On February 10, 1988 The Monster Squad was released for the first time on home video, a mere five months after it was released in theaters. There were two types of films that were released this fast back in the 80s, humongous blockbusters like Batman and those flicks that, lets just say “didn’t quite meet performance expectations”. Obviously MS wasn’t a blockbuster, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great film, and over the course of the next year it would be widely seen on home video globally. Today I thought it would be fun to take a look at a bunch of these releases over three separate formats, VHS, Beta, and Laser Disc.
Of course we have my favorite release, the US VHS…
This is very close in appearance to the US Betamax release as well…
There were a couple of UK releases, this first was by Woldvision in 1988 and is very much in line with the UK ad campaign in design complete with Craig Nelson poster artwork embellishments (which I’ll talk about more next week) and the rad alternate logo…
There was also a re-release almost a decade later in 1997 by Force Video right at the tail end of VHS’s reign…
Going back to the 80s we have the 1988 German VHS release by VPS…
Again, this one features the German poster artwork (that I’ll take a closer look at next week.)
Over in the Netherlands CNR’s 1988 release borrowed the US Nelson poster artwork…
In the same-ish region is this release from Denmark where the film title translates more roughly to The Monster Club (Monster Klubben…) This copy looks like it wasn’t released there until almost 2000 based on the “From the Producers of U.S. Marshalls…” line at the bottom of the VHS box.
Brazil’s 1988 Trans Video release made strong use of the various Promo images from the official press kit…
The last VHS release that I have an example of is the 1988 Hearld Videogram release from Japan…
I love that the back cover features an out take from the montage sequence with Phoebe and the Monster before she’s dressed him up in the pretty lady clothes. Again, proof that there’s way more footage out there besides the deleted scenes on the DVDs and the extended sequences that made their way into the 2004 TNT broadcast cut of the film.
**UPDATE** Super cool reader Emilio D. from Spain scanned in his personal copy of the Pal format VHS released by Record Pictures in 1988!
So awesome!
The last format I wanted to cover tonight are the two laser disc releases. Now, it has to be stated that all of the above releases were in the standard pan and scan 4:3 aspect ratio. That would change with one of the laser discs below…
First, the US release…
This US release is a pain the butt to try and get a hold of. Just by the nature of the format it’s much rarer than the VHS, and so many collectors hang on to laser discs because the cover art is easy to frame and display. From what I understand though, this release is also in the pan and scan format, and even though the transfer is so much nicer than the VHS, it was never widely used for bootleg DVDs before the film was officially released on that format in 2007. Nope, up until 2007 the bootleg market sought out the Japanese laser disc because it was the first release of the film since its theatrical run that was available in the original widescreen aspect ratio…
That plus the even nicer cover artwork makes the one of the most valuable and rare Monster Squad home video releases…
As a little bit of a bonus, here are some other home video Monster Squad artifacts that were released directly to video stores in 1988. To help get folks to rent the film, some shops received these pinback buttons…
There were also tiny cardboard die-cut standees that were meant to be placed on the counter near the checkout…
Next up, today’s Monster Squad trading card!
Today’s card is #6, Eugene & Pete!
