History Film / TheMonsterSquad

* ChekhovsSkill: In an early scene, Patrick mentions that his sister takes German in high school. This is the main reason the Squad enlists her to read out the amulet's ritual later. However this is subverted, partly because Lisa is actually really bad at German (even with Scary German Guy's on-the-spot tutoring it takes her several attempts to get through it), not to mention [[spoiler: she's not actually a virgin.]]

Then he pulls the arm of the statue... and a secret door spills them into the secret passage leading to the amulet. The passage itself is justified, as Van Helsing's followers took the amulet to the new world and built the mansion to hide the amulet from Dracula. But Sean finding the passage at that very moment is most definitely this trope.

** Horace's bullies at school call him "fat", smash his Snickers bar to the ground and try to force him to eat it.

** Rudy's first spit take, then a rock is thrown at a pond.
** The Wolfman grabs the ambulance driver, then we have a woman screaming (which turns out to be a movie Sean wanted to see).

--->'''Phoebe:''' Are you doing to yell at him?\\

** The armadillos glimpsed in Dracula's castle in the prologue with Van Helsing, are a reference to Dracula (1931), where they were shown crawling about while Bela Lugosi gave Dwight Frye a tour of his castle. Armadillos are indigenous to the Americas and while their appearance in a Transylvanian castle was seen as a goof in earlier film, they are obviously meant as an homage here.

** The line "Dead guys do not get up and walk away by themselves!" followed by a shot of a dead guy walking down a street is one to Night of the Creeps (1986) also written and directed by Fred Dekker.
** during the 'Rock until you drop' montage, Sean points out the location of Dracula's mansion on Shadowbrook Road to Patrick on a map; also on the map is Chaney College, named for Creator/LonChaneyJr, famous for playing The Wolf Man.

Then he pulls the arm of the statue... and a secret door spills them into the secret passage leading to the amulet. The passage itself is justified, as Van Helsing's followers to the amulet to the new world and built the mansion to hide the amulet from Dracula. Sean finding the passage at that very moment is most definitely this trope.

* CurseCutShort: "Holy shi- Cow! Cow!"

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: But he does get the consolation prize of best monster movie death ever: blown up with a stick of dynamite by Dracula.

* FridgeLogic: When the team is forming the Monster Squad and putting their hands together in circle formation followed by their pet beagle's paw, Rudy asks "How does that dog get up here, anyway?"

* TheSlowWalk: Played deadly straight towards the end of the film, when Dracula brutally beats up and murders a bunch of cops without breaking his stride towards Phoebe and the amulet.
* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Minty Comedic Arts'' argued that it could be seen as a successor to ''Film/TheGoonies'' with a similar group of kids, Frankenstein's monster being Sloth and Creator/MaryEllenTrainor playing a mom in both movies.

* SpiritualAdaptation: In his video, ''Minty Comedic Arts'' said it could be considered the first unofficial movie adaptation to [[Creator/StephenKing Stephen King's]] ''Literature/{{It}}'' with a similar group of kids going up against monsters..
* SpiritualSuccessor: Minty also argued that it could be seen as a successor to ''Film/TheGoonies'' with a similar group of kids, Frankenstein's monster being Sloth and Creator/MaryEllenTrainor playing a mom in both movies.

* WhamShot: How the audience learns the truth about Scary German Guy's experience with monsters.

* RewatchBonus: a subtle one. Midway throughout the movie, the Wolf Man's human form escapes the mansion and calls the police in an attempt to warn them; he manages to get through to Sean's dad, Del. As he transforms in the phone booth, his last cognizant words are [[AdultFear "He's gonna kill your son"]]. In the third act, Del comes face to face with Dracula, who silkily and menacingly tells him "I will have your son." On a rewatch, you can see the horror on Del's face as he realizes that ''this'' was [[OhCrap who the anonymous caller]] was warning him about - and [[ImmuneToBullets Del's just shot him to no effect]].

When the Squad later recruits Lisa to perform the ritual, she's so bad at reading and speaking German that it takes several attempts and some on the spot tutoring by Scary German Guy to get through it, [[spoiler:not to mention is not actually a virgin.]]

* GenreThrowback: To the Franchise/UniversalHorror CrossOver films of the '40s such as ''Film/FrankensteinMeetsTheWolfMan'', which brought pre-existing monsters together onscreen for [[ExcusePlot little reason]] other than it [[RuleOfCool being cool]]. ''The Monster Squad'' ups the ante by having ''five'' recognizable monsters rather than the usual two or three, but otherwise is very much in the spirit of the classic films.

** Rudy's first spit take, then a rock is thrown in a pond.

* ShipTease: Rudy Halloran with Lisa Rhoades (Patrick's older sister), as he's seen putting his arm around her just before the end credits roll.

-->'''Patrick:'' My sister takes German in high school.

When the Squad later recruits Lisa to perform the ritual, she's so bad at reading and speaking German that it takes several attempts and some on the spot tutoring by Scary German Guy to get through it, [[spoiler: not to mention is not actually a virgin.]]

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Inverted. Bad boy Rudy falls for Patrick's sister Lisa.

* ChekhovsSkill: In an early scene, Patrick mentions that his sister takes German in high school. This is the main reason the Squad enlists her to read out the amulet's ritual later. However this is subverted, partly because Lisa is actually really shit at German (even with Scary German Guy's on-the-spot tutoring it takes her several attempts to get through it), not to mention [[spoiler: she's not actually a virgin.]]

* RunningGag: Rudy keeps spitting out his drink.

* AndYourLittleDogToo: After Detective Crenshaw fails to subdue Dracula, the vampire twists the knife by warning, "I will have your son."

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Once transformed, the WolfMan is completely subservient to Dracula.

* BrickJoke: Sean writes a distress note about monsters early in the film. In the end, the Army shows up too late, but fully prepared to fight back a monster assault based on the crayon message of a child.

* AskAStupidQuestion
-->'''Patrick:''' He's not a virgin, you stupid!\\
'''Patrick's sister:''' Did you ask him!?

''[Del walks out the door, leaving Emily very infuriated.]''

* ScreamingWarrior: The Wolfman begs to be locked up in a cage so he can't hurt anyone while in his wolf form. When the cops don't take him seriously and instead try to arrest him, he gets violent and continues screaming that they lock him up before he transforms.

* NoNameGiven: Scary German Guy and Patrick's older sister are never referred to by their names in the movie. Scary German Guy even lets the squad call him that several times without correcting them.

* Adaptational Wimp: Sure, Gill-man kills numerous police officers, but a single shotgun blast is enough to kill it. Compare this with him surviving numerous times being shot throughout his original trilogy and surviving just about each time.

* EatThat: Rudy forces the bullies picking on Horace to apologize and eat the smashed up Snickers bar on the dirty ground in torn of the other school kids.

* BulletsDoNotWorkThatWay: During the scene where Rudy shoots the Wolfman with the silver bullet, the bullet in question hasn't been fitted into a cartridge, but yet is still able to be fired from a police-issue revolver.