Movie Review: Wolfman’s Got Nards (2018)

Since this is a review of a documentary about the cult classic fright flick The Monster Squad that features testimonials of fans’ first experiences with the film, I’ll share mine! I vividly remember when The Monster Squad was coming out in cinemas. I was beyond excited to see a film teaming up classic creatures battling some resourceful kids…the thrills, the spills, the…the…fucking nothin’. That film never made it’s way to the Podunk cinema in my bucolic lil’ town, and there was no way in hell my parents were driving thirty minutes to the next closest theater to check it out. So I saw it when one of my friends taped it off from HBO. I really liked it. The end.
Thankfully the stories in Wolfman’s Got Nards are much more entertaining and engaging than that ultra-shit yarn I spun above…though the end result is the same. People like The Monster Squad movie…I mean really, really like it, and their passion (and in many cases obsession) is a testament to how well made the film actually is…it endures to this day so much that college professors teach it to their film students (as shown in this doc). But fan appreciation is just a tip of the iceberg as to what this film has to offer.
Throughout the course of the ninety minute run time we also are treated to the stars of The Monster Squad detailing the film’s creation from it’s genesis, to it’s production, and finally to it’s (dismal) release along with plenty of behind-the-scenes footage, including a detailed look at the creation of those fangtastically fearsome monsters that made the film so amazing to junior horror hounds!
Of course no matter how much it shit the bed at the ol’ box office, the film eventually DID find an audience, thanks to the explosion of the video rental market and constant showings on HBO (wait…no one saw this in theaters and discovered it via HBO? My story really WAS awesome after all…I mean it was told by your’s cruelly, so how could it NOT have been really, right my creeps? Right? Where did everybody go?)…and it has become a source of inspiration for artists and film makers to this day, so it’s come full circle (as the film’s Co-Writer and Director Fred Dekker and Co-writer Shane Black were fans of the original Universal monster pictures)…and speaking of “full circle” the film plays in sold out theaters who cater to lovers of outre cinema!
Of course not everything is all happy good times as Brent Chalem that played the character Horace (the character who’s most famous line provided the title for this documentary) succumbed to an ER mishap that proved fatal and therefore never got to see the film become the horror biz legend that it always deserved to be.
All in all, Wolfman’s Got Nards is a fantastic celebration of a film that means so much to us monsterkids, and the balance it strikes between the fandom, the production of the film itself, and it’s legacy is handled with expert care and an amazing amount of heart. If you love The Monster Squad this is a must see, and if you haven’t watching this doc will make you want to rectify that pronto!