Like so many of those great little movies released by the long-defunct Vestron Video, THE MONSTER SQUAD is at the top of the list of films that fans want and have been waiting years to see come to DVD. Thanks to Lionsgate, the film will be seen in glorious 2.35:1 anamorphic enhancement later this year to celebrate the film’s 20th anniversary. The DVD is being produced by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures, and he’s no stranger to DVD releases, having created special features for THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and MANIAC COP.
There will be many special features for this release. The majority of them were obtained at the Monster Mania Convention #7 in Cherry Hill, NJ on Sunday, February 18, 2007. The convention hosted a reunion of the cast of the film and some of them, including Andre Gower, Ashley Bank and Ryan Lambert, all joined director Fred Dekker in providing a commentary for the DVD. Also, a panel discussion with actors Duncan Regehr (Dracula), Tom Noonan (Frankenstein’s monster) and Tom Woodruff Jr. (Gillman) was also recorded and will be featured on the disc.
It took many years for this film to come to DVD, and like most films of this era the reason lies with ownership of the rights to the film, and THE MONSTER SQUAD is no exception. The film was bought by so many different companies that it became difficult to determine who actually owned the rights. Fortunately, all of this has been sorted out.
I spoke to Fred Dekker concerning his follow-up film, NIGHT OF THE CREEPS, and he said that he’s been trying to “wrestle the rights away from Sony.” He feels that it is just a matter of time before it does happen – 2008 is the film’s 20th anniversary, so stay tuned…
