10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Monster Squad | ScreenRant – Screen Rant

The Monster Squad is one of the most beloved horror-comedies ever made, and fans need to learn about its filming and creation.

Fred Dekker's 1987 horror-comedy The Monster Squad has become one of the most beloved cult-movies of the entire decade. Written by Shane Black, the film follows a group of pre-teens who belong to the Monster Squad, a club of misfits who worship classic horror movie villains. But when real monsters arrive and threaten the existence of their small suburban town, the Monster Squad must band together and rid the evil once and for all.

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Released in theaters August 14, 1987, The Monster Squad did not perform well at the domestic box-office. Despite earning less than $4 million against a $12 million budget, here are 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts about the Making of The Monster Squad.

When casting the film in 1986, Liam Neeson was not yet a household name. As such, he auditioned for the role of Dracula in The Monster Squad. His audition was so good that he was all set to be cast until actor Duncan Regehr came in and blew the casting directors away.

Even so, Neeson was financially compensated for his role despite never appearing in the movie. As for Regehr, his portrayal of Dracula was voted by Wizard Magazine as the best depiction of Dracula ever captured on film.

According to director Fred Dekker, Shane Black's original opening of the movie was so ambitious and elaborate that it would have cost more than the film's entire budget.

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The sequence would have featured Van Helsing (Jack Gwillim) aggressively raiding Dracula's castle with several zeppelin airplanes and hundreds of soldiers on horseback by his side. The scene would have presented a massive logistical nightmare that was ultimately deemed too costly to attempt.

Due to TriStar pictures' inability to obtain the licensing rights to specific characters, the makeup/special FX crew headed by the late great Stan Winston had to create monsters that were suggestive but not exact replicas of Universal's classic monster lineup.

This is why, for example, the character based on the Creature From the Black Lagoon is referred to as Gill-Man in the film. This is also why Frankenstein's Monster (Tom Noonan) has bolts protruding from his forehead rather than his neck as seen in the original James Whale film. In addition, the face of the Wolfman character was modeled after Stan Winston. Like Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula being a public domain character allowed the crew to add him into the film, though changes were made to ensure his difference from Universal's version.

Several horror movie homages and Easter Eggs are strewn throughout The Monster Squad, particularly in the treehouse club that the Squad uses as home base. For example, posters for Lucio Fulci's Zombie and Dan O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead can be spotted in the background.

At the beginning of the film as Dracula deboards the airplane, the word Browning can be seen in plain sight. Tod Browning directed the original Dracula film. Later when the Squad studies a map to locate Dracula's castle, a signpost for Chaney College can be seen. Lon Chaney played Larry Talbot in the original Wolfman movie.

One year prior to helming The Monster Squad, Fred Dekker directed the equally beloved cult horror-comedy Night of the Creeps. Not only is there a futuristic shout-out to The Monster Squad in the former film, but both movies share the same line of dialogue.

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In one the standout bathroom sequence in Night of the Creeps, a clearly written piece of graffiti on the walls reads "Go Monster Squad!" Furthermore, both films feature the hilarious line "dead guys do not get up and walk away by themselves."

Child actress Ashley Bank turned down a role opposite Michael Douglas and Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction to star as five-year-old Phoebe in The Monster Squad. In one of the most memorable scenes in the film, Phoebe lets out a mortified shriek when being lifted up by Dracula.

In helping her elicit a genuine response, actor Duncan Regehr remained in character throughout production. The shot of Dracula lifting Phoebe was done in one take, but Regehr had to remove his fangs and one red eye to avoid frightening Bank too much. Dekker told Bank to scream as soon as the platform she stood on was raised, which she did without warning. The reaction is 100% authentic.

To achieve the monstrous visual effects in the film, great technological strides were made on the set of The Monster Squad. According to Stan Winston Studio (SWS) technician Richard Landon, one of the advances made were cable controllers, which allowed one person to oversee several movements.

For example, Landon was able to create a skeleton and control all ten of its fingers with one cable control. In the past, a production crew would require roughly ten people to move just two hands. This new technique made production much more facile.

Writer Shane Black and director Fred Dekker hit it off so well while making The Monster Squad that they decided to work together again roughly one year after the movie was released.

The two men concocted a script called Shadow Company, an action-horror story about zombified Vietnam War vets who reanimate and annihilate the town they were buried in. The script drew serious interest from genre master John Carpenter, who was set to direct in 1989 with Walter Hill producing and Kurt Russell staring. Alas, the movie was never made.

The fish-faced Gill-Man featured in the film was played by Tom Woodruff Jr., who also served as the makeup artist who sculpted Frankenstein's Monster. According to Woodruff Jr., he was already in possession of a life-sized body-cast that was molded to fit his body, which he had created for his own personal amusement. Given his history as a special effects wizard, this should come as no surprise.

When The Monster Squad entered production, he showed the body-cast to Stan Winston and pitched himself to play the role of Gill-Man. Winston finally agreed and Woodruff has since spent 20 years as an "in-suit" actor.

According to Fred Dekker, TriStar was adamant about delivering a movie under 90 minutes. As such, 13 minutes of footage was excised from the original cut. Many of the deleted scenes have since been restored on various TV airings of the film.

Among the notable deleted scenes include the resurrection of Dracula via Van Helsing's stake, a scene between Phoebe and her mother in the kitchen, Horace freaking out while approaching a ghoulish house, and a scene of Rudy embracing Patrick's sister during the finale.

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