News

In the eyes of Trekkies, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" may be the greatest TV series of all time. No other show -- not "The Sopranos," not "M*A*S*H," not "Manimal" -- has come close to the high quality and rich premise of the adventures of the Enterprise-d in the 24th century. Famously, creator Gene Roddenberry took core concepts from his 1966 "Star Trek" series and enhanced them for "The Next Generation," creating an even more aggressively utopian world that was even more forthright about its anticapitalist, anticolonialist intentions. He even instigated a rule among the show's writers that no two characters were allowed to bicker, and no stories could stem from interpersonal conflicts. In Roddenberry's vision, everyone got along at all times.

Writers, naturally hated this idea, as they felt conflict is the best way to create drama. For the first two seasons, Roddenberry, writers, and lawyers all butted heads over the series.

In realizing the latest incarnation of “Zorro,” producer Marc Dujardin found inspiration in the classic 1950s series starring Guy Williams, the absurd premise of super hero tales, and the fond childhood dreams he shared with brother Jean, who portrays the buttoned-up mayor of early 19th-century Los Angeles, Don Diego de la Vega, and his masked and care-free alter ego.

“Zorro” stormed into Le Havre on Thursday, where it closed the Unifrance Rendez-Vous market with a highly anticipated premiere, followed by a dance floor-pumping Alta California-themed fiesta, replete with delectable Spanish and Mexican cuisine à la normande.

Produced by Marc Dujardin’s Le Collectif 64 for France Télévisions and Paramount+, “Zorro” offers a comedic yet straight take on the legendary swashbuckler of old California.

The series sees Don Diego becoming mayor of Los Angeles with the hope of improving his beloved city. Facing growing, unstoppable corruption, however, he decides to again suit...

"Abigail" is hitting theaters this weekend, bringing audiences a new vampire film to sink their teeth into. With that in mind, we're turning to the granddaddy of all vampires, Dracula! There are a lot of Dracula movies. Too many to Count, in fact (pun intended). Dracula has been to space ("Dracula 3000"). Dracula has turned out to be Judas Iscariot ("Dracula 2000"). Dracula has been to the Old West ("Billy the Kid Versus Dracula").

Hell, Dracula has been with us more or less since horror movies began (with the unauthorized adaptation "Nosferatu"). With that in mind, it's probably impossible to make a comprehensive list of every Dracula movie. So we're not even going to try to do that. Instead, we're going to list the five best Dracula movies, ranked. With so many Drac-centric flicks out there, any list like this is bound to be controversial. If your personal favorite Dracula movie didn't make the list,...

Director Fred Dekker’s 1987 cult classic monster mash The Monster Squad (watch it Here) features variations of the classic Universal Monsters characters Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and the Gillman, but it wasn’t actually a Universal production. So to avoid getting in trouble with Universal, the movie’s effects crew at the Stan Winston Studio had to create their own specific designs of the creatures… but that didn’t stop them from sneaking homages to the original monsters in there. It has been known for a while now that designers Steve Wang and Matt Rose hid the face of the original Creature from the Black Lagoon somewhere on the neck of their Gillman suit. Now – as pointed out by Monster Squad super-fan Shawn Robare of Plastic Rocket Pop – the exact location of that face has been found!

Thanks to a listing for a Monster Squad Resin Head Casting on eBay,...

With a love of cinema woven into its DNA, The Monster Squad helped indoctrinate ’80s kids to the classic monsters. The generation that grew up watching it on home video and HBO look back on the 1987 film with the same reverence director Fred Dekker had for the Universal monster movies, and now they’re passing it down in a similar fashion. There’s no better way to introduce the next generation than with the new 4K edition.

Conceived as “The Little Rascals meets the Universal Monsters,” the cleverly-plotted film clocks in at a tight 82 minutes. The punchy script by Dekker and Shane Black doesn’t have an ounce of fat on it, save for the casual homophobia, misogyny, and body shaming of the time. Drawing inspiration from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, human characters offer well-placed levity and a bevy of memorable one-liners, but the monsters are played straight.

The...

Fred Dekker’s The Monster Squad will rise again with a brand new 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber, Bloody Disgusting has just learned this afternoon.

Kino Lorber upgrades The Monster Squad to 4K Uhd on November 28, 2023!

Check out the full Special Features lineup in the tweet below, which includes the feature documentary Wolfman’s Got Nards, audio commentaries, interviews, and more.

You know who to call when you have ghosts, but who do you call about monsters? The Monster Squad—a group of young kids devoted to protecting their suburban neighborhood from strange things that go bump in the night. They ain’t afraid of no ghouls!

Count Dracula (Duncan Regehr) escapes Van Helsing (Jack Gwillim) and adjourns to modern-day Earth in search of an ancient amulet that will grant him final control over the delicate balance between good and evil in the world. To help him, the...

It’s not very often that you see the 1987 cult classic monster mash The Monster Squad (watch it Here) in the news, but we have some cool news to share about the movie today! Dawn of the Discs has revealed that Kino Lorber is planning to give The Monster Squad a 4K Uhd release sometime later this year.

A specific release date has not yet been announced, but it’s good to know that The Monster Squad will be hitting 4K later this year. As of right now, all we know that this release will contain is the 4K disc with a “Brand New Hdr/Dolby Vision Master – From a New 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative!“, plus a regular Blu-ray copy.

Directed by Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps), who wrote the screenplay with Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), The Monster Squad was inspired by the classic Universal...

Longtime readers of Arrow in the Head will probably remember the article series The Test of Time. Now The Test of Time has been revived as a video series, and you can check out the new episode in the embed above! With this one, we’re looking back at the 1987 cult classic monster mash The Monster Squad (watch it Here)! To find out whether or not this one stands the test of time, check out the video embedded above.

Directed by Fred Dekker, who wrote the screenplay with Shane Black, The Monster Squad was inspired by the classic Universal Monsters movies (plus Abbott & Costello and The Little Rascals). The film has the following synopsis: A group of youngsters find themselves up against the combined might of Dracula, the Mummy, the Gill Man and Frankenstein’s Monster, who arrive in town in search of a magic amulet.

Andre Gower, Robby Kiger,...

If you were a kid in the eighties, you wanted to be part of The Monster Squad. While a box office dud that made under 4 million dollars at the box office, once this tween classic hit HBO and VHS, its cult status grew. Directed by Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps), who co-wrote with the legendary Shane Black, The Monster Squad revolves around a group of horror-obsessed boys who come face to face with a gaggle of classic monsters, led by the evil Count Dracula (Duncan Regehr). Now they have to battle Dracula, The Mummy, the Gil-Man and the Wolfman while getting help from a descendent of Van Helsing and the surprisingly gentle Frankenstein’s monster (Tom Noonan – in a performance that tugs at the heartstrings).

In the years following The Monster Squad’s release, the kids from the film went on to varied careers before reuniting after the movie...

Henry Darrow, the first Hispanic actor to portray Zorro on television who also starred in TV series “The High Chaparral,” has died. He was 87.

According to his former publicist, Michael B. Druxman, Darrow died Sunday at his home in Wilmington, N.C.

Throughout the 60s, Darrow appeared in television series such as “Wagon Train,” “Bonanza,” “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” “Gunsmoke” and “Daniel Boone.” Additionally, he appeared in the first season of “Harry O” and won a daytime Emmy for his role on the soap opera “Santa Barbara.”

Darrow also took part in many stage productions such as “The Alchemist” and “Dark of the Moon.” He caught the attention of “Bonanza” creator David Dortort while appearing in the 1965 stage production of “The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit” at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles, where he was immediately offered a role in the Western series “The High Chaparral” He played Manolito Montoya,...

As a horror fan of a certain age (let’s just say older than 30 but younger than 40), I know I’m not alone when I say that The Monster Squad played a significant role in developing my love for the genre. The film has garnered such a rabid following in the decades since its release that the movie’s star André Gower teamed up with writer Henry Darrow McComas to make the documentary Wolfman’s Got Nards. The documentary takes a compelling look at The Monster Squad’s evolution from its development, to its disappointing box office run, to its discovery via home video and cable that would garner an audience that its creators would only come to realize decades later.

After catching the documentary at Salem Horror Fest, I was lucky enough to sit down and talk with Gower and McComas about their paths to horror, The Monster Squad,...

Featuring: Fred Dekker, Shane Black, Seth Green, Andre Gower, Ryan Lambert, Ashley Bank, Adam Carl, Tom Woodruff Jr., Joe Lynch, Steve Wang, Adam F. Goldberg, Duncan Regehr, Stephen Macht, Zach Galligan | Written by Andre Gower, Henry Darrow McComas | Directed by Andre Gower

Wolfman’s Got Nards is a heartfelt documentary exploring the power of the 1987 cult film The Monster Squad and its 30-year impact on its rabid fan base, the cast and crew, and the future of tween horror comedies. Making his feature debut, actor-turned-director André Gower brings us behind the scenes on the making of the film and digs into what made viewing it such a defining part of many genre fans’ upbringing.

Being independent from the film, unlike the documentary that accompanied Lionsgate’s Us DVD release in 2007, means that Wolfman’s Got Nards has an absolutely refreshing honesty about the film, its production and its reception. It...

If you’re a horror fan, then chances are you love The Monster Squad. With that in mind, I think anyone who generally reads a genre website already has a pretty good grasp on just why The Monster Squad has endured for over 30 years, becoming even more popular now than it was three decades ago, and so going into André Gower’s documentary, Wolfman’s Got Nards, I was intrigued to see what he was going to bring to the table for his directorial debut, because I felt like we’d seen a good amount of material out there thus far that has done a solid job of diving into the 1987 horror comedy.

But as Wolfman’s Got Nards weaves through a variety of talking head segments, Q&A footage, and delightful animatics, it becomes clear why Gower is the perfect person to capture all the happenings that coincided with...

Undoubtedly, one of the most beloved genre movies to come out of 1987 was Fred Dekker’s The Monster Squad, a perfect blend of humor, heart, and affection for the classic monsters so many of us grew up on. And while it may not have done great business at the box office when it was released in August of that year, The Monster Squad has deservedly become a true cult classic, and remains a brilliant gateway horror experience for younger viewers who are just becoming initiated in the ways of genre cinema.

With The Monster Squad’s 30th anniversary nearly upon us, and with our “Class of 1987” celebration currently in full swing, I thought this would make for a splendid opportunity to chat with the actors who put the “Monster” in “The Monster Squad” in the first place: Tom Noonan (“Frankenstein’s Monster”), Duncan Regehr (“Count Dracula”), Tom Woodruff Jr. (“the...

Over 65 films, the new and the classics, will screen at FEARnyc 2016 horror film festival, including Nosferatu, Hocus Pocus, Dead Awake, Night of the Living Dead (1968), Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Lost Boys, just to name a few. Continue reading for the full list of films in the FEARnyc lineup.

From FEARnyc: "FEARnyc will be presented this Halloween season at New York City’s Cinema Village. From October 21-27, 2016 the event will feature screenings of 65+ new and classic horror films, cast appearances, special events and a tribute to horror icon, Wes Craven.

Some of the highlights include:

Screenings of Night of the Living Dead, Psycho, Hocus Pocus, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Lost Boys, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3.

The premiere of Dead Awake, the new film from Final Destination writer Jeffrey Reddick.

A screening of The Exorcist which will begin with a seance with the audience led by a renowned psychic.

James Victor, the actor best known for portraying the buffoonish Sgt. Jaime Mendoza on the popular 1990s Family Channel action-adventure series Zorro, has died. He was 76. Victor, a protege of famed independent auteur John Cassavetes, had heart disease and died June 20 in his apartment in Hollywood, his longtime friend Joe Perez told The Hollywood Reporter. Duncan Regehr starred as Don Diego de la Vega/Zorro on the Family Channel adaptation of Zorro, which aired in several countries and for three seasons (1990-93) in the U.S. At first, Victor's Mendoza, who always enjoyed a good meal, tried

read more...

Fred Dekker’s 1986 horror-masterpiece Night of the Creeps changed my life – and it probably change yours, too. It was the horror film that brought aliens, parasites, axe-murders and zombies together in one grand, hilarious and terrifying masterpiece. It was the horror film that wed John Hughes’ teenaged life with George Romero’s on-earth death-walkers.

Back in 1959, a meteorite crashed into Earth, bringing with it a type of parasite that feeds on human brains. When the first victim of the parasite is put into deep freeze, no one expects two teenagers, Chris and J.C. (Jason Lively and Steve Marshall) to inadvertently release these slug-like aliens onto their campus when they unthaw an infected man who has been cryogenically frozen since the fifties. Now with the help of a sorority girl that Chris is crushing on and an aging, cynical detective, they must stop the slugs from infecting their friends before...

Burbank will once again be filled with award-winning F/X artists, horror celebs and legions of adoring fans as Monsterpalooza will be held at the Marriott Burbank Convention Center on April 12-14. Read on for the details available thus far.

Monsterpalooza is scheduling some incredible F/X artists, special presentations and a monster museum. Artists scheduled to appear are: Michael Westmore (Academy Award Winning F/X Artist: "The Munsters," Rocky, Raging Bull, Mask, "Star Trek"), Chiodo Brothers (Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Critters), Mike Hill (sculptor and painter), Kazuhiro Tsuji (Hellboy, Planet of the Apes, The Ring 2, Looper), Jordu Schell (creature designer and sculptor Avatar, Galaxy Quest, 300, Hellboy, The Thing (2011)), and many more.

And check out this list of special celebrity guests from the genre and beyond: Ace Frehley (former lead guitarist of Kiss), Lita Ford (The Runaways), The Monster Squad! (Duncan Regehr (Dracula), Tom Woodruff (The Creature), Michael Reid Mackay...

Apparently working his way through The Vampire Film Academy, David Slade (30 Days of Night, Twilight Saga: Eclipse) is ready to take on some serious shit--The Last Vogage of the Demeter. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, the Demeter was the Russian ship that transported our fair-toothed hero from Transylvania to England. As you can imagine, for the crew of the Demeter, this was their farewell voyage; a fella has to eat. The horror script by Bragi Schut (Season of the Witch) is said to have an Alien vibe, recounting the perilous journey as people disappear one by one. When the Demeter finally arrives, the only body left is that of the captain, tied to the ship's helm.

Though he of sharp teeth has not been cast, two big stars: Ben Kingsley and Noomi Rapace are currently attached. I'd pay money to watch Kinglsey brush his teeth and Rapace is quickly racking up...

Ignored at the box office, 80s comedy horror The Monster Squad has since gained a devoted following. Glen takes a look back at a cult favourite...

As something of a monster-obsessed child growing up, I lapped up any kind of monster-related goodies I could get my hands on, whether it was things like Monster in my Pocket or monster-related movies or books, few things piqued my interest in the way that these little nasties could.

So, when I saw an ex-rental VHS copy of The Monster Squad offered up for sale at a local video store, I pestered my parents to buy it for me and soon discovered what would be one of my favourite and most watched movies as a child. It featured classic monsters and the protagonists were in the same age range as me. Sure, they would have been a little older and live on the other side of the Atlantic,...

Before DVDs, there was the VHS rental market, syndication, and the occasional art house or revival, but really, the industry was sitting on a whole lot of unmonetized content in their archives. Then along came the DVD: people started collecting, studio archivists got assistants, and suddenly everyone was making money (and making-of featurettes). Fifteen years on, well, you can only release Seinfeld so many times, so here we are, with the Family Channel’s thoroughly mediocre Zorro in hastily produced box set form.

You remember Zorro of course: the Batman of Spanish California, the man with no name who never rides out of town. With trusty steed Tornado, bullwhip and sword, he sows justice in the night with cunning and speed, ("Zorro" is Spanish for "fox", keep up!) and from 1990-1993, he sowed poorly choreographed justice on basic cable. Like Batman, he is a man of education and means, but unlike Bruce Wayne,...

DVD Playhouse: January 2011

By

Allen Gardner

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (20th Century Fox) Sequel to the seminal 1980s film catches up with a weathered, but still determined Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, who seems to savor every syllable of Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff’s screenplay) just out of jail and back on the comeback trail. In attempting to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter (Carey Mulligan), Gekko forges a reluctant alliance with her fiancé (Shia Labeouf), himself an ambitious young turk who finds himself seduced by Gekko’s silver tongue and promise of riches. Lifeless film is further evidence of director Oliver Stone’s decline. Once America’s most exciting filmmaker, Stone hasn’t delivered a film with any teeth since 1995’s Nixon. Labeouf and Mulligan generate no sparks on-screen, and the story feels forced from the protracted opening to the final, Disney-esque denouement. Only a brief cameo by Charlie Sheen,...

Filed under: Halloween, Horror, Cinematical

Welcome to Where Everyone Has Gone Before, the column in which I continue my film education before your very eyes by seeking out and watching all of the movies we all know I should have seen by now. I will first judge the movie before I've watched it, based entirely on its reputation (and my potentially misguided thoughts). Then I will give the movie a fair chance and actually watch it. You will laugh at me, you may condemn me, but you will never say I didn't try! And we all know what Yoda said about trying.

The Film: 'The Monster Squad' (1987), Dir. Fred Dekker

Starring: Andre Gower, Robby Kiger, Stephen Macht, Duncan Regehr and Tom Noonan.

Why I Haven't Seen It Until Now: I've been burnt by 1980s movies far too many times. Nostalgia is a powerful beast, blinding even the most...

The "Air Bud: World Pup Special Edition" comes out on June 15th. Now, take a look at eight clips which include some bonus material from the Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment release starring Kevin Zegers, Caitlin Wachs, Chilton Crane, Levi James, Dale Midkiff, David Glyn-Jones, Chantal Strand, Brittany Paige and Duncan Regehr. Your whole family will get a kick out of this spectacular Special Edition of Disney's timeless film "Air Bud: World Pup", including the all-new exclusive bonus, The Buddies' Sports Channel: Soccer Edition! The world's most talented pooch is back in a heartwarming and hilarious sports adventure. When Buddy meets Molly and they have puppies, the hotshot hound is...

According to reports, Platinum Dunes, producers of horror remakes "Friday the 13th" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" will update the 1987 feature "The Monster Squad", with Rob Cohen, producer of the original film, also on board the remake.

Written by Shane Black {"Lethal Weapon") and Nicholas Hill, "The Monster Squad" was directed by Fred Dekker ("Night of the Creeps", released by Tri-Star Pictures, featuring 'classic' movie monsters led by 'Dracula' (Duncan Regehr).

'The Monster Squad' of the title is a gang of pre-teens who idolize the 'classic' movie monsters. Club leader 'Sean' (Andre Gower) obtains the diary of vampire hunter 'Abraham Van Helsing' (Jack Gwillim), revealing the story of an amulet composed of 'concentrated good'. The Squad must gain possession of the amulet before the 'day of balance', when a hole in the universe will open.

To gain control of the world, Dracula must obtain the amulet before the Monster Squad does,...