Every horror fans knows of The Monster Squad by now, but that wasn’t always the case. Back when it came out, The Monster Squad played against The Lost Boys in theaters and flopped. That doesn’t mean that it didn’t become a bonafide cult favorite over the years.
In this documentary that will mostly appeal to fans of the film, but also to people interested in seeing how fandoms work, directed by Andre Gower who co-wrote with Henry Darrow McComas, the fans are given the forefront and given a way to show their appreciation for their favorite film beyond message boards online and fan groups. Here they are given a real platform by one of the film’s stars who clearly appreciates all that the fans have brought to him and his life and how they have maintained their fandom through the years. The film has interviews with those involved in making it like Shane Black, Fred Dekker, the film stars, and lots of fans, famous and not. Each of them is passionate about the film and their love for it as well as the impact it had on them. This probably won’t make non-fans become fans, but Gower gives an interesting inside view of what his world has been since the film has had a revival of sorts on disc.
The film is composed mostly of interviews and road video of the Monster Squad crew taking the film on a revival tour across the US and to England. These are done with cinematography and editing by Henry Darrow McComas who gives the film an accessible and friendly look and makes it all easy to watch and connect to. The story told is heartwarming and definitely will resonate with many fans of the film and fans who have seen their underappreciated film come into its own a bit later in its history. The way this is shot and edited helps bring this together and create that feeling that the film is about more than just The Monster Squad and also about how a film and its community can have a powerful impact on people near and far from its production.
For fans of The Monster Squad, Wolfman’s Got Nards is a fun exploration of the film and its effect on people. It’s a well-made fan documentary about a film that had a ton of potential, failed at the box office, and slowly found its dedicated audience. For fans of the film, it’s definitely fun to see Sean, Patrick, Phoebe, Horace, and the crew all grown-up, as regular people, being who they are, being fun people with great thankfulness for what and how got them where they are now.
Cinepocalypse 2018 runs from June 21st until June 28th, 2018.