MaximumMadness
The 1989 Fred Savage and Howie Mandel vehicle, "Little Monsters", is a children's/kid's film. While it was a childhood favorite of mine, I recently had a chance to re-watch it, and I have to say, it just doesn't hold up. It suffers from a loose plotting and a disturbingly cruel nature, and I'm shocked my parents actually let me watch it.Savage stars as Brian Stevenson, a young boy who has just moved to a new neighborhood, and is feeling sad because he lost all of his friends. When strange pranks appear, set up all over his house during the night, he is blamed by his parents for setting them up, even though he denies it. In addition, his younger brother claims to have seen a monster that comes out from under his bed at night. Soon, Brian encounters the monster- Maurice (Mandel), a playful and nutty humanoid with bright blue skin, who introduces him to the world of monsters underneath his bed- a massive land with all sorts of creatures who do nothing but play pranks, scare kids and play video games.However, over time, Brian realizes that the pranks and fun have consequences, and he and Maurice are forced to help his brother Eric, whom is subsequently kidnapped by "Boy", the evil leader of the monsters.To give credit where it is due, the film has a strong atmosphere. Although it's meant to be fun, the introduction to the film and the third act are meant to be creepy and unsettling for the audiences, and I will say, this film is oozing with atmosphere and the general creeps. It is well paced and well-shot, and it is very eerie for children. Particularly some of the earlier jumps and some of the monsters.In addition, the script (by future "Pirates of the Caribbean" scribes Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio) is quite imaginative, although it has been long-rumored that many scenes were cut and re-written, and that the final product differs greatly from the first draft.Finally, the music is incredible. It's very haunting and has an air of sorrow, mixed with hints of joy. It gives a good tone and emulates the up's and down's of the story magnificently.However, there are two huge, looming problems with the film.First, despite the imagination, the film isn't well-written. Characters are established well, but are not necessarily likable. And the plot is just a mess. In fact, the "plot" doesn't really exist until the last half-hour. Up until then, it's more of a series of skits and pranks. The villain ("Boy") and his motivations are not made clear, and the climax, without spoiling anything, is a non-sensical, sloppy mess. It brings the film down a few points, and takes away from the scenes that do indeed work.Secondly, this is a very dark, cruel film. Many scenes involve pranks played by the monsters, which become increasingly dark and morally questionable. Scenes involving tricking young children into drinking urine, scaring infants, tampering with food, destroying property, etc. break past the border of bad taste. And there is a great deal of violence in the film, including characters being kidnapped, burned, beaten up, and even a creepy scene where a monster is decapitated and has its head replaced with a pumpkin. It's very dark, and it's inappropriate for children under 12, I'd say. (Which is the target market, as kids who are any older are probably not going to like it) And the bigger problem is that there are no real consequences for the cruelty and violence, making the theme of responsibility very hollow and hypocritical.This film is a mess. It deserves about a 3 out of 10, but my nostalgia for it, and the sleepless nights of creeps it gave me has elevated it to about a 5 out of 10. I'd say it's decent for older children, but parents should plan on watching it with their kids, and making sure the theme of responsibility was clear to them.
tomgillespie2002
After moving house and witnessing his parents' marriage crumbling in front of him, Brian (Fred Savage) investigates his brothers claims that monsters keep coming from under his bed and scaring him at night. After swapping rooms, Brian is visited by a big blue monster, and the next night Brian manages to trap him in his room using his engineering skills. The monster turns out to be hyperactive troublemaker Maurice (Howie Mandel) who befriends Brian, and shows him the wonders of the monster world under his bed, where every night, the monsters reek havoc in the homes of young children. But the mysterious monster Boy (Frank Whaley) wants Brian for himself and keep him under the bed until the sun comes up, and thus turning him into a monster.Apart from the first four Rocky films, Little Monsters was hands down the main film I watched religiously as a child, my face no further than two feet from the TV screen. I remember finding it strangely eerie amongst all the fun, and being genuinely disturbed by some scenes. Boy's henchman Snik, a giant, hunchbacked monster with large bottom teeth, really frightened me, and the scene where he breaks one of Maurice's horns always shocked me. Re-visiting the film, roughly around fifteen years later, I can see that I was right to feel unnerved.Yes, the film is certainly childish and playful, but has a surprising line of darkness flowing through it from beginning to end. From early on, where Brian finds an overturned TV in the darkness of his closet that is showing the climax of The Fly, to the finale that sees Boy's face burned off to reveal a hideous face underneath, the film often steps out of the childhood safety area. It's certainly refreshing to see, and this sort of atmosphere can only be found in the Golden Age of kiddie flicks, the 80's, where films like The Dark Crystal and The Goonies showed creepy creatures and foul-mouthed kids that the target audience could really enjoy and relate to.Not to say that Little Monsters quite matches up to the two films just mentioned - it has some annoying child characters and Maurice does become slightly tiresome - but it is certainly an imaginative, funny and exciting little film. It's sad to see another of the key child stars of the era, Fred Savage, come out of the decade and dissolve into the woodwork, similar to the likes of Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. Although his maniacal behaviour does occasionally become exhausting, Howie Mandel's performance is certainly energetic, and you can't help but love him when he drinks a bully's apple juice, only to refill it with p**s. Hardly a classic, but certainly a film I will absolutely cherish from my youth, and will enjoy revisiting once every decade or so.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com
