Next year sees cult favourite The Monster Squad celebrate its 30th Anniversary, directed by Fred Dekker and co-written by Shane Black the movie is as beloved as The Goonies in certain circles and is long overdue a meaningful Blu-ray release. When The Monster Squad hit cinemas it was largely ignored by audiences, but thanks to good old VHS the film found a loyal following. Speaking to IGN, Shane Black was quizzed on the surprise success The Monster Squad eventually found.
“The cult surprised me, I didn’t even realise it had been successful. I loved it, I had fun working on it and it was one of the first things I’d ever written. And it wasn’t just that it wasn’t a hit – it was a huge failure. No one saw it. I don’t know how on earth it caught on years later.”
A remake was in development for more than five years with a variety of writers taking a crack at the script. Thankfully, two years ago the producers behind the unwanted reboot officially abandoned the project with no plans to revisit it any time soon. However, Shane Black wouldn’t be adverse to returning to make a full on 30 years later sequel.
“When you say the kids are grown-up the first thing I go to is the movie, or the book really, It by Stephen King, which is about kids who fight monsters when they’re young, then as grown-ups they’re sort of beckoned and they have to return to their childhood hometown. And I think that’s kind of close to what you’re saying in a way. I don’t know how you would distance yourself from that.
It would be interesting to have two movies – one The Monster Squad, and one The Monster Squad and they’re 30 years apart and so are the kids; the characters have aged. As long as people understood that’s what we’re doing, I think that could be fun. That’s a good idea!”
While Black’s comments are somewhat in jest, it will undoubtably fuel the fire that a belated sequel might be made someday. Fred Dekker and Shane Black are currently working on another belated sequel with The Predator, could their recent collaboration pave the way for The Monster Squad 2?
