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Whether it's stories about truck drivers going up against powerful sorcerers or eyepatch-clad soldiers escaping from a futuristic New York City, John Carpenter and Kurt Russell movies are among the finest in cult cinema history. Carpenter has, to date, directed Russell in five films, the majority of which are action movies with horror elements -- a trend would also have continued if "Shadow Company," a zombie yarn set during the Christmas season, went ahead in 1988.

Carpenter famously turned down directing one of the worst Christmas movies ever made, but "Shadow Company" could have added a festive classic to his impressive oeuvre. It tells the story of Jake Pollard, a shunned Vietnam veteran tasked with stopping a group of undead super-soldiers from laying waste to a Californian town on Christmas night. Pollard has a history with these comrades from his time in Vietnam,...

No two horror movie villains ever seemed more ideally suited for one another than the Predator and the Alien, the cinema’s greatest hunter and cinema’s deadliest beast.

Created by very different filmmakers in totally different decades, the idea that these two creatures co-existed stems from a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Easter egg in “Predator 2,” which briefly showed the head of the iconic Alien inside of a Predator’s trophy case. In the years to come they would share top billing in comic books, video games and eventually a couple of movies, to the extent that the two franchises now feel indelibly linked, even when new installments of each monster’s movie makes no mention of the other.

Let’s take a look at both series, together, to see how the films stack up individually and as a unit.

14. “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem” (2007) 20th Century Fox

Lots of poorly made movies are hard to watch,...

In 1987, Paul Verhoeven and Orion Pictures created RoboCop, a cut-throat, R-Rated, action/sci fi classic and one of the coolest movies ever made. A runaway train on fire destined to create a franchise audiences couldn’t get enough of. The problem that shouldn’t have been a problem is that it happened to sell a hell of a lot of toys. Six years later when it came time to create the third film in the franchise, Orion Pictures altered course, opting for a more family friendly approach. They demanded their newest sequel be more palatable to an audience buying the merchandise of their now household characters. Even included an pre-emptive advertisement on the back of a RoboCop 2 Game Boy box that promises the next RoboCop adventure would be “for all age groups”. It was a course that would jump that same train off the tracks, over the proverbial shark,...

A Predator movie directed by Shane Black, written by him and the director of The Monster Squad. This sounded like the recipe for an awesome sci-fi action horror film, but what Black delivered was one of the least popular films in the Predator franchise, with a third act that was completely different from what was originally written and a variety of bad ideas being filmed as potential endings. Critics were unimpressed. Fans were disappointed. And now, we’re going to dig into what happened to The Predator.

1987 was a huge year for Shane Black. His original screenplay Lethal Weapon was turned into an action classic by director Richard Donner. His friend, director Fred Dekker, brought their script for the creature feature The Monster Squad to the screen, creating a film that is now considered to be a cult classic. And he was cast alongside the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers,...

There’s no Goosebumps without R.L. Stine but there’s also no Goosebumps without Tim Jacobus, the artist who contributed the eye-catching cover paintings for the entire original line of Stine’s books. If you’re a fan of those classic covers that helped define the Goosebumps property back in the 1990s, you definitely should be following Tim Jacobus over on Instagram.

Jacobus regularly shares classic Goosebumps art as well as brand new artwork on his Instagram page, and this week he’s shared a particularly awesome little treat for horror fans.

As Jacobus explains in his post, he was commissioned several years back by a group of fans to make a poster for Fred Dekker’s The Monster Squad in that classic Tim Jacobus/Goosebumps style, and though it was merely a private commission for private collectors, he’s decided to share the poster art this week so that...

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Ishiro Honda's original "Gojira" was released in Japan in 1954, and helped popularize a genre of giant monster movies that remained ascendant for seven decades. Godzilla movies are still being made to this day, with Toho's most recent film, "Godzilla Minus One" coming out in 2023, and Legendary's "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" hitting in 2024. Godzilla has been part of the cinematic landscape for so long, his popularity has risen and fallen and risen again. There have been multiple "finales" in the Godzilla series, and just as many reboots. He's more pliable and more prone to restarts than James Bond.

From 1954 until 1975, Godzilla more or less followed a single continuity, and the 15 films released during this period are said to be of the Showa era. From 1975 to 1983, there would be no theatrical Godzilla movies, with the series rebooting in...

Fans of cult horror are in for a treat as Shout! Factory has unveiled an exclusive Night of the Creeps Collector’s Edition bundle, available only on ShoutFactory.com. The centrepiece of this thrilling package is a Detective Cameron Neca action figure, bringing Tom Atkins’ unforgettable character to life in meticulous detail. With its limited run of just 4,000 units, this Neca figure is a must-have for collectors.

The exclusive bundle includes a 3-disc 4K Uhd/Blu-ray set of Night of the Creeps, a film that blends science fiction, horror, and comedy in a nostalgic homage to B-movie classics. Directed by Fred Dekker in his 1986 feature debut, the movie has earned a devoted following over the years. Its unique mix of zombie thrills, slasher nods, and alien invasion intrigue remains a beloved staple for genre enthusiasts.

The Collector’s Edition bundle goes beyond the film itself, offering fans an array of exclusive collectibles.

About six years ago, Scream Factory gave the 1986 classic Night of the Creeps a Blu-ray release – and along with the Blu-ray, they released an exclusive, limited edition 8” tall Neca action figure of the film’s star, Tom Atkins! Now, Scream Factory is set to bring Night of the Creeps to 4K Uhd on March 25th – and the Collector’s Edition bundle includes a new Tom Atkins action figure! You can check out an image of the new action figure at the bottom of this article, and you can pre-order the bundle at This Link. There was a bundle that included both of the Neca figures, but it has already sold out.

Written and directed by Fred Dekker, Night of the Creeps has the following synopsis: Thrill me! When an alien experiment goes awry, it crashes to Earth in 1959 and infects a young college student. Twenty-seven years later, his cryogenically frozen...

The 1980s was a golden time for the horror genre, full of experimental movies, seamlessly blending various sub-genres. Among the most notable titles is writer-director Fred Dekker’s Night of the Creeps, which is finally getting the 4K Uhd Collector’s Edition Blu-ray treatment from Shout Factory, ComicBook reports. The movie is often dubbed an extraordinary horror comedy and has risen to cult classic status.

The good news is Night of the Creeps hits 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on March 25 from Scream Factory. The better news is it comes with a Tom Atkins action figure!

The 1986 sci-fi horror comedy marks the feature directorial debut of Fred Dekker (The Monster Squad), who also wrote the script. Jason Lively, Steve Marshall, and Jill Whitlow star with Atkins.

The director’s cut has been newly restored in 4K from the original camera negative, approved by Dekker, with Dolby Vision.

Shout Factory has teamed with Neca to release an exclusive 8″ action figure of Atkins as Detective Cameron from the film’s dream sequence, complete with white tuxedo, sunglasses, and coconut drink.

Limited to 4,000, the toy is available individually for $49.99; in a set with the 4K Uhd, an exclusive slipcover designed by Sara Deck, and two 18×24 posters for $79.99; and in a deluxe edition with the 4K Uhd, slipcover, posters, and...

Several iconic horror movies from earlier decades just don’t hold up to today’s standards, which often makes them get overlooked by modern audiences. At the time of their release, they might have been groundbreaking, but with their limited technology and simpler storytelling, a lot of them can easily feel outdated nowadays. Additionally, older horror films often relied on implied scares and slow build-ups, which is why they don't really hold the attention of today’s viewers.

Modern audiences want a faster pace, more exciting horrors, and complex characters. Plus, certain themes from old-school movies just don’t click with the way we see the world now. That’s where new adaptations come in. From Re-Animator to Cannibal Holocaust, there are quite a few iconic horror movies that deserve a modern reboot. If done right, these titles could get a fresh spin while honoring the originals' legacy, giving them...

Remakes are pretty common in the horror genre, but not necessarily popular and not always good. Studios that own classic intellectual properties like "A Nightmare on Elm Street" or "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" obviously want to monetize them, but longtime fans have a hard time getting past anyone besides Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger or Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface. It's a problem at least as old as Universal's classics -- Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff were not the only actors to play Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, respectively, but they are the names and faces that everyone remembers and loves from the Universal Monsters movies.

So why remake the hits? Why not remake flops instead? Sure, some of those flops may have intense fan bases, but imagine how many more people would love them if the concept were done better the second time around? A clever notion that...

There are five movies in the "Dirty Harry" series, in which Clint Eastwood embodies Inspector Harry Callahan, who emerges as an antihero figure unafraid to bend the rules. Although Callahan's methods are unorthodox, they are incredibly effective. "Go ahead, make my day," he drawls before brandishing a gun to apprehend criminals. When the "Dirty Harry" franchise was still looking for potential scripts, Fred Dekker — who penned the screenplay for 2018's "The Predator" — wrote a spec script that ended up being turned down by Eastwood. What exactly happened here?

Per Dekker himself, this rejected spec script for the "Dirty Harry" franchise was remodeled later into the 1991 crime thriller, "Ricochet," with Denzel Washington playing the lead role originally intended for Eastwood. Dekker told The Flashback Files that he had accidentally mirrored the plot of "Cape Fear" (which he claims to have not seen at the time) for his "Dirty Harry" installment...

The Predator has become a global hit for Netflix six years after its release. Hitting theaters in 2018, the fourth installment in the popular Predator franchise was directed by Shane Black with a script co-written by Black and Fred Dekker. The Predator stars Olivia Munn, Boyd Holbrook, Sterling K. Brown, and Jacob Tremblay and tells the story of a team of ex-soldiers who set out to save Earth after a crew of Yautja aliens arrive. The film was made on an estimated budget of $88 million and earned a disappointing $160.5 million worldwide, in addition to earning mostly negative reviews.

New data from Netflix now reveals that The Predator ranks as the second most popular title on the service globally for the week of October 7 through October 13. The film racked up an impressive 23.3 million hours viewed and 12.9 million views in total. Though the Predator movie beats titles like Lonely Planet (2024) and Bad Boys: Ride or Die...

A maligned Predator movie is finally receiving some love. Six years after underperforming in theaters, Shane Black's The Predator has become a major streaming hit on Netflix.

This week, The Predator became the #2 movie on Netflix's Global Top 10 list, with only the documentary The Menendez Brothers coming in ahead of the 2018 sci-fi movie. Directed and co-written by Black who starred in, and had been an uncredited script doctor on, the original 1987 Predator movie The Predator follows a group of Ptsd-afflicted soldiers and a scientist who must team up to fight off an invading pair of Predators and discover their plans for mankind. The movie, which was set between the events of Predator 2 (1990) and Predators (2010), received mixed reviews from critics when it was first released and underperformed at the box office, grossing only $160 million worldwide off a budget of $88 million.

Related Alien: Romulus Has the Perfect Tool to...

La inquietante cinta de Veronika Franz y Severin Fiala representará a Austria en los Oscars 2025 y se estrena en cines en noviembre.

© Caramel Films

El sábado se dio a conocer el palmarés del Festival Internacional de Cine Fantástico de Sitges 2024 y la gran triunfadora ha sido El baño del diablo (The Devil’s Bath), que se ha llevado el premio a la Mejor Película, además del Premio de la Crítica y el Premio del Jurado Joven.

La decisión del máximo galardón fue tomada por el jurado, compuesto por la programadora Lisa Dreyer, el escritor y músico Stephen Thrower, y los cineastas Christophe Gans, Fred Dekker y Carlota Pereda. Christophe Gans elogió la película afirmando: «Es una gran película a todos los niveles», y destacó la «fotografía tan pictórica» y la sobresaliente interpretación de su protagonista, Anja Plaschg. En particular, destacó la «escena de la confesión» como uno de los momentos más memorables del festival.

While the werewolf is one of the coolest creatures ever imagined, there seems to be a belief that there hasn’t been many good werewolf movies. So we here at Arrow in the Head decided to take a look back at the films that have been made over the decades and compile a list of the Best Werewolf Movies. Check out our picks below, and leave a comment letting us know what your favorite werewolf movies are!

Wolf (1994)

Wolf is generally not a highly regarded movie, which is kind of shocking when you take into account that it was directed by Mike Nichols, started off as an idea from Legends of the Fall writer Jim Harrison, and has a cast packed with Oscar winners and nominees. Well, it is rather dull for large stretches of its overly long 125 minute running time and there’s way too much about the lead...

The 1991 action movie Ricochet was neither a critical nor a commercial success, but it lives on in the memories of '90s kids who saw it on TV and were stricken by the film's relentless plot, in which Denzel Washington plays a former police officer brutally tormented by a hitman he helped put away. Decades after the film's release, Fred Dekker, who wrote the first draft of Ricochet, revealed in an interview that he had written the script not only as a vehicle for Clint Eastwood, but specifically as an entry in Eastwood's Dirty Harry franchise, in which he plays the only police officer in San Francisco who understands that crime has one solution: violence.

The Monster Squad is a 1987 horror-comedy following the titular squad of kids who battle Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolf Man, Mummy, and Gill-man as they attempt to take over the world and usher in a new age of evil. A quintessential entry into the "kids on bikes" subgenre of family adventures made popular in the '80s, The film was directed and co-written by The Predator screenwriter Fred Dekker, and stars the likes of Duncan Regehr, Tom Noonan, Jonathan Gries, Michael Reid MacKay, and Tom Woodruff Jr. as a cast of classic monsters. But despite its main villains seemingly being adaptations of Universal's classic monsters, Universal Studios had nothing to do with its production. This resulted in The Monster Squad having to walk a very thin line in getting these iconic horror icons in a movie without Universal's involvement.

"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,...

As Easter Sunday approaches this weekend, we thought we’d “die” your eggs a little a differently. That is, we’re on the great hidden treasure hunt for some of the most colorful and delicious horror movie Easter eggs found in some of our favorite titles. But here’s the thing. We aren’t talking about obscure cameos from people that are hard to miss, or even secretive foreshadowing within a single movie, a la the entire Final Destination franchise. Nor are we talking about mere verbal references to other horror movies. Rather, we’re interested in visual crossover clues found one horror movie that pay homage to another, found tucked away in the background or even hidden in plain sight. You see the distinction. Good. Hopefully you haven’t already seen what’s to follow. Happy holiday y’all, here’s our Top 10 Favorite Crossover Horror Movie Easter Eggs!

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,...

Not too long ago, IMDb introduced a new feature to their website called the Parents Guide. The goal was to give parents a quick rundown of risqué, violent or suggestive scenes from films, and allow them to make quick decisions as to whether or not they should allow their child to watch said movies. Parents who felt aghast that Spielberg would show a scene where a father was unable to reach his child’s outstretched hand, as in the 1991 classic Hook, might choose to skip ahead, while other parents who are appalled by children debating whether or not Wolfman has “nards”, could forgo all of Shane Black and Fred Dekker’s 1987 monster mashup Monster Squad. However, should one day their children ask them if they can sit down and watch a screening of Steffen Haars and Flip van der Kuil’s new film Krazy House, the Finnigan’s Wake length...

The Avengers is getting a reboot! And no, we’re not talking about the Marvel property. We’re talking about the British TV series that originally aired for six seasons back in the ’60s, running for a total of 161 episodes. Deadline reports that the new take on The Avengers TV series is coming our way from StudioCanal, which owns the rights to The Avengers catalog. Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, the writing team behind the HBO/BBC series Industry, have written the script for the pilot episode and Sex Education director Ben Taylor is on board to direct and executive produce. The Warner Bros. Discovery production company Wall to Wall is co-producing the project with StudioCanal.

Despite rumors that the Avengers reboot could end up on HBO, it’s not clear which network or streamer the new show will end up calling home. The HBO rumors have been denied.

Deadline...

Exclusive: Iconic 1960s television series The Avengers is getting a remake.

Deadline hears that StudioCanal, which owns the rights to The Avengers catalog, has been quietly plotting a reboot for some time and a pilot has been written. Warner Bros. Discovery production outfit Wall to Wall is co-producing.

Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, the writing team behind hit HBO/BBC series Industry, have breathed new life into Patrick Macnee’s debonair secret agent John Steed and his glamorous sidekicks. Sex Education director Ben Taylor is also a co-creator. Taylor will direct the series and executive produce.

There were rumors that the project was in with HBO, but this was denied last year. It is not clear where The Avengers reboot will land. StudioCanal declined to comment as talks continue.

Launching in 1961, the cult TV series ran for six seasons on ITV and later ABC in the U.S., where it...

This episode of the Horror TV Shows We Miss video series was Written and Narrated by Niki Minter, Edited by Lance Vlcek, Produced by John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Horror for Christmas? Yes, I’m here to holly your jolly, deck your halls, and sacrifice your children to Krampus. What a merry holiday season indeed! Since our October vid focused on Halloween Specials, I figured the Spooky Christmas crossovers deserved some attention as well.

As a kid, my family did have Christmas watching traditions like most. We did Scrooged, A Christmas Story, Frosty, Charlie Brown, Garfield, Home Alone, Gremlins (Ahhhh it’s controversial), Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands…and my mom may have snuck in Black Christmas. She was and is a fan of Holiday-based Horror. Her favorite being My Bloody Valentine. All of this is totally normal. So, as you can probably guess, the tradition has continued.

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...

1987's RoboCop was a satire of the corporate world and legal structure of the 1980s, a trend RoboCop 2 and 3 continued. The 2014 RoboCop remake lacked the satire and humor of the original movies in the franchise. The original RoboCop movie humorously criticizes the attitudes of business people during the 1980s.

In many ways, RoboCop is director Paul Verhoeven's quintessential sci-fi masterpiece, and much of the director's satire is found in RoboCop quotes throughout the franchise. Released in 1987, the first RoboCop movie seems like a straightforward sci-fi action film, but in reality, it is a smart, witty piece of filmmaking that blends social satire with ultra-violence and comedic one-liners. The movie follows a police officer gunned down and left for dead who ends up reincarnated in the body of a robotic police official whose only directive is to uphold the law. The main themes include corporate power and law enforcement overstepping its authority.

RoboCop: Rogue City fills in the gaps left by the third film, addressing the absence of the iconic villain. This character's disappearance in RoboCop 3 is a glaring exclusion that is never explained in the movie's story. RoboCop: Rogue City provides a fitting end for the character, with a narrative that ties into the first and second films.

Though it's not often that movie tie-ins make for solid video games, that's exactly the case with the recent release of RoboCop: Rogue City. A first-person shooter developed by Teyon, Peter Weller of RoboCop 1 and 2 fame reprises his role to take down the criminals and unscrupulous characters of Old Detroit once again. Set after the second RoboCop film, Rogue City picks up where the movies left off and follows the story of James Murphy and his partner, Anne Lewis.

[Warning: The following article contains story spoilers for RoboCop: Rogue City.]

RoboCop: Rogue City does more than just reference the movies. As the game...

Fred Dekker's The Monster Squad gets a 4K restoration 36 years after its theatrical release.

Per ComicBook.com, Kino Lorber will re-release the cult 1987 supernatural kids comedy on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. The distributor has taken the original 35mm print of the movie and created the 4K master from its new High Dynamic Range/Dolby Vision system. Currently on pre-order sale for $49.95, the new release has three discs for the 4K Uhd, the Blu-ray with features from the 2007 DVD release, and a third Blu-ray containing the documentary Wolfman's Got Nards.

Related:Disney's Goosebumps Series Has Been a Long Time Coming

Directed by Dekker, who co-wrote the screenplay with Iron Man 3's Shane Black, The Monster Squad was the director's love letter to the classic Universal monster movies and The Little Rascals. The story followed young members of a monster movie club defending their town from the legendary monsters led by Dracula...

The 1986 horror comedy House, directed by Steve Miner from a screenplay by Ethan Wiley (based on a story by Fred Dekker), has a solid cult following to this day. The 1987 standalone sequel House II: The Second Story (watch it Here), which was written and directed by Wiley (again from a story by Dekker), has a less positive reputation than its predecessor. But there are fans out there who enjoy House II even more than the first House – and I happen to be one of those fans. So I’m very happy to see that JoBlo’s own Lance Vlcek has decided to celebrate House II: The Second Story, which has been a favorite of mine since childhood, with a new video that digs into The Best Scene in the movie! You can check it out in the embed above.

If you’re familiar with House II and wondering which scene...

September has arrived, and with it comes a whole host of new movies to watch on streaming. Whether you’re looking to kick Spooky Season off early with a fun horror movie, hoping to catch up on a new release you missed in theaters or just want to curl up with a cozy rom-com, there is a litany of choices below. We’ve got picks for Netflix, Max, Hulu, Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+ and Disney+, curating the very best newly streaming films on each service this month.

Check out our picks for the best new movies to stream in September 2023 below.

“The Monster Squad” TriStar Pictures

Paramount+ – Sept. 1

Kick off Spooky Season early with an 80s cult classic that should be as popular as “The Goonies.” The 1987 film “The Monster Squad” follows a group of kids whose monster knowledge comes in handy when an ancient curse brings iconic Universal Monsters to life in Los Angeles.

The ‘80s cult classic is getting a brand-new upgrade as The Monster Squad will be heading its way to 4K Ultra HD in a special three-disc set from Kino Lorber. The remastered edition of the film hits shelves on November 28. The upcoming home media release will include a plethora of bonus content, such as two audio commentaries, the first with director Fred Dekker and cinematographer Bradford May, and the second including Dekker alongside actors Andre Gower, Ryan Lambert, and Ashley Bank. Also featured on the second disc are TV spots, the film’s theatrical trailer, deleted scenes, an animated storyboard sequence, and a stills gallery.

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...

Intro: There’s a scene, roughly half way through the much maligned Robocop 3, in which the eponymous law enforcer is malfunctioning, battered and bruised, which is almost the perfect metaphor for the franchise at this point. As outlined in our previous video in this series, Robocop 2 may have had its fair share of issues, but alongside the annoying characters and a frustratingly dumbed down hero, it’s actually a pretty decent movie. It was just nowhere near the sequel it could so easily have been. Which leads us to part three, which is, well…Where do we start? Historically, in the wonderful world of movies in which we all often reside, part three’s, and later sequels to popular franchises, have that nagging tendency to Look like they should, but for the most part, this familiarity leads to something so very, very…Wrong! Beverley Hills Cop 3 lost all...

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...

Have you ever had a vacation so iconic that people are still talking about it over two centuries later? Mary Shelley sure did, with her infamous getaway alongside Percy Shelley, John Polidori, Claire Clairmont and their host Lord Byron resulting in some of the most influential genre fiction of all time. And while Byron’s Darkness and Polidori’s The Vampyre have their merits, it’s pretty clear that Frankenstein remains the most enduring product of that fateful literary holiday.

That’s why it’s no surprise that we’re still seeing fresh adaptations of The Modern Prometheus well into 2023, with Yorgo Lanthimos’ Frankenstein inspired Poor Things proving that there are still new ways of exploring the tragic horror of Shelley’s immortal yarn. And with so many great adaptations to choose from, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six of the best modern Frankenstein retellings for your viewing pleasure.

Puppet Arms

We bounced all over the place in May, starting with Fred Dekker’s genre mash-up Night of the Creeps before getting deadly serious with Gus Van Sant’s pseudo-Columbine film Elephant, trippy with Alex Garland’s surreal Annihilation. Now we’re back in ultra campy territory with the silly and heartfelt Tammy and the T-Rex (1994).

In writer/director Stewart Raffill‘s low-budget horror comedy, high schooler Tammy (Denise Richards) is in love with Michael (Paul Walker) but her jealous ex Billy (George Pilgrim) won’t let her go. After a near-deadly prank, Michael’s comatose body is stolen by mad scientists Dr. Wachenstein (Terry Kiser) and his assistant Helga (Ellen Dubin) who want to use the boy’s brain to pilot an animatronic dinosaur.

But true love can’t be denied! Tammy, Michael and her gay best friend, Byron (Theo Forsett) will stop at nothing to find a...

Cloche

Following the double bill of vampire films with The Hunger and Ganja & Hess, Trace and I jumped into genre hodge podge last week with Fred Dekker’s delightful sci-fi homage, Night of the Creeps.

This week we’re veering gently into camp territory with the birth of hagsploitation in Robert Aldrich‘s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? The film follows Blanche and Jane as sisters and former vaudeville stars, played by real-life rivals Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. The sisters live together and Jane takes care of (read: abuses) her older sister Blanche after she lost her ability to walk following a car accident.

As Blanche plots to escape her sister’s torment, Jane hires pianist Edwin Flagg (gay actor Victor Buono) to assist with her delusional plans to mount a comeback. As Jane spirals, she directs her madness toward her sister in increasingly malicious and dangerous ways.

This one bitch…

After finishing April with back-to-back looks at stylish vampire films like The Hunger and Ganja & Hess, we’re kicking off May a film we’ve actually discussed before (in written form): Fred Dekker‘s 1986 classic Night of the Creeps!

Night of the Creeps sees fraternity pledges Chris (Jason Lively) and Jc (Steve Marshall) take part in a hazing prank, only to find a frozen body filled with alien slugs that escape and begin to take over everyone on campus. They must team up with a cop with a haunted past (Tom Atkins) and Chris’ new crush Cindy (Jill Whitlow) to stop the invasion before it’s too late.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS.

Episode 228: Night of the Creeps (1986)

Cindy!

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,...

A new episode of The Manson Brothers Show, the video series hosted by the writers/stars of the horror comedy The Manson Brothers Midnight Zombie Massacre – Chris Margetis (Stone Manson) and Mike Carey (Skull Manson) – has now been released, and for this one the Boys have taken in a viewing of the 1986 cult classic horror comedy Night of the Creeps (watch it Here)! To find out what the Manson Brothers think of Night of the Creeps, check out the video embedded above.

Written and directed by Fred Dekker, Night of the Creeps has the following synopsis: Humor mixes with horror in this chiller about a college campus being ravaged by gruesome creatures that turn their victims into zombies. The night of the formal is finally here for Chris, Cindy, and J.C. It’s going to be the best night of their lives. But, tonight is also the Night Of The Creeps.

It’s time for a new episode of the Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie? video series, and in this one we’re looking back at the 1986 cult classic horror comedy Night of the Creeps (watch it Here)! To find out all about Night of the Creeps, check out the video embedded above.

Written and directed by Fred Dekker, Night of the Creeps has the following synopsis: Humor mixes with horror in this chiller about a college campus being ravaged by gruesome creatures that turn their victims into zombies. The night of the formal is finally here for Chris, Cindy, and J.C. It’s going to be the best night of their lives. But, tonight is also the Night Of The Creeps. From a world unknown comes a nightmare unimagined. First, they are under you, around you, inside of you, then, you’re dead. Zombies, exploding heads, creepy crawlies,...

Haunted houses are a standard in horror for a reason. It’s not just the spectral invasion of our home that unnerves, but the unpredictability that comes with ghostly presences. A masked maniac can be stopped or temporarily subdued, but all bets are off in haunted houses.

This week’s “Stay Home, Watch Horror” streaming picks highlight the horror staple but not always in the way you’d expect. As always, here’s where you can watch them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

Ghostwatch – Tubi

Upon initial airing, this made-for-tv movie stirred up controversy for the BBC, as its mockumentary style left viewers convinced what they’d just watched had been real. It plays like a live TV special with a camera crew on-site attempting to investigate the truth behind the most haunted house in the country. Neither they nor the viewer were prepared...

James Wan has produced and/or directed some of the most popular horror films to be released in the last twenty years. His résumé includes Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring, and the franchises each one of those spawned. And in his daydreams, he imagines adding remakes of the 1980s classics Chopping Mall (watch it Here) and Night of the Creeps (watch that Here) to the list as well.

Speaking with SlashFilm, it came up that Wan likes movies that could be termed “frightful fun”, much like his recent, totally insane directorial effort Malignant and the upcoming sci-fi thriller M3GAN (read our review), which he produced. Wan said, “I have many horror films that I think that are just fun that I love, and I’m pretty sure the horror community shares them with me. I love movies like Chopping Mall. I love Night of the Creeps. These, to me, are just...

Back in the ‘80s, if you were a kid, nothing seemed cooler than being part of a rag-tag group of youngsters that fought monsters. Fast forward to today, if you’re an adult, nothing seems cooler than being in the ‘80s and part of a gang that fights monsters. Some things just never change! The Duffer Brothers, who created Stranger Things, knew that when they launched the highly popular series on Netflix about the supernatural events in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. But in reality, they were just trading in on some of that decade’s nostalgia with inspiration from movies like E.T., Poltergeist, Ghostbusters, and The Goonies produced.

Yeah, if we’re talking ‘80s movies about rambunctious kids battling scary monsters, then we can’t forget to mention The Monster Squad. Directed by Fred Dekker and co-written by Shane Black, the story follows a kick-ass group of pre-teens...

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...

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "Night of the Creeps"

Where You Can Stream It: PlutoTV

The Pitch: Back in 1959, a seemingly possessed alien launches a canister into space, but it crash lands on Earth. As the canister falls, a rookie cop named Ray Cameron warns a pair of lovers that a maniacal ax murderer is on the loose and to stay safe before driving away, but the boyfriend of the duo foolishly decides to investigate what he believes to be a falling star. The young woman is killed by the murderer, and the boy opens the alien canister only for a slug-like creature to slither into his mouth. 

Fast forward to 1986, and nerdy college students Chris Romero (Jason Lively) and his roommate J.

Reuniting the Frankenstein monster, Dracula, the Wolfman and the Mummy for the first time since Paul Naschy’s Assignment Terror, director Fred Dekker’s affectionate horror comedy simultaneously salutes the classic Universal Monsters and the nostalgia for our own childhoods. Though the box office was initially meager, the film engendered the good will of critics and has endured as a bonafide cult classic. Stan Winston’s workshop handled the monster makeups and a good behind-the-scenes article can be found here.

The post The Monster Squad appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

One of the coolest franchises in Hollywood that has never quite managed to live up to its potential is the Predator series of films. After the breakout success of the original starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, the franchise never manage to rise to the same heights again. Filmmaker Shane Black's 2018 reimagining of the series with The Predator was also dismissed by fans and critics as largely uninspired.

But the movie almost went in a startling and exciting new direction. Actress and stunt performer Breanna Watkins recently confirmed in an interview that she shot two alternate endings for The Predator where she alternately played the role of Ellen Ripley and Newt from the Alien franchise.

"A whole backstory was explained to me for each of my two endings... however I believe that the franchise owners may still want to have the option to use those backstories so I shouldn't really go into...