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The 1980s saw a spate of movies in which precocious kids encounter aliens, foil bank robbers, or hunt for pirate treasure. When the writer of Lethal Weapon and the director of Night of the Creeps got together to make their own, they skewed a little darker.

One hundred years ago, Dr. Abraham Van Helsing and a small band of freedom fighters stormed Count Dracula's castle with a plan to rid the world of evil forever. They blew it. A hundred years later, Dracula is back, with a werewolf, a mummy, a gill-man and even Frankenstein's creature all in tow. Now, a group of horror-loving kids are about to discover that all the comics, books and movies they adore were more than just escapism, or the trash that parents and teachers dismiss them as: they were training.

An all-out monster mash that wears its love of classic creature features on its sleeve even as it kicks the creakier tropes and conventions squarely in the nards, The Monster Squad is a full-blown blend of action, comedy and horror that will capture the hearts of every monster-kid who sees it!

Product Features

2-DISC 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Francesco Francavilla
Collectors' booklet featuring new writing on the film by critics Sean Abley, Priscilla Page, Justin LaLiberty and Johnny Mains
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

Amazing that this film is so loved. I loved it. When I was 11. I have no desire to rewatch, despite being a profoundly nostalgic person.

Of course just a couple weeks after I caved and bought the kino UHD.

denti alligator wrote: Fri Jul 31, 2026 2:04 pm Amazing that this film is so loved. I loved it. When I was 11. I have no desire to rewatch, despite being a profoundly nostalgic person.

I saw it at the age of 9 and it's remained a firm nostalgic favourite for both me and my sister, her first crush being Andre Gower.

The UK VHS also had my favourite studio logo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqHFrMwPsH0

I loved this film when I was a kid and have continued to love it into adulthood. When my 16 year-old was 5 we began an October tradition that included watching the Universal monster movies whose characters feature in Monster Squad. Then after we completed those we would screen Monster Squad as a capstone. We've kept that up ever since or at least something close to it. It's been a nice way to bond and has sparked a love for film for her as well.

I overstated it. I’m curious enough. Not to buy this edition, but to rewatch. Glad these otherwise forgotten films are getting attention.

I feel like you’ve not been paying attention since you were eleven. The Monster Squad is hardly a forgotten film. Unless you were speaking of your own memories?

I wish I’d seen this when the film was released (as it happens, when I was 11), rather than only five years ago. I have a real dislike for Shane Black’s writing, and even more so his directing, so I have mixed feelings about it. But seems I’m going to watch it again tomorrow night, just to be sure. As someone who has very fond memories of watching Night of the Creeps back then, I’d like to think Fred Dekker’s debut wasn’t a one-off fluke.

denti alligator wrote: Fri Jul 31, 2026 2:04 pm Amazing that this film is so loved. I loved it. When I was 11. I have no desire to rewatch, despite being a profoundly nostalgic person.

When I did my big rewatch of childhood favorites, this one fared the worst for me as an adult. So I salute your impulse to keep this a fond memory

I remember catching it on television in my early teens in a mid-week late night slot that was followed at the same time the next week by a screening of Fright Night, so I have always paired them together ever since as revisionist takes on old tropes! That was the period around 1995 when even the ITV commercial channel could throw out film screenings that were surprising, thematically related and became indelibly imprinted onto my adolescent brain!

The Monster Squad last came to mind for me when I saw that 2018 The Predator film, which teamed up Shane Black and Fred Dekker again, though swapped around who was in the directorial chair, and not particularly for the better. Compared to how The Monster Squad feels part of that 80s tradition of kids tackling dangerous and somewhat perilous adventures (The Goonies; Explorers; The Lost Boys; The Gate) and felt perfectly tonally aimed at older children and younger teens wanting to get into the adult world; unfortunately The Predator felt as if all of its adult characters were trapped in a kind of stunted adolescence, and the kid character in that film was rather annoying also. So in that comparison, I came away with more of an appreciation for what The Monster Squad got right in that balance!

I guess we may be in a little bit of a different world now post-Guillermo del Toro making much more serious allegorical fare with child protagonists facing down monsters. Not to mention Stranger Things bringing in a new wave of ersatz 80s nostalgia to younger generations. In comparison The Monster Squad is far more of a straightforward tribute to the Universal monster combo films of the 1940s, whilst bringing that somewhat hokey and old fashioned even then formula into the 80s to pit them against wisecracking kids. So it will be interesting to revisit it again now after all of that has happened in the meantime.

(I also wonder if this means that we may get Dekker's Night of the Creeps from Arrow at some point?)

colinr0380 wrote: Mon Aug 03, 2026 10:04 pm (I also wonder if this means that we may get Dekker's Night of the Creeps from Arrow at some point?)

No, that is with Sony and none of Arrow's recent Sony licensed titles have gotten released in the UK.

Despite being very much a kids film, this is still a 15 in the UK.

Much as with The Gate and The Lost Boys, both of which also kind of have to be rated at 15 for their language and some of the scary bits, but probably are better targeted at slightly younger audiences.

colinr0380 wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2026 3:16 pm Much as with The Gate and The Lost Boys, both of which also kind of have to be rated at 15 for their language and some of the scary bits, but probably are better targeted at slightly younger audiences.

I believe there was no 12 rating at the time either.

Lost Boys is rated R in the states, it’s more a movie for older teenagers. Monster Squad is def for eight year olds though