By Christopher Stipp

Archives? Right Here…

Instead of manning-up and actually going the emotionally hard route of being outrightly rejected by publishers, I’m rejecting them first and allowing you to give my entire book a preview, let you read the whole thing or, if you like, download the whole damn thing at no cost. Download and read my first book “Thank You, Goodnight” for FREE.

Before the advent of DVD audio rippers made it fun again to listen to a good audio commentary while not enslaved to your La-Z-Boy there was the good old cassette recorder.

When I was old enough to rent movies but not sophisticated enough to know how to rig them up to one another to make a copy of it (not that I ever did that, legally speaking) I used to take a portable boom box and actually *record* the audio of the movies I really liked. I don’t know why I did this, nor why I incessantly looped major portions of POLICE ACADEMY 4: CITIZENS ON PATROL on my GE Walkman. I do know, however, that I filled up a couple of tapes when it came to THE MONSTER SQUAD.

I loved this film.

I recorded the dialog, the up-tempo musical interlude as the squad gets ready to throw down, the great moments Rudy gets as the “tough kid”, everything. I never listened to a recording so many times as I did with my MONSTER SQUAD tape. The film, in an odd way, encapsulated of what it was like to be a goofy young kid admist an ostensibly scary situation; that’s the movie’s appeal all these years later. Fred Dekker walked that line of genuine scariness and abject absurdness with equal parts. You couldn’t have found a more balanced film of this variety and somehow I responded to it with rapt dedication for a while.

I guess, as the years went on, I kind of forgot about the film. I started watching other movies, evolved as a movie consumer, but there was always something about that story; it turned out to be a touchstone, though, and when decades later there was talk about bringing the movie to DVD I just couldn’t wait. The very same feelings I had as a youth came bubbling back when I was given the opportunity to interview director Fred Dekker and cast members Andre Gower, Ryan Lambert and Ashley Bank. It was a surreal moment, to be sure, and it was definitely a satisfying moment knowing that years ago this was a movie I told everyone about and now I’m in the position to be able and tell everyone that this is the DVD to own this year.

Halcyon days of youth don’t have anything on the experience of being able to revel in the geekery of revisiting this film 20 years later with those who made it so good to watch long ago.

Clip #1: Director Fred Dekker talks about the mechanics of getting MONSTER SQUAD filmed and whether the adage of working with kids and animals really holds any truth.

Download SDCC Monster Squad Interview #1 – Fred Dekker:

Large (560 x 420 – QuickTime – 76.11 MB)
Small (320 x 240 – QuickTime – 34.45 MB)

Clip #2: Ashley Bank talks about what memories she has of the production and what it was like to be a part of the resurgence of the movie-that-would-not-die.

Download SDCC Monster Squad Interview #2 – Ashley Bank:

Large (560 x 420 – QuickTime – 34.24 MB)
Small (320 x 240 – QuickTime – 15.60 MB)

Clip #3: Andre Gower and Ryan Lambert remember back about the experience of being young on the set of a major motion picture.

Download SDCC Monster Squad Interview #3 – Andre Gower & Ryan Lambert:

Large (560 x 420 – QuickTime – 114.53 MB)
Small (320 x 240 – QuickTime – 50.23 MB)

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