Sure, it's not as "cool" as I remember it being when I watched it two decades ago, but Monster Squad is still entertaining. This is a good watered-down horror film for younger audiences. Plus, it has surprisingly good costumes and special effects.

Talking to a fellow poster on a movie message board,I mentioned that my favourite version of Zorro is the New World TV series. At the same time,I sold a DVD for a family friend on Ebay. Taking a look at the case before sending it off,I was surprised to see that it starred Zorro! This led to me quickly joining the squad.View on the film:Looking every bit as debonaire as he did playing Zorro, Duncan Regehr gives a wicked performance as Dracula , whose given a regal stand by Reghr that causes the other characters to drop their guard, allowing Reghr to sink Drac's fangs into pulpy one-liners. Joining in the monster bash, Tom Noonan gives a child-like innocence to the foot-stomping Frankenstein's creature.Joining the squad with Shane Black making his screenwriting debut,co-writer/director Fred Dekker crisply builds upon his Horror Comedy origins of House,with Black's snappy dialogue. Black & Dekker show themselves to have been ahead of their time,thanks to the quick landing on the monsters,allowing the writers to fly past the set-up,to instead land wonderful tributes to Universal monster movies and Stephen King.Putting The Monster Squad up against a gallery of famous monsters, director Dekker impressively does not shy away in going for full-on horror,via Stan Winston's classic practical effects being shown at their very best,and the colourful use of matte paintings and red lights giving a pulpy atmosphere to the monster squad.

This movie was a lovely way to spend my Saturday night I enjoyed it from the begging. With slim references to Stephan King and Van Helsing this movie had a lot of great parts. Now the actors were amazing and the monsters look amazing for this movie to have been released when it was. I do believe this movie has not been given its proper dues as a horror movie for the whole family. I highly recommend this movie to any person who loves to have a good night with the family.

This film was more oriented for the younger set than I anticipated, but it does offer a cool tribute to all those iconic Universal Monsters of the Thirties, along with 1955's Creature From the Black Lagoon. This would be a nice primer to get youngsters acclimated to the idea of horror movies when they grow up, Frankenstein is kind of user friendly, and any film that demonstrates how to unravel The Mummy can't be all bad. The inclusion of all the vampire lore was a neat touch, especially when updated with that crossbow 'stake to the heart' delivery system they came up with in the early going. Duncan Regehr is probably the handsomest movie Dracula to ever come down the pike and was probably the best choice of an antagonist for the members of the monster squad to do battle with. I thought the Scary German Guy (Leonardo Cimino) offered the best example of true horror in the world with the reference to a Nazi concentration camp, but that scene blew by so quickly I don't think most viewers would catch the nuance. Certainly kids would need to have it explained to them. Overall, this was a decent family friendly 'horror' flick, generally done in good taste with some minor exceptions. Kids grow up quick enough as it is without movies being peppered with references to virginity and wolfman nards. But so it goes.Say, anyone catch that cameo by The Invisible Man?