FRED DEKKER
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BB.5.
USA, 1987. Home Box Office, Keith Barish Productions, TAFT Entertainment Pictures. Screenplay by Shane Black, Fred Dekker. Cinematography by Bradford May. Produced by Jonathan A. Zimbert. Music by Bruce Broughton. Production Design by Albert Brenner. Costume Design by Michael W. Hoffman, Aggie Lyon. Film Editing by James Mitchell.
A cheerful little romp that is only for discerning parents to share with their kids: it is unlikely to scare the youngsters more than it is meant to, but the alarming excesses of 80s cinema, rife with homophobic slurs and nasty antagonism, won’t be something that will please modern day breeders. That said, only kids will get much out of the anodyne action here anyway, a fun little fable in which classic horror-movie creatures (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Creature From The Black Lagoon and Frankenstein himself) descend upon a small town that, thankfully, also has a team of grade-schoolers who are obsessed with hunting monsters. It’s not as clever or funny as Gremlins, but it’s not as bloated or awkward as The Goonies either.
