camp tattoo on his forearm, which many kids would not recognize, but parents would.
Gilligan Cut: "Two-thousand year old dead guys do not get up and walk away by themselves!" Cut to the two-thousand year old dead guy, walking away by himself.
Groin Attack: The kids have an argumet about whether the Wolfman has "nards." A groin attack reveals the truth of the hypothesis.
Homage: The scene with Frankenstein and Phoebe by the pond is a Shout Out to the original Frankenstein movie, when a little girl attempts to play with the monster by a lake. In this film, it ends much better for the little girl.
Improvised Weapon: Fat Kid uses a slice of pizza (heavy in garlic) to scar Dracula.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: For the longest time, bootlegs were the only way to see the film, as many networks had long stopped showing the film and it was out of print on VHS. In 2006, the film was shown in several independent theaters across the US, which led to a campaign for a proper DVD release of the film. In 2007, a two-disc DVD was finally released in honor of the film's 20th anniversary; it features a brand new commentary by the film's director and several of the cast members, a five-part documentary on the film's creation and its eventual cult following, and - of course - a brand new remastered version of the film. And, to put icing on the cake, it only took two years after that for the Blu-Ray, which shows the film in extremely good HD and retains all the extras from the DVD, most of them in HD.
Kids Are Cruel: If one were to take a drink whenever the kids made an anti-gay or anti-fat joke, you'd be very soused by the credits.
Monstrous Transformation: Occurs twice with the Wolfman. The second wolf-out happens inside a phone booth.
Mood Whiplash: A major problem with the film is that it doesn't really know if it wants to be a a tongue-in-cheek Monster Mash or a family friendly adventure film with little horror-flavor thrown in. This leads into awkward moments where the level of gore/body count doesn't really match with the general mood of the scene and funny moments are followed by serious ones with little to none time catch breath in between. Then again, Your Milage May Vary on whether or not it actually hinders the movie.
Odd Friendship: Rudy's first line in the movie has him state that Horace is his friend. Makes one wonder how a goofy, nerdy fat kid and the school's coolest badass became friends in the first place.
Offhand Backhand: A cop attempts to stop Dracula during the climax. Dracula just punches him in the face and keeps walking.
Papa Wolf: Sean's father gets a call that Sean is in danger, and immediately leaps into action, eventually even shooting Dracula in bat form out of the sky!
Parental Bonus: A decidedly non-joke example - after the Scary German Guy mentions that he's had prior experience with monsters, the camera points to a strange tattoo on his forearm; no younger viewer would be expected to recognize that as a concentration camp ID tattoo.
People in Rubber Suits: Well done, thanks to Stan Winston. Many people consider the costume and effects for the Gillman in this film to be the best representation of the Creature from the Black Lagoon in film history, despite the fact that he gets very little screen time.
Police Are Useless - at least until the Wolfman says Dracula will kill the cop's son.
The Army isn't entirely useless, however, seeing as they get up and ready for battle with monsters on the word of a six-year-old kid. They arrive after the battle's already gone down, granted, but you have to applaud the effort.
The So-Called Coward: "Fat Kid" Horace guns down the Gill Man while his former bullies cower and watch.
Spit Take: Rudy, after asked by Sean if he knows any virgins. And Rudy again, upon opening up some freshly developed photos, discovers that Frankenstein (accidentally) snapped a perfect pic of the Girl Next Door undressing.
Stab The Salad: "Children, your time is almost up..." * brandishes butcher knife* "...It's your last chance for more pie!"
Super Strength: The titular Monsters (save for The Mummy). Each one of them gets a scene where they demonstrate it. Curiously, it seems to be the Gillman's only power (aside from his Nightmare Face), as he gets gunned down pretty easily.
The Slow Walk: Played deadly straight towards the end of the film, when Dracula brutally murders a bunch of cops without breaking his stride towards Phoebe and the amulet.
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