Back in the days before cable television, there was a local channel in New York City that would show the same films at the same hour, every weekday, for one week. One time they showed the original version of The Mummy, the one with Boris Karloff, which I made a point of seeing at least three times. I was about ten years old then, just a little younger than the boys in the 1987 film The Monster Squad.

The film is about a group of boys who find out that monsters are real, and are caught in the battle that takes place every one-hundred years between good and evil. The plot involves one of the boys who gets the diary of vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing by chance, and lives in the small American town where a special amulet is hidden. But The Monster Squad is primarily a loving tribute to the classic monsters from Universal from the Thirties through the Fifties, with the Frankenstein monster, Dracula, the Wolfman, the Gill Man and the Mummy together in one film. This is a film for kids who love the classic monster movies.

While most of the film is played for fun, there is one remarkable moment. The boys seek out a reclusive older man known as the “Scary German Guy” to translate Van Helsing’s diary. After he translates key passages, one of the boys remarks how the Scary German Guy seems to know about monsters. Scary German Guy (never given a proper name in the film) agrees, and after the boys leave, the camera reveals the concentration camp tatoo on Scary German Guy’s arm.

The 20th Anniversary edition of The Monster Club from Lionsgate DVD is a two disc set. Two commentary tracks come with the movie, one with director Fred Dekker and the cast, the other with Dekker and cinematographer Bradford May. While there are the now adult fans of the movie when it was first released who have been waiting for this DVD, what I would be interested in finding out is if the current generation of pre-teens want to be part of this club. The film is rated PG-13 mostly because of a scene where the wolf man is blown up with dynamite.