Scary German guy is bitchin’!

A couple of weeks back, the wife and I were looking for a copy of either Dethklok‘s Dethalbum or the first season of Metalocalypse at Best Buy. Okay, to be fair, I was looking for either of those, and the wife was putting up with my search of every store in town that sold DVDs.

Of course, Dethklok-related merchandise wasn’t available anywhere. Totally fucking sold out. However, in an attempt to boost my morale in a way that didn’t involve blowing money meant for the electric bill on a Nintendo DS, I picked up a couple other DVDs that were on sale for half price.

One of them was an old favorite from when my mom and dad used to let my siblings and I rent videos on the weekend: The Monster Squad. I had a bootleg of it on DVD-R, but I hadn’t watched but halfway a couple years ago. It was dark, and pretty grainy – kind of like watching a YouTube video on the big screen. So, I figured, what the hell, it was probably worth nine bucks, bought it, took it home, and slapped it on the shelf.

Since I needed something to do while I was working on a couple of papers for my fiction writing class, I threw it in the dvd player about a week later. My original thought was that I’d look up at my favorite scenes (“Wolfman’s got nards!”, “Scra-aps,” “Have you ever… been dorked?”) and otherwise ignore it while I knocked out some pages. Surprisingly, it was good. Not “so bad it’s good” kind of good, but genuinely entertaining. The kids act the way we did when I first saw the movie – foulmouthed, into things that are gross and sick, and borderline abusive to your friends.

Come to think of it, things haven’t really changed that much for me.

Still, the movie’s special effects (with the exception of the bats on strings) hold up, the story’s fun, and it even has a wonderful ’80s montage as the Squad gets ready to do battle. It has everything a kid wants in a comedic horror film. Seriously, there’s nothing I wanted more as a kid than to see violence, funny stuff, and monsters. That still holds true.

Freaky weird tidbit: Michael Sembello, who wrote the song “Rock ‘Til You Drop” that plays over the montage, also wrote “Maniac” from Flashdance, which was itself inspired by the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Monster Squad Theme

Michael Sembello – “Rock ‘Til You Drop” (courtesy of the Manchester Morgue)