Little Monsters Blu-ray Review

The Vestron Video Collection keeps rolling along. So far every release under this banner has been excellent. In fact I cannot stress enough as to how well these are handled. From quality in the video and audio to the special features these things are great. I can only hope more of them come out. This particular one is a bit different. It’s a family film that was embraced by the horror crowd. The 1989 comedy cult classic Little Monsters starring Fred Savage and Howie Mandel.

Little Monsters stars Savage as Brian Stevenson an 11 year old who has just moved to a new town with his family. When we meet Brian he is always being blamed for everything that goes wrong around the house. His bike left in the driveway (which his dad runs over) freezer left open, melted ice cream, nothing major, just lots and lots of little things. Brian truly has done none of these and is quick to blame his little brother Eric. Eric has a theory that it’s a monster that lives under his bed. As everyone, including Brian laughs this off Brian agrees to spend the night in Eric’s room to prove monsters are not real. Problem is Brian keeps hearing mysterious noises and cant make it through the night.

After being laughed at for being scared of a “monster” Brian again goes to spend the night in Eric’s room, only this time he sets up traps. Pretty family friendly trap I may add. Essentially he rigs the legs of the bed to collapse when triggered by a sting attached to some Doritos. The trap does work and Brain catches a blue monster maned Maurice (Howie Mandel). Turns out Maurice is pretty cool. Brain quickly befriends him, and Maurice takes Brian under Eric’s bed to show him where all the monsters live. Its an entire world connected by vast staircases that lead to children’s beds. No adults, games, fast food, everything fun. The monsters go out at night and pull various pranks on humans, and at times scare them in the process for fun. Brian and Maurice become such good friends that Brian starts going with him on these prank trips at night.

Everything is going fine until Brian goes with a group of monsters who plan on scarring a baby. Brian objects to this and turns of the lights in the room to stop them. See when the lights come on the monsters turn into a pile of cloths. The problem is when the light hits Brian he shrinks a bit. Turns out Brian is slowly turning into a monster. In fact all the monsters are former children who have been turned. When Brian removes the legs from the beds and no longer goes with Maurice his little brother Eric is kidnaped by a monster named Snik to lure Brian back to their world to finish turning him into a monster. Brian gathers his friends and goes there in an attempt to save Eric.

This is a great film. It’s a family film for sure. Funny, well-acted, and just all around timeless. Howie Mandel is amazing as the goofy monster Maurice, and Fred Savage is fantastic in his role as well. This is just a good film from top to bottom. The monster makeup is extremely well done. Think of Nightbreed for kids. In fact the monsters are all done so well that this film was embraced by horror fans early on and over the years has developed a huge cult following. That’s where Vestron Comes in

Lionsgate has released this under their Vestron Video Collection banner and it is stunning. This is a fantastic transfer that really shows off how well done these monster are. The effects look fantastic on this print. Everything just pops and comes to life. It almost feels real. The audio is amazing as well and you really feel part of the monster world when having this bellow out of your surround sound. Plus its loaded with special features.

NEW*Audio Commentary with Jarret Gahan, Editor-in-Chief ofCultofMonster.com
*NEW*Isolated Score Selections and Audio Interview with Composer David Newman
*NEW*“Call Him Maurice”–An Interview with Actor Howie Mandel
*NEW*“Beneath the Bed”–An Interview with Producer Andrew Licht
*NEW*“Monsters Big & Small”–An Interview with Special Makeup Effects Creator Robert Short
*NEW*Vintage Interviews with Actors Fred Savage, Ben Savage, Special Makeup Effects Creator Robert Short, and Director Richard Alan Greenberg
Behind-the-Scenes Footage
“Making Maurice”–Vintage Footage of Howie Mandel’s Makeup Transformation
Vintage EPK & VHS Promo
Theatrical Trailer
Still Gallery

Just as fun today as it was years ago Little Monsters is not only a fun film for families and children, it’s a great film for fans of horror as well. A simple film guaranteed to make you smile. I highly recommend picking this one up for your collection.

Overall 4 out of 5 Stars!