Modern audiences know a lot more about the inner workings of studios and who owns the rights to which characters than at any other time in history. This is due to the fact that, with the variety of iconic pop-culture characters out there, many of us wonder which of these figures are allowed to appear in which properties. One of the most famous examples of the 21st century is how The Avengers and the X-Men were all Marvel characters, yet there was a strict divide between their cinematic likenesses, as Marvel Studios owned the rights to The Avengers and 20th Century Fox owned the rights to the X-Men. This example is now moot, as The Walt Disney Company, which owns Marvel Studios, acquired 20th Century Fox and all of the characters they owned.
In earlier eras, however, there was much less distinction for the average viewer. The Universal Monsters regularly joined one another on screen, resulting in titles like Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man or the comedic-leaning Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. One way around these legal loopholes was to use characters that were more generic versions of archetypes with different character designs. This is exactly how one 1987 movie brought together the biggest figures in horror.
Shane Black, who wrote iconic action movies like Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, and Last Action Hero teamed up with filmmaker Fred Dekker for The Monster Squad. While it was a more lighthearted adventure than his more adult-leaning fare, the movie is no less compelling than those action staples. The Monster Squad is set to get an all-new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray from Arrow Video, which will hit shelves on Oct. 11.
In the movie, a group of young horror lovers inadvertently get wrapped up in a plot orchestrated by Count Dracula, who has teamed up with Frankenstein’s Monster, The Wolf Man, Mummy, and Gill-man. Creature designer Stan Winston developed the unique look of the characters to ensure that Frankenstein’s Monster, The Wolf Man, and Gill-man didn’t look too much like the titular creatures from Frankenstein, Wolf Man, or The Creature from the Black Lagoon. With Dracula and the concept of a mummy predating the Universal Monsters, there was less of a concern about copyright infringement.
A new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of the movie is on the way, and it includes the 2018 documentary Wolfman’s Got Nards, which explores the legacy of the movie. The full breakdown of special features is as follows:
DISC 1 – FEATURE & EXTRAS (4K ULTRA HD)
- 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original lossless stereo and DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary with writer/director Fred Dekker and “Squad Members” Andre Gower, Ryan Lambert and Ashley Bank
- Audio commentary with writer/director Fred Dekker and director of photography Bradford May]
- Monster Squad Forever, a feature-length 2007 documentary on the making of the film
- Archive featurette with the SFX team, featuring interviews with John Rosengrant, Steve Wang, Alec Gillis, Shane Mahan, Lindsay MacGowan, and Tom Woodruff Jr.
- Archive interview with composer Bruce Broughton
- A Conversation with Frankenstein, a vintage 1986 featurette
- Deleted scenes
- Animated Storyboard sequence
- Trailers and TV spot
- Image galleries
DISC 2 – WOLFMAN’S GOT NARDS (LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE BLU-RAY)
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of Wolfman’s Got Nards, a 2018 feature-length documentary co-written and directed by The Monster Squad star Andre Gower
- Original lossless stereo and DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- In the Goddamn Club, More with Fans of The Monster Squad
- “Blood Bath” music video
- Deleted scenes
- Extended interviews with Fred Dekker, Shane Black, Adam Goldberg and Seth Green
- Archive interview with Andre Gower & Henry Darrow McComas
- Podcast audio interviews with actors Ashley Bank, Tom Noonan, Carl Thibault, and Michael Reid MacKay
- Trailer
In 2017, Universal Pictures attempted to kick off an entire shared universe of Universal Monsters reboots with the Tom Cruise-starring The Mummy, only for the movie to disappoint so severely that all planned movies stagnated and ultimately scrapped. With that franchise likely never to be revived, The Monster Squad is the closest we might ever get to such a monstrous crossover.
The Monster Squad on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray is available now for pre-order before it hits shelves on Oct. 11.
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