The Monster Squad is a 1987 American black comedy horror film directed by Fred Dekker, and written by Dekker and Shane Black, who met as classmates at UCLA. Peter Hyams and Rob Cohen served as executive producers. It was released by TriStar Pictures on August 14, 1987. The film features pastiches of the Universal Monsters, led by Count Dracula. They are confronted by a group of savvy kids out to keep them from controlling the world. While being financially unsuccessful during its theatrical run and receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film has gained a positive reception from audiences and has become a cult classic in the years since its release. Plot The Monster Squad is a club of pre-teens who idolize the Universal classic monster movies and their non-human stars. Club leader Sean Crenshaw, whose younger sister, Phoebe, desperately wants to join the club, is given the diary of legendary monster hunter Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, but his excitement abates when he finds it is written in German. Sean and the rest of the Monster Squadhis best friend and second in command Patrick Rhodes, clumsy overweight Horace, tough older kid Rudy Holloran and little Eugene, go to visit an elderly man, known as the "Scary German Guy", actually a kind gentleman and a former concentration camp prisoner, to translate the diary. The diary describes, in great detail, an amulet that is composed of concentrated good. One day out of every century, as the forces of good and evil reach a balance, the otherwise indestructible amulet becomes vulnerable to destruction. With the next day of balance happening within a few days, at the stroke of midnight, the kids realize they must gain possession of the amulet and use itwith an incantation from Van Helsing's diaryto open a wormhole in the universe and cast the monsters into Limbo. As shown in the film's prelude, Van Helsing had unsuccessfully attempted this one hundred years ago in order to defeat his old adversary Count Dracula; his apprentices then emigrated to the United States to hide the amulet, where it was out of Dracula's immediate reach. Nevertheless, Dracula seeks to obtain the amulet so that he can take over the world and plunge it into darkness. To this end, he assembles several of his most dangerous and monstrous allies: The Mummy, the Gill-man, The Wolf Man, and in addition, three school girls whom the