Monster Squad Review and Analysis

Join Josh Gilliland and Jordon Huppert for a look back at the 1987 Gen X classic Monster Squad. Tune in for their analysis covering burglary of abandoned houses, invasion of privacy, self-defense, anti-bullying laws, shop classes with limited supervision, and whether the Army would answer a call for help written in crayon.

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Episode Transcript

Josh Gilliland (00:05):
Hello everyone, my name is Joshua Gilliland, one
of the founding attorneys ofthe Legal Geeks.
With me is Jordan Hoopert,longtime friend.
And we are going to discuss the1987 classic Monster Squad.
Jordan, how are you doing?
I'm well, Josh.
Thank you.
How are you?
Fantastic.
It's October.

(00:25):
Life's good.
So let's let's chat about thisfun movie.
Do you when did you first seeit?
Uh Thursday night.
Oh, okay.
Uh I I saw it.
I know I got some ears on you.
I saw it in '87 while visitingmy grandparents in Ann Arbor,

(00:47):
Michigan.
So there's a a sweetness therethat I have for this film just
from you know, again, it wassummer, and we spent a couple
weeks with our grandparents, andthey would often drop us off at
the movie theater, uh, whichwas in a mall, uh, to see.
Yeah.
So like we saw Robocop and oneof the I think it was the summer

(01:09):
before 86 or the Transformersmovie when we visited them.
So Back to the Future, uh, theyear before.
So again, all fun, all good.
Uh, but let's break downperhaps the greatest love letter
to Universal Monsters of alltime.
So maybe second only to youngFrankenstein, but this does have

(01:34):
an you know, it covers all ofthem as opposed to just a lot of
Frankenstein love for all ofthe Frankenstein movies.
So we both went through this,we did some issue spotting, and
one of the issues you identifiedwith you can't murder a
vampire.
Can you explain what what youmean by that observation?

Jordon Huppert (01:53):
Sure.
So this is always one of thoselike funny cocktail
conversations that I find myselfin is like, well, you know,
could you prosecute somebody inX movie for murdering this
vampire, or could you prosecuteoddly the vampire for murdering
this person?
And the answer is always no,because the the model penal code

(02:17):
and most of the laws based offof it are murder or homicide, I
guess, is defined as the killingof one human being by another
human being.
So if you are definitionallynot human, like a vampire, you
can neither be murdered nor beprosecuted for murder.

Josh Gilliland (02:36):
So the legal status of vampires is not
something we've ever coveredbefore, because you could argue
that they're formerly human, butthey're now something else
being undead.

Jordon Huppert (02:47):
Um it's a category we don't have because
like it's yes, the law has neverkept up with the uh rise of the
undead.

Josh Gilliland (02:54):
No, no, it's you know, Congress and state
legislatures have not heldspecial sessions to identify
address the issue of vampiricassailants who are killing
people and consuming theirblood.
That's not something thelegislature is engaged in.
I'm sure they're just gettingaround to it.
I don't know if a court wouldbe cool with the idea of saying

(03:20):
you can't prosecute a vampirefor killing a human being, like
for every wrong, there's aright.
So do they just call a mulliganon that and leave it to the
defense to make the argumentthey're not human?
Or would there be anotherattack that they could do?
Because taking the positionthat they're like uh uh vermin,

(03:46):
like like you know, rats, or youknow, that need that you can,
you know, exterminate because ifyou have mice in your house,
it's okay to call anexterminator.
The issue is the mice aren'twell again, they have a
different social structure thanhumanity, but you know, it's not
a former human being that's atplay, and like that's the

(04:08):
differential uh here that youstill you have somebody who was
formerly human, who's now acreature of the night.
Gross abuse of a corpse.
Yeah, I mean, what do you doyou prosecute?
Because again, you're not, butdo you go?
We don't need to have a trial.
I mean, like that could be theother extreme, which is

(04:29):
offensive to our view of justicethat we'll just indefinitely
hold creatures of the night as amatter of that's what they are,
so we don't have to treat themas human beings anymore.
I I think that would beproblematic as well.

Jordon Huppert (04:46):
That would be very problematic.
So I will I will call back toan old article that I think you
wrote for the site about thelegal status of droids in Star
Wars.
And I suspect that when westart to get into the area of
sentient non-humans, the uh thelaw is going to have to do some
some adapting.

Josh Gilliland (05:07):
Agreed.
And if this were an actualproblem, I don't know how it
could play out, you know,because it would probably hit a
courtroom before it would hitthe legislature.
And a judge would do one of twothings.
They would say we're gonnafollow our traditions and like

(05:29):
do Miranda Rites, rid of habeascorpus, and all of the things
that we're used to, uh, just assoldiers on the battlefield who
conduct arrests of terroristsread Miranda Rites, because it's
it's just what we do, it's whatwe're used to doing, and so
we're gonna follow thattradition on how we apply our

(05:51):
laws.
The other way is you know, theysorry, we can't hold them, or
we're not going to try thembecause they're not human, but
they're still a dangerouscreature, and treat it like a
wild bear or some other escapedanimal that's that's a hazard.

(06:12):
Either ruling would get thelegislature to respond.

Jordon Huppert (06:19):
Yeah, and that I mean, at least in the criminal
realm, that is often the way wewe see laws go through is you
know, something happens in thecourtroom that a group or groups
feel is unjust, they petitionthe legislature, the legislature
changes the law to meet outwhatever they think I suppose in

(06:42):
the moment justice is, and thenwe adapt to the law.

Josh Gilliland (06:46):
Especially if it makes a lot of news, because if
you have a a situation wherelike like at the end of this
film, Dracula kills a whole lotof police officers.

Jordon Huppert (06:59):
Yep, okay.

Josh Gilliland (07:00):
I I lost count, but it might have been seven.
Uh just in marching up to thelittle girl.
So you have a whole bunch ofdead police officers.
That would make the news.
There's no way around that.
That would absolutelypositively make the news.

Jordon Huppert (07:22):
Yeah, and be called out to small southern
town to deal with monsterinvasion would probably make at
least some newspapers.
Yeah.
Especially once they figured outit wasn't a joke.
Yeah, it's like, oh, that'scute.
Oh, oh, it was real.
Here's the gilman's corpse.

Josh Gilliland (07:39):
He's real.
Uh yeah, it's because he mighthave been the only one not
vacuumed up.
Uh, or the mummy's remains, youknow, might not.
Uh I mean, we saw policeofficers get sucked into the
void as well.

Jordon Huppert (07:56):
So you know the mummy unravels, the werewolf
turns back into a human.
Um, Dracula and Frankensteinget sucked up into the void.
I guess we should probably saythere's there's spoilers for the
end of the movie.

Josh Gilliland (08:13):
Yeah, yeah.
This movie from 1987, yeah.
It's uh, and we're talkingabout the details of the film.

Jordon Huppert (08:20):
Yeah, um, but yeah, I think you're right.
I don't know, I don't rememberwhat happens to the Gilga, the
Gilman.

Josh Gilliland (08:26):
Uh Horace shoots him.

Jordon Huppert (08:28):
Yeah.

Josh Gilliland (08:29):
Uh and so so again, he did.
And you know, does the vortexyou know, to limbo pull in the
corpse?
Because if you do have bodies,and uh, you know, again, there
would be autopsies.
There'd be autopsies of thewolf man, there would be
autopsies of the gill man.
If if there's a pharaoh thatcame back to life, that will be

(08:52):
would be studied.

Jordon Huppert (08:55):
How did this happen?
Well, and of course, in thegrand scheme, the grand
tradition of uh monster movies,can you even be sure he's dead?

Josh Gilliland (09:06):
Yeah, I I would think there's a high gill man
returns.
Yeah, I think the gill man, Imean, he took a shot to the
right side of the chest, uh,probably took out the lungs.
I mean, it was the left side,probably probably would have hit
the heart, but like you see himstop breathing.
The mummy is a more interestingquestion because he unravels,

(09:27):
could he be reconstituted?
I I don't know, but again, likethose are the nerd questions to
ask for all the monster fansout there of could the mummy be
put back together?
I don't know, but all right,that's issue.
That's just murdering avampire.
We see there's a lot ofunfortunate 1980s insults that

(09:50):
kids did say in the 1980s, andit's super cringe worthy to see
today, because I remember kidssaying things like that, and
today kids wouldn't say thingslike that.
That we it's nearly 40 yearslater, we just wouldn't we don't
do that anymore.
But Horace is nicknamed FatKid, and even by his friends,

(10:15):
yep.
Um, we have bullies that callhim Fat Kid, and he says, you
know, my name is Horace.
There's full-on bullying, andthen it turns into assault and
battery, you know, if uh if nottorture with you know stepping
on a candy bar and telling himto eat it, bad situations.
You you've done criminaldefense.

(10:36):
You know, what are some of yourthoughts on the uh criminal uh
aspects of you know kids gettingbullied and and assaulted?

Jordon Huppert (10:45):
Yeah, well I mean I suppose first I will say
that you you are correct.
This movie is if if I coulddescribe it as nothing else, I
would call it aggressively 80s.
There is a lot of uh what's itanachronist anachronisms?
No, not anachronisms.
I don't know.
There's a lot of things thatare culturally relevant at the
time that would have beenperfectly normal fit in with the

(11:07):
movie time period, I think.
Uh that you are you are corrector very very cringeworthy
today.
But I've done a small amount ofjuvenile uh delinquency laws,
and you do see situations likethis come up um fairly
frequently in that thatcourtroom, and I won't get into

(11:30):
the uh debate of uh criminalprosecutions against children,
but you do uh this is the kindof situation that those courts
generally deal with.
Um the bullies are definitelycharged with assault.
The older kid who ends upjoining them, whose name Rudy.

Josh Gilliland (11:49):
Who's middle school?

Jordon Huppert (11:50):
Who's middle school?

Josh Gilliland (11:52):
And so like the other kids are 12.
So like let's say he's aneighth grader that looks like
he's a senior in high school,and the other kids, I mean 12,
you could be sixth grade ortwelve or seventh grade,
depending on the uh exact timeof the birthday and um like

(12:14):
where you might live.
But yeah, 12-year-olds, becauseagain, 14, a lot of eighth
graders, a lot of kids turn 14in the eighth grade.
I know from my scoutingexperience.
So 13 in 12 or 13 in theseventh grade makes sense.
13 to 14 in the eighth grademakes sense.
If these kids are 12, theycould be sixth graders or they

(12:37):
could be uh seventh graders.

Jordon Huppert (12:39):
Yeah.
And if there's a uh that I thatactually brings up another
interesting issue of what agecan someone be brought into
juvenile court.
Because if they're 12, theymight actually fall too young,
depending on what state we'rein.
So if we're assuming, I thinkyou and I were talking about

(12:59):
this a little before we started.
If we assume Alabama, uhAlabama has an age of uh 14 to
be brought into juvenile court.
Oh no, that's age juvenile casecan be transferred to adult
court.

Josh Gilliland (13:13):
Okay.
And again, so to so those whomight be wondering what we
discussed, it was what state didthis take place in?
And I think it's somewhere inthe uh south because we have
swamps, uh, there's antebellumlooking houses for where a lot
of the action takes place.
Uh but then you get suburbiabecause this was filmed in LA.

(13:35):
Or you know, I I wouldn't besurprised if there was a
universal back lot.
So, you know, you could be aNorthridge in some neighborhood
for it's like this looks a lotlike Southern California, and
then it looks very antebellumall of a sudden.
Uh, but yeah, it's again likeyou have the Delta in
California, but you know, thatis not doesn't look like a

(13:59):
Louisiana swamp, and thisdefinitely looked like a
southern swamp.

Jordon Huppert (14:05):
Yeah.
Um no, it definitely did looklike some of the older parts of
the south and some small town,could be small town Alabama or
northern Florida.
Yeah, Louisiana.

Josh Gilliland (14:19):
I mean, just something um parts of Arkansas.
I mean, like so again, there'sthere's places where it could
make sense.
Uh, but what doesn't make senseis the oh if they're in a hot
part of the state, you know,clothing matches.
Sheriffs do have a mildresemblance to Smokey and the

(14:40):
Bandit.
Yeah, good times.
Good times, but again, no oneagain, you you don't hear many
southern draws, but there'ssome, you know, there there is
there's a little yeah.
Um, but anyway, so that couldplay a factor on whether or not
those kids would end up injuvenile hall.
I I don't think those uh whatthey did would rise to the level

(15:01):
of getting having themprosecuted as an adult because
that would just seem vindictive.
This is definitely guidancecounselor territory.
Oh, yeah.
Um, that you would want tointercede, and also from a
policy standpoint, you don'twant to truly turn them in to
criminals.
So um it can be aself-fulfilling prophecy with

(15:25):
with uh uh uh if they godepending depending on how they
attack it.
Um so I'd I would prefer themnot, you know, it's again kids
kids need a uh uh influence onhow to behave.

Jordon Huppert (15:42):
Yeah, and courts are um courts are many things,
but they are not the world'sbest uh teachers.
So bringing a child into a evenyou know juvenile
quasi-criminal court setting totry to teach them how to behave
is not your best uh your bestsocial use of funding, in my

(16:07):
humble opinion.

Josh Gilliland (16:08):
I agree with that opinion.
There's there are other methodsto encourage socially
acceptable behavior that doesn'tput people on a you know
school-to-prison fast track.
So but yeah, there's somedisturbing things that happen
and disturbing I don't rememberkids using language like like

(16:33):
that takes place in the bullyingscenes with such fervor and
jubilation.
I don't remember that gettingthrown around, but not to the
extent that uh that happens inthe beginning of the film.

Jordon Huppert (16:49):
Yeah, I do.
Um but you know, a few yearsapart, and I would be so I would
have been growing up afterthis, was born in 85.
So we would have been thegeneration taking influence from
movies like this.

Josh Gilliland (17:06):
Yeah, so that was life was like in the 80s.
It's like you know, it's likeit's way turned up.
It's way turned up.
Oh yeah, it did happen, but Idon't remember on the playground
people throwing around termslike that indiscriminately.
Uh I remember it because it wasseen as an insult, it was seen
as offensive, and it was seen asmean.

(17:29):
It still happened, but buttoday we uh it just no, like no
one should be doing that.
Like it just society doesn'ttolerate that kind of behavior
anymore.
Um moving forward, uh, we dohave some peeping tom invasion
of privacy issues.

(17:50):
Speaking of other things, westill don't tolerate, just like
oh Lord, like uh so like the thethe hero kid.
Okay, so again, bullying shouldthe response to bullying
shouldn't be bullying, like it'sthe policy of we'll just slap
some sense into them.
Oh, that is very aggressively80s and also not reflective of

(18:13):
reality.
But you know, as as Rudy'strying to get into the monster
squad, uh you know, they're inthe treehouse and he's playing
peeping tom on one of the kids'older sisters, who's let's just
say high school.

Jordon Huppert (18:27):
Um yeah, here's hoping.
Yeah, you know, 18, I'm sure.

Josh Gilliland (18:32):
Uh just oh god.
Uh so there's definitely an agegap.
Um, it's creepy, it's wrong.
Um, and again, it's you know,the the original Wolfman has
inadvertent uh peeping tominvasion of privacy.
Uh because we have LarryTalbot, you know, they're he's

(18:53):
at his father's estate.
They have a new telescopeinstalled for stargazing, and he
looks through it and it's aimedat the town, and that's how we
see you know the female lead,and um and it does turn into a
weird peeping tom situation outof the gate.

Jordon Huppert (19:10):
So it's like don't and it's so you're saying
it's an homage in the scene.

Josh Gilliland (19:15):
Possibly.
I mean, so because again,they're for the artistic purpose
of uh yeah, it's I again Idon't we didn't have a treehouse
that didn't happen in myneighborhood, so uh Lord
Almighty.
Um people close blinds, uh, butagain, peeping tom and is and

(19:37):
throwing a camera in makes itworse.
It's because it's like it's notlike an accidental like looking
out the window and get and youknow seeing okay, she has the
blinds open.
Whoops.

Jordon Huppert (19:51):
Um yeah, no, this is much this feels much
more thought out with the cameraand the tripod and there was a
plan.

Josh Gilliland (20:00):
Um that that does well again.
Yeah, with the player'sintervention, yeah.

Jordon Huppert (20:10):
Probably with all of them, because it is also
real strongly implied that thisis his first time in the
treehouse, and unless he broughtthat camera, uh you're gonna
yeah, best not go down thatroad.

Josh Gilliland (20:24):
Yeah, it's like why did they have no, no, it's
like what were they what was theplan there?
Like it that's not a normal wayto leave a camera.
Like I do a lot of photography,but cameras are in their bags,
tripods put away, like it'syeah, nothing's just set out.

Jordon Huppert (20:49):
Uh no, and none of that's inexpensive.

Josh Gilliland (20:52):
No, no, it's uh again, it's like I'm sure dad
finding out that the you knowcamera was set up to creep on
the neighbor girl.
Um probably wouldn't mom anddad would not be happy.
Mom and dad had enough problemsalready, uh uh that required
counseling, but um tossing inyou know what my son or one of

(21:17):
his buddies is a peeping towntom and using our treehouse,
like that's just yeah, that's uhit's not gonna win you points
back down at the precincteither.
No, no, like they I mean likehe has to come down like a
hammer on it just uh uh andagain, like does that require uh

(21:39):
charges uh in order to correctthe behavior?
Because again, there's avictim.
There is there's there's anabsolute victim with this, and
and uh she's not gonna sit backand go like oh boys will be
boys.
No, that's not an acceptableanswer to this situation.
Like drop the hammer.

Jordon Huppert (22:00):
Uh well, and especially I mean, today we have
the uh addition of the internetand digital photography, which
today makes these thingsgenerally worse because they are
then pictures like that arethen shared or posted somewhere,

(22:21):
and that's worse.

Josh Gilliland (22:24):
The peeping tom laws again, uh it's a state
issue.
Uh the they're they're theyfall under invasion of privacy.
Some states actually call thempeeping tom.
Uh states have startedincorporating drones into uh
their their laws, uh becausethey don't want somebody flying

(22:46):
a drone outs outside of somebodyelse's window for taking
pictures, which meant ithappened because very few
legislatures write lawsproactively, going this could be
a problem, so we'll come upwith something.
Most of most laws are becausesomething happened and the
legislature reacts to thesituation.

Jordon Huppert (23:10):
Yeah, I think Oregon statutes are broad enough
that we haven't specificallywritten in drones, but I don't
think it excludes them.

Josh Gilliland (23:19):
Um I could see a DA DA come out swinging.
Oh yeah.
You know, it's it's it's likethey should.
It's like no, just just justno.
Um especially today with theway that people can like cyber

(23:41):
stalk and just uh the theopportunities for bad behavior
are such that laws exist toprotect people from such
behavior, and as we keepdeveloping technologies that can
be exploited for nefariouspurposes, laws will need to
continue to to adapt uh to thatsituation.

Jordon Huppert (24:01):
Yeah, yeah.
Thus far they've done aparticularly slow job of
adapting to uh to tech, but itit's hard to keep up.

Josh Gilliland (24:13):
It is, you know, it's really hard to keep up,
and unless something bighappens, you you don't see an
evolution.
You know, again, look at thestored communication act.
That's also from like 87.
Uh, we haven't updated that.

Jordon Huppert (24:31):
And uh so there's communications haven't
changed since 87.
It's it's okay.

Josh Gilliland (24:35):
Yeah, computer storage still the same, still
very much so.
Still big floppy discs.
You know, windows that's crazytalk.
All right, we do have a uh niceWorld War II bomber uh uh uh
cameo.
I think it's a B-25, twinengine bomber.

(24:55):
That if it is a 25, that's whatJimmy Stewart flew during World
War II era of surplus.
People did have uh governmentsurplus planes that they could
use in like that they could get.
It makes me wonder did thisthing cross the Atlantic herring
corpses?
Because I don't think it hasthe range to do that.
So I don't know where elsewould they have picked up the

(25:18):
mummy in Dracula?
Dracula and Frankenstein, themummy was in a museum.

Jordon Huppert (25:24):
Oh, that's right.

Josh Gilliland (25:26):
So, and there's other issues to talk about with
that, probably Europe and I knowB-17s.
I mean, like you they wouldhave to stop in like I think
Iceland to refuel in order toget to to England, so maybe
something similar again.
We can go look up the range andthen figure out where do they
refuel.

(25:46):
Uh, but you have internationaltransportation of a corpse, and
there's a lot of rules that comewith corpses.
In addition to knowing a lotabout e-discovery, I know a lot
about treatment of dead bodies,which would make a really unique
practice area, and it's becauseof movies like and it and TV
shows like this that havecorpses moving across state

(26:09):
lines that gets complicated.

Jordon Huppert (26:12):
And I assume there's a permitting system or
something, yeah.

Josh Gilliland (26:15):
And it's like it comes up with you know, person
dies in state X and thentransported back to state Y.
Like again, there'sapplications and permits, like
you just don't bury someone inthe backyard, like there's a
process that we follow for thatbecause we want human remains
treated with dignity and we wantthem buried as soon as

(26:37):
possible.
And the buried as soon aspossible intent is to prevent
diseases from running rampant,so that's why we want to bury as
quickly as possible.
And there's a sordid historywith like autopsies, bodies are
regulated, like we just don'twant generally not stuffed in a
uh wooden box and put in theback of a cargo plane, yeah.

(26:59):
Or you know, strapped to theroof of the car when you know
grandma dies on the road trip,like not okay.
So not okay.
Um too many movies where thathappens.
No.
Uh, but uh you identified this,so other other thoughts that

(27:22):
you might have on it.

Jordon Huppert (27:24):
No, I just kind of remembered you saying that uh
it was something you hadlearned about.
I thought you might have funwith it.

Josh Gilliland (27:33):
Yeah, good eye.
Uh yeah, it's you know, like itwas a decade ago that all these
TV shows just had dead bodiescrossing state lines and like
getting buried in differentplaces.

Jordon Huppert (27:47):
It's like yeah, you can't just do that.

Josh Gilliland (27:52):
There's yeah, there's like that's how
desecration of a corpse happens,um, or abuse of a corpse.
It it upsets people.

Jordon Huppert (28:02):
I I don't do much federal work, but I guess
if you're talking about crossingstate lines, you're talking
about federal problems.

Josh Gilliland (28:09):
It can come up that way.
So there's it depends if acrime happens, but if it's you
need to look up the exactrequirements that that I saw
years ago, but you you can'tjust move it from state A to
State B without doing somepaperwork.
Again, think of God, was itvacation or little miss
sunshine?
It's like like thegrandparents' corpse does not go

(28:31):
on the roof of the car.
It's uh no.
No, thank you.
You don't do that.
Um, but again, these guys areundead, so like that adds
another weird spin on this thatthe law is not designed for.
So you you identified with thewolf man.

Jordon Huppert (28:52):
Um yeah, this was a fun scene.

Josh Gilliland (28:54):
Yeah, so California we call it a 5150
hold, but uh can you describewhat an APO is?

Jordon Huppert (29:01):
Uh well APO is a short for assault on a public
safety officer.
So the the scene where thewolfman is in the police station
trying to get himself arrestedso that he can get locked up
before he turns into a werewolf,um, he is doing basically
everything he can.
Short of arresting someone, youcan uh Oregon calls it civil

(29:23):
commitment holds, or I guessCalifornia's 5150.
But the idea is that if someoneis not mentally well enough
that they become a danger tothemselves or a danger to other
people, you have the option ofinvoluntarily holding them in at
least in Oregon, it's ahospital setting where they're

(29:45):
then hopefully treated and itgoes, you know, you can treat
them and release them, or youcan uh extend the hold much
longer.
But usually these are likequick holds to make.
to stabilize people, get themon medication, and get them into
treatment things.
So I thought it was interestingthat and I'm not surprised that

(30:07):
in the 80s they wouldn't havehad something like that to go
to.
But that would have been youruh your first go-to with the
wolf man before he startsbeating up the police and steals
one of their guns.
Um which then gets him shot.

Josh Gilliland (30:27):
Yeah so there's almost like a suicide by cop you
know element but he he wants tobe put into a cell which raises
all kinds of questions.
Like when the wolf man is humanum he has his own personality
understands right from wrong howdo you end up there like
because he I understand the wolfcomes out once a month for a

(30:50):
you know couple number of nightsthat have a full moon which is
I what two three I'm notpositive yeah so that means if
he knows that the wolf wants toget to you know Alabama he can
go to Alaska you know and like Ihave control over this that the

(31:12):
wolf cannot run between Alaskato Alabama in in two nights so
like there's a way to deter thatthat then creates a big plot
hole yeah and and like what'sthis guy done is like I don't

(31:33):
think he's a recent werewolfbecause he's got the crazy
factor of someone who's beenliving with it for a while
speculation but it's not likewell Dracula clearly knows about
him.
Yeah and uh so again it raisesthe issue of what else has he
been doing?
You know does he set up like apen for himself and that's how

(31:57):
he keeps himself safe or is heyou know like like the 1970s
Hulk TV show where he's just youknow wandering the countryside
and knowing that he's gonna turninto a wolf once a month and
cause problems and if not killpeople so uh issues there.
I mean this also again it'sit's it's poking holes in the

(32:21):
plot for for a movie that I dohave strong affinity for but
like my reaction to that is likedid Dracula have acolytes like
how did Dracula get a car therelike that that wasn't dropped
out of the airplane so had in uhhad he been setting up shop

(32:42):
there for a while and thus hehad a base of operations and
thus did a mission to go getFrankenstein and the other
creatures knew to that we're allgonna rendezvous here so that
was my assumption was that hehad been moving toward this for
a while because he knew thejournal was there and the

(33:03):
journal had been in the town fora bit because mom bought it at
a yard sale or something.
Yeah um so Van Helsing clearlyhad his uh as it's referent his
disciples that set up the amuletto be in a place where a
vampire could not enter becauseof the religious uh iconography
that's posted we're gonnasurround it with crosses and

(33:26):
other things that will keep outcreatures of the night uh but
again uh would that keep thecreature from the black lagoon
out you know could Frankensteinnot have just walked in there
yeah uh but I don't know the VanHelsing would have planned for
that because they weren't in theopening scene no and they

(33:48):
clearly die out and if you havea hundred years to prepare for
something you know that'sseveral generations and like
would it be like the grandkidsor great grandkids just not
believe what's going on or didDracula have cronies over the
decades knock out family treesthat could have posed the threat

(34:12):
you figure vampires often havelike thralls type uh not Igors
they were Frankenstein but umfamiliars familiars and servants
or brides and we'll talk aboutthem shortly um yeah uh again

(34:33):
they recreate in a unique waythat causes Redfield that was
Dracula's buddy servant yeahyeah yeah sorry no no no it's
again just came to me uh but theso in California it's similar
with with a 5150 hold being aninvoluntary confinement and

(34:55):
there's a process and procedurewe actually considered changing
the law um a while uh in thepast election that we had for um
trying to treat homeless whoare suffering from mental
illness because we you run intothis phenomenon of there's
someone who clearly needs helpbut our system's not designed to

(35:18):
help them because that wouldinvolve a confinement and you
need due process requirements.
And so it turns into this uglybalancing act of it's inhumane
to let someone suffering from amental illness just suffer in
homelessness uh if if treatmentcould help them so they could

(35:42):
function and hold a job and notbe homeless.

Jordon Huppert (35:47):
But in order to do that you need to confine them
and treat them and there arehuge civil liberty issues with
going we're just gonna cowboy upand involuntarily confine
people so we could medicate themum that can open the door to
some very scary situations aswell and and uh like there's no

(36:09):
good answer for this on on howit plays out um it's bad in
every direction so um now youjust noticed another issue what
was the other issue that younoticed oh with the wolfman
scene yes anytime a a policeofficer shoots somebody it's an
investigation um but consideringthe wolfman has a gun and has

(36:36):
shot the ceiling and I think hepointed it at one of the the
officers at some point thisone's probably a short
investigation yeah and there'stons of witnesses in the police
scene to go like no no that madesense yeah it's like the guy
had a gun he Lenny Frank andCarl all got punched in the face

(36:59):
and broke their windows likeit's uh no it's that's that's a
very clear cut like yeah no Iwould it was right to discharge
your firearm like it was and Ithat was like pre- tasers being
issued to people so like it wasnot nope that was uh that was
pretty clearly the choice of themoment yeah it was today it's

(37:23):
like did you try tasing themlike I I could see that being an
an argument of of um but againlike he had a gun as yeah as
soon as he has a gun and he'sfired the gun that we you've
crossed into the situation wherelethal force makes sense um if
he didn't have a weapon yeahlike escalating to lethal force

(37:47):
is problematic in my view.
Yeah no you're I agree I thinkthey could have done a better
job talking him down at thebeginning but um at the point
where he's beaten up four ofthem and stolen one of their
guns that it's not gonna end anyother way.
And again it it highlights Imean going to his mental

(38:09):
capacity like here's someonewho's clearly traumatized and in
a bad place because he knows heturns into a monster and he
can't control it and he and he'saware of what's happening uh uh
uh as well so like he's handhands are not on the steering
wheel he's along for the rideit's traumatized him because he

(38:32):
is his life is destroyed uh fromthis experience and uh he he
doesn't want to go aroundharming people um so it's which
raises the issue of well we'llget to it at the end but how do
you stop the wolf man uh allright so let's go back to the

(38:53):
treehouse how's the dog get intothe treehouse I assume one of
them carries the dog up but itis one of the better unanswered
questions of the movie is Rudywhen they're all doing the 1980s
hands in thing how'd the dogget up here he's like it's not

(39:13):
like a German shepherd it's it'slike a beagle you could ride in
a basket it's yeah but he'sabout the same size as all the
kids yeah it's a small dog youknow barks at the creature when
it surfaces so yeah okay he's agood boy uh dog yeah again as
with the vortex open hangingonto the dog's tail very cute

(39:37):
all right so we then get atraining montage because again
this is a 1980s movie yeah andit would be weird not to have a
prep montage because they knowtheir battle against evil is
about to unfold so there'sthere's a lot of theft by the
junior high student who who'swho's look again looks like he's

(40:01):
right out of the 1950sstreetcar named desire type type
look deals like a bow and arrowfrom an archery course you know
we have one of the momsrealizing her silver's gone as
you know this kid is smeltingyou know in what is obviously
shop class like nobody in thiskid's class is looking at him

(40:29):
sideways as he's smelting andmaking silver bullets that was
the 80s that's just like that'snot the uh I I was lucky to have
a a wood shop class when I wasin junior high we made a letter
holder and so that again I madelike it when I was in the eighth

(40:52):
seventh grade and um uh pictureframe too uh so yes yes going
back no one could be sharpeningwooden stakes it's like you're
not supposed to make weapons andI assume there's a teacher who
would have at least noticed atsome point I mean again I
remember our shop teacher beingpretty cool just kind of a gruff

(41:15):
dude who taught wood shop soagain that kind of explains the
personality type of it's likejeans and button up shirt and
like he works wood like itunderstands tools and teaching
you know like again safetygoggles how not to cut off a
finger again we I it was it wasa very you know late 80s

(41:38):
experience for me of uh likethat's how we rolled yeah but
like could you have hauled inlike gunpowder and all the stuff
you have to mix into thecartridges to make the
absolutely not and no one couldstart making steaks like the the
the teacher would have noticedthat that was like no what are

(42:01):
you doing because I was like Iwas there I I could see the
making steaks as just kind of ateacher overlooked kind of thing
and you know maybe he made thempretty quick and nobody noticed
but then he's making bulletsand it's like there's only one

(42:22):
thing that's gonna go to it'slike I don't remember anyone
smelting anything in class youhave like an hour that's a
really efficient use of time.
Yeah well on the plus side kidsgot a career in front of them

(42:44):
going from again that that's funand silly to something like
dark we can Dracula kidnapsthree girls they're either high
school students or sororitygirls like they're all in like
little uniforms and they'retrapped in the closet and he
doesn't like just kill them andconsume their blood he turns

(43:10):
them into vampires and whichmeans like he's now recruiting
and building a small army andbecause the new vampires will
need to feed two and the town'sonly so big so like you've got
it's a problem with that butwith the concept of brides of of
Dracula which you know they'removies of that title none of

(43:33):
them actually have Draculamarrying multiple women like
they don't do a marriageceremony but it's it's the
recruiting through biting andturning them into vampires but
bigamy is a crime the way bigamylaws generally work they can
vary state to state firstmarriage is valid a second
marriage would be invalid itlike would not be effective at

(43:55):
all and so if a marriage was inanother state the first marriage
is the one that controls youcan't marry three women on one
night like that's just not ourlaws do not recognize that at
all bigamy is a crimepunishments vary as well on on
how it is any uh in yourcriminal defense practice ever

(44:16):
that ever come up so oddly notin the criminal defense practice
but when I was doing family lawbriefly it did once somebody
came in and said I found outthat my partner is still married
and didn't tell me and now Iwant out and I need to get a
divorce like nope you just filethis and void the second

(44:38):
marriage and you're good.

Josh Gilliland (44:39):
That's the end of that oh how it so suck for
that person like it really didyou know you get weird issues of
like like um probate could comeup like because let's just say
that it happened later that thewhat the person thought was her

(45:02):
husband died and she finds outthat the guy was married to
somebody else prior to marryingher that turns into a weird
train wreck pretty fast uminheritance and if there's a
will or no no will and yeahthings get this particular
situation was lucky and therewasn't there weren't a lot of

(45:23):
assets to split up or anythinglike that and no kids thankfully
but yeah that's good but manthat can get sticky yeah
especially if it's like they'vebeen together like let's just
say together for a decade.
Yeah oh my god like what do youlike if a house was purchased
like there's there's assets andagain and now we're in an ugly

(45:46):
area of family law that you knowit's like why I don't want to
do family law that stuff isweird.

Jordon Huppert (45:52):
No it was a short lived part of my career
thankfully but um yeah it's alsoa weird little quirk of
practicing what I at the timecalled door law which is just if
you walk in I and are willingto pay me to do things you know

(46:13):
tell me about it and I may takeyour your case because I had a
private practice and needed topay rent.

Josh Gilliland (46:20):
Um so these like weird situations popped up from
time to time it's people don'tseek lawyers because they need
someone to be on the bowlingteam I mean I would welcome that
of somebody calling for likeI'd love to go bowling uh we
need we need someone for ourteam that would be a nice phone
call but normally they call alawyer because something bad

(46:43):
happened and they need to theyneed help um the the exception
to that is someone doing likeadvanced estate planning or
wanting to set up a a companylike that can at least be
proactive and not born oftragedy.
But yeah there's a nice letterof warning to anybody thinking

(47:08):
about law school in the fallyeah it's you get weird things
and and because again peopleneed help and that's why we have
lawyers to to help throughthose weird situations of this
is what we do like there's theform to fill out to try to get
you out of this mess.

(47:29):
Um or ideally it's againcreating a company it's like I
have a new idea it's like okaywe create a company we you know
get your idea you know go to thepatent office or you know
whatever IP needs to beprotected protect it like that
that's the fun stuff yeah asopposed to it's the worst day of

(47:51):
your life and you now need helpand uh just just no fun
speaking of oddities so somekids have to break into a
mansion abandoned mansion to getan amulet okay you issue
spotted it I got some thoughtson it too so take it away yeah
it's illegal you should notbreak into houses abandoned or

(48:14):
not um especially not if yourintention is to steal things
this is the wrinkle I have withthat it's abandoned and if it's
abandoned property no one hasdomain over it now you still
shouldn't go spelunking aroundan abandoned property because
you could get hurt as evidencedby people falling through floors

(48:35):
and other bad things thathappened but if it's abandoned
nobody technically owns itsomebody has control over it
whether it's you know a personor a governmental entity or
something it it's not publicproperty.
It's not public property butit's it's in a different

(48:56):
category um yeah and becauseagain it's hard to be accused of
theft of abandoned propertybecause it's abandoned hard but
not impossible.
True true again I I didn't sayit's a slam dump but again like
where's the fun like this movieis kids fighting 12 year olds
fighting monsters so lawyerstend to suck the fun out of all

(49:19):
things it's like you're abuzzkill uh it's like whoops
like I don't get invited toparties okay that's why I'm not
on the bowling team like I'm theone pointing out we can do that
like like that that's anuninsured man like don't do that
um and that's we're alone allright uh we have Dracula um so

(49:41):
this is I think one of thescariest Draculas on screen like
he's he he's cruel he lookssophisticated like he's I think
a little more Christopher Leethan Bella Legosi but definitely
he's up there with lookingsuave and sophisticated and
terrifying um yeah he doesn'thave any of the redeeming

(50:06):
features that I tend toassociate with Dracula movies
where he's like a person of thetown or he has some like cover
for being a vampire this guy isjust I'm going to kill anybody
who gets in my way of totalworld domination I'm doing a
quick Google search DuncanRegnar who uh was in a lot of uh

(50:33):
long career the Zorro TV seriesgod he was he in deep space
nine or am I is that somebodyelse who just looks a lot like
him oh including airbud so youknow good for him he was in v
don't know what charactervariety of tv shows he's very
effective effective I wasstrength being being a very

(50:57):
scary and he he has dynamite youtook a lot of it he's out of
century to prepare I mean sure II don't know when they came out
with sticks of dynamite I'msure it was readily available
but in 1985 it's not in everycorner drugstore no no it's not

(51:20):
and he was in deep space ninewho was he in ds nine uh he was
a recurring role of Sakhar Edenwho was a Bajoran uh freedom
fighter yeah he was one of thecounselors wasn't he yes so uh
he also played uh Ruinin so I'mnot sure that look definitely

(51:44):
looks like a holodeck characterthe episode was subrosa for it
was a TNG episode and then threeepisodes in deep space nine so
again memorable face oh nothat's the ghost that crusher
falls in love with oh so he'sthe okay so he's the candle
ghost so yeah okay somethingthat lives in infamy that we

(52:09):
should cover for the 60thanniversary of Star Trek of um
meme uh as well so yes yeah I'msure gates mcfadden loves that
one she's on Instagram like madefun of it at a uh like one of
the cruises that they did likein good like holding up one of

(52:30):
the candles so it was just likewell done okay it's just it's a
humor.
Yeah it's like all right you'rewhy does this dude look so
familiar and that would be whyall right so he's super lethal
but again like he throwsdynamite in the treehouse and
says the meeting adjourned againit was just like Bravo just

(52:50):
like such a great villain likethe 80s cheese factor is high
but then he's like snapping X inthe final yeah it's like like
picks the little girl up by herchin like mean scary terrifying
like he really played the rolewell he did not like I I I had

(53:14):
not seen this movie.

Jordon Huppert (53:15):
I hadn't done a lot of research about it before
I watched it I was not goinginto it expecting that level of
acting yeah he he does a verygood job and and it's like they
wrote it well of like let's makeDracula scary make wolf man
have is you're sympathetictowards the human half of the

(53:35):
wolf man.

Josh Gilliland (53:36):
But yeah he's he's running around with
dynamite car withoutregistration or license plate so
you know that's a problem.
But yeah he's he's he's a verylethal Dracula who has a pretty
significant body count at the bythe end of the film.
Uh but he lets the pilots livedynamite is regulated people
just don't go buy dynamite likethat's how you end up on an FBI

(53:59):
watch list.

Jordon Huppert (54:02):
Yeah I need even buying the ingredients to make
it in your shop class wouldprobably put you on somebody's
uh keep an eye on this personlist.

Josh Gilliland (54:10):
Especially today like there was yeah it's like
you know people can't just buyfertilizer you know in bulk like
there's requirements of um hownot to end up on a watch list.
Let's talk about legaljustification for killing the
wolf man.
We have the sympathetic humanwho knows he has a problem that
he has this disease that turnshim into a werewolf and he goes

(54:31):
around killing people and he hecan't control the wolf the wolf
is a threat the wolf is killingpeople and he's killing people
in a way that doesn't createmore werewolves um I don't know
if they're if that wasintentional but like no one gets
scratched um and and if theydid it's you don't see anyone

(54:55):
getting scratched but he doeskill people.
I was kind of ready for the thedad to get bitten by the
werewolf or something toward theend and for that to be like a
the cliffhanger at the end ofthe movie but it never this is
very representative of an 80sdad on a redemption arc okay so

(55:17):
like divorce was a real thing infor boomer parents in the 80s
and and so kids dealt with thatof their baby boomer parents
getting divorced and parentsgoing to couples therapy and
counseling and and trying tosave marriages like that was a
thing and 80s dads on redemptionarc on move in movies as a

(55:40):
motif.

Jordon Huppert (55:41):
Yeah although I also thought good on them for
having a marriage counselor in1987.

Josh Gilliland (55:47):
Yeah that was uh again growing up with you know
you know divorced parents yeahdo not remember that the late
70s early 80s but that was moreof a thing that was at least
verbalized uh by the late 80s uhand they do play the like dad's

(56:09):
job is causing the problemsbeing a police officer is hard
like yeah there are jobs thatare hard uh because they take a
lot of time like there arelawyers who are we lawyers have
a very high divorce rate umthere's the the mantra of like
lawyers should not marry otherlawyers um i don't agree with

(56:32):
that i don't agree with it's amantra but it's a mantra it's
like because they like thosemarriages frequently end in
divorce yeah things that arevery successful because again
it's it's a hard job with lotsof hours and that you tend to
bring stress home yeah i i dothink the practice of law has
gotten better about recognizingwork-life balance and not having

(56:55):
again like 1980s you knowboiler room type hours uh but
same you know similar problemsfor police officers you know or
anyone in public safety thatthey work some extreme hours and
like if you're like my mom wasa paramedic and she had she was

(57:17):
good at not bringing the jobhome with her wow but she had
calls that bothered her like thedomestic violence one that she
ended up testifying in found therecords from that uh there was
a murder suicide where a momkilled her kids and then killed

(57:38):
herself and like in that one youknow that one really bothered
her um because the kids wererough yeah the kids were like my
age and so um yeah like thatthat freaked rough yeah freaked
her out like that takes a tolland it it's you know you need to
have a supportive spouse andalso self-awareness um in

(58:03):
dealing with that kind ofwork-life balance um so again
marriage counseling and therapywere probably very good things
for you know a you know fatherof two um trying to make things
work but ironically thishorrific experience turns into
like family bonding time chromabonding yeah it's like three

(58:26):
because of a giant threadeveryone puts aside's
differences really fast and yeahwhat's important to me like my
kid's important to me so I'mgonna go fight a werewolf and
vampire so good host dad yeahjunior shows up and helps and
together father and son blow upa werewolf like that's uh I hope

(58:50):
you and your kids never have todo that so same um that's a
rough afternoon you then haveyou know the Rudy ends up
killing the werewolf you knowturns human and then the human
says thank you before dyinglegal justification so you get
wild animals like killing a wildanimal that's a threat to

(59:13):
someone is justified a humanbeing turning into a wild animal
that can kill someone getsweird.

Jordon Huppert (59:21):
Yeah I mean I think the human being turning
into a werewolf get makes it alittle weird but if you just
stick with the human being thereare legal justifications for
killing people.
Self-defense defense of otherscrazy person on a murder spree
around town probably gets youthere the imminent threat that

(59:45):
you need there is certainly animminent threat to is it Sean
and his dad.
Yep he's probably clean on thisone but that said it it's still
not the best idea in real life.
Generally, a real bad idea.
Would not recommend.

(01:00:06):
But for movie purposes, I thinkRudy, this is this is probably
not on his list of legalproblems at the end of the the
movie.

Josh Gilliland (01:00:16):
No, no, he has other ones.
He does.
He's got other problems.
But he okay, he'll have to livewith killing someone.

Jordon Huppert (01:00:23):
He will.

Josh Gilliland (01:00:24):
Because it it's one thing for Horace to kill the
gill man.
It's like that was a scarymonster.
I killed the scary monster.
Okay.
Probably traumatic, differentlevels of I killed the scary
monster, and then it turned tointo a broken human being who
said thank you before dying.
He should get therapy for that.

(01:00:46):
He should go talk to someonefor that.
Because it raises the issuethat here's someone with a
condition where they turn into akilling machine and they have
no control over it, and the restof society ignores him.

Jordon Huppert (01:01:02):
Okay.
Even when he's asking for helpnot to be a killing machine.

Josh Gilliland (01:01:06):
Yeah.
And so every because they arelike, no, you're crazy and not
the type of crazy we want tohelp.

Jordon Huppert (01:01:12):
Yeah.

Josh Gilliland (01:01:12):
So we're going to leave you to go be a danger
to others.
There's all kinds of problemswith that.
Because the issue should belike, how is there a way where
he gets to live?
And on nights on the full moonthat he's you know in an area
where he could not get out andcause anyone problems.
I mean, that would that wouldbe plan A, not we'll just put

(01:01:36):
him down, dark, sad.

Jordon Huppert (01:01:39):
They do a and uh an interesting an interesting
delve into the idea of you knowthe monster inside kind of
thing.
The Hulk does that real welltoo.

Josh Gilliland (01:01:53):
Yeah.
And they're again differentversions of the Hulk.
Yeah.
Um this movie does a good jobwith empathy for two of the
creatures.
So Wolfman has an has empathybecause there's a human being.
This is one of the bestFrankenstein's monsters ever.
Like the creature is done withlove.

(01:02:16):
Yeah, it's a nice explorationof humanity.
The other being treateddifferently and persecuted, uh,
kids accepting someone who'sdifferent and having empathy and
shows kindness and he switchessides.
Like he's sent to killchildren, he's and he doesn't do

(01:02:37):
it.

Jordon Huppert (01:02:37):
Yeah, it's not gonna do that.
No, thank you.

Josh Gilliland (01:02:41):
Which breaks the mold from the the early
universal monster movies whereyou have little Maria get thrown
in the lake.
So this is he's sympathetic,yeah, and and protects the
children.
His demise at the end isendearing.
Because he he's the hero, hegets the hero move.

(01:03:03):
Yeah, he gets the saved littlegirl from Dracula.
I remember cheers in thetheater, you know.
Um I'll bet.
Because again, people love ahero, and in seeing a nice hero
move when there's something verybad about to happen and
somebody stops it.

Jordon Huppert (01:03:21):
Yeah, and people also love the redemption arc,
you know, the you're a monsterbecause of the way you look.
But he's never of all of themonsters in the movie, he's the
one that never does anythingparticularly monstrous, if I
remember.
No, like Dracula just kind ofpulls him out of a crate,
assumes he's going to be avillain with them, and sends him

(01:03:43):
to kill the kids.

Josh Gilliland (01:03:47):
Yeah, the creature from the black lagoon,
team bad guy.

Jordon Huppert (01:03:52):
Yeah.

Josh Gilliland (01:03:52):
Wolfman, team bad guy, team not bad guy.
The mummy.
The mummy, okay.
Also team bad guy.
Team bad guy, clearly team badguy.
But again, in a way that what'swhat's been going on for like
2,000 years?

Jordon Huppert (01:04:07):
Hanging out in museums, getting free food off
of uh buffets, I'm sure.

Josh Gilliland (01:04:10):
Yeah, just getting that would be a weird
existence.
Like, you know, does he sleepfor a century or two, get up and
like, okay, what what time isit?
It's the internet.
Yeah, it's like what's anairplane?
Uh and what do you mean peoplewent to the moon?
And yeah, I'm gonna go back tosleep.

(01:04:31):
This is all freaking me out,and right yeah, so but again, so
again, you have two of themthat are sympathetic and others
who are not.
They do talk touch on theHolocaust, because again, you
have scary German guy, andthat's his who survived.
You know, we find we see thetattoo on his arm when he says

(01:04:51):
he knows about real monsters,meaning that he survived a death
camp.
He has a model B17, and whenthey the kids actually meet
scary German guy, they they comeover for pie.
Yeah, okay, you should notinvite kids over and feed them.
That's okay.
That was a very 1980s thing,and also goes against all the

(01:05:13):
training that we have on likedon't take candy from strangers,
but you know, that's like canyou read German?
And they get pie.
He helps creepy today workedout for them.
Yeah, it's like we but it ithighlights don't think that the
scary German guy is a scaryGerman guy, he survived a death

(01:05:34):
camp.
Again, does stand down Dracula,so give him some credit.
So again, you have people whoyou think are bad and they're
not.
So, and that's scary German guyand Frankenstein fall into that
category.

Jordon Huppert (01:05:56):
And it is also I don't know, maybe this is just
reflecting on it in the thetimes of which we live, but it
is also a nice reminder that themonsters that you need to worry
about are not necessarilyDracula and the Wolfman.
I mean, yeah, those are funHollywood things, but his little

(01:06:16):
his line of when he's closingthe door, I've seen real
monsters.
That really that one has stuckwith me for the couple of days
since I've seen the movie.

Josh Gilliland (01:06:27):
But the I'm thinking about when this is
made, so it's it's 40 yearsafter World War II.
Or 42 since the end of WorldWar II.
The World War II generation islike in retirement age of their
grandparents at at this time.

(01:06:47):
You do have that element of thelate 80s World War II
generation kind of not not inTwilight yet, uh, but definitely
feeling the call of historybecause they had they had lived
long good lives for the mostpart.

Jordon Huppert (01:07:09):
Yeah.

Josh Gilliland (01:07:10):
Which now brings us to they needed a virgin to
read this, which again is such aweird, ugly trope.
I don't get it.

Jordon Huppert (01:07:20):
So I mean I understand that as like a a
trope that has run throughmovies and I assume still runs
through movies.
What I don't get is why is italways like a woman or a girl?

Josh Gilliland (01:07:40):
I I don't know, man.
Like I just I mean, like, and Idon't like saying it was the
80s, like that's that's not agood answer.

Jordon Huppert (01:07:50):
But it was the 80s, yeah.

Josh Gilliland (01:07:51):
But it was the 80s, but there was a lot of
again, the Christian history,and like say, like, oh, you
know, you're clean, you're youknow, you you've never had sex,
and and it's just I mean like Ithat always just seemed weird,
and and how that turns into anecessity for the spell to open
up a portal to limbo is weird.

Jordon Huppert (01:08:13):
Yeah.

Josh Gilliland (01:08:14):
That said, they asked the girl and she lies
about it, and that causesproblems.
If she had been, sorry, I can'thelp you.

Jordon Huppert (01:08:28):
Let's go talk to some of my friends.
Like that it's like, what'shappening?

Josh Gilliland (01:08:33):
Okay, maybe Jenny can help.
Um, but that's criticalinformation that's needed to
save the world.

Jordon Huppert (01:08:46):
So don't laugh.
Yeah, I'm not sure they did theworld's best job of imparting
the criticality of theinformation to her.

Josh Gilliland (01:08:56):
Oh, yeah, again, because it's it's it's dopey
dudes trying to ask you.
It's again the the properresponse would be go talk to
mom.
Again, it would be a slap.

Jordon Huppert (01:09:09):
Yeah.

Josh Gilliland (01:09:09):
It's uh and then it's like, why did Becky slap
Timmy?
Well, you know, okay,justified.
Like, no jury will convict.
Her not telling the truth endsup causing more problems in a
critical stage of of uh thebattle against evil.
Uh so again, don't lie.

(01:09:30):
Like she could just know yourbusiness, or I can't help.
Like you're gonna have to goget somebody else.
Like, there's a way where shedidn't have to disclose that
that didn't involve a lie thatthat would not cause an end to
the world problem.
Uh, she doesn't have todisclose her status, but uh, she

(01:09:51):
shouldn't lie about a situationthat could cause a prop bigger
problem.
So the movie ends with youknow, the heroes win, and uh it
is a good fight.
I mean, re-watching that fightscene, you know, you have hero
was very good.
Hero boy Sean getting druggedinto limbo by Dracula, and he's
able to grab a stake and poundit into Dracula's heart, and

(01:10:14):
then you get Van Helsing, who'sbeen in limbo for a century,
finished the job.

Jordon Huppert (01:10:19):
Yeah.

Josh Gilliland (01:10:20):
So there's police officers in Helsing, in
addition to uh others that getsucked into limbo.
Just with that, there's thereit's a little unfair that
Frankenstein gets sucked in.
That's a very sweet part of thestory, and the little girl lets
her stuffed animal dog, youknow, go go with Frankenstein,

(01:10:40):
which again is very sweet, veryendearing, very 1980s.
But at the end, the army showsup because Eugene sends a note
in crown to a local army basesaying there's monsters, please
help.
And in good 1980s fashion, thearmy goes, All right.

Jordon Huppert (01:11:01):
I mean, who's gonna send a note in crayon to
the army that's not real?

Josh Gilliland (01:11:05):
Please help monsters.
So the positives from this areadults take kids seriously and
they show up after this kid'sdad basically shames the kid for
saying, like, there's a monsterin my closet.
The army believes the kid andshows up.

(01:11:27):
So, like, the kid's vindicatedthat way, and then it highlights
the importance of believe thekids if if a kid's saying
something's wrong.
That's actually a really nicemessage.
Tanks roll up to help after dadwas a jerk that said they could
have done other ways to trustand verify, but it raises an
interesting posse comitatisissue.

(01:11:48):
Broadly speaking, the armyshould not be doing law
enforcement.
There's, and that's because ofpost-Reconstruction, part of the
agreement from the Tilden Hayespresidential dispute that ended
with Hayes being president witha promise to only run for being
for one term, and you then endup having the great railroad

(01:12:12):
strike happen where troops aresent in and they shoot striking
workers in the north.
That upsets a lot of people,and the Posse Comitatus Act is
enacted to make sure that troopsaren't used on U.S.
citizens.
And so there are someexceptions to this, like when
troops can be deployed withinthe United States, but generally

(01:12:35):
we we don't like thishappening.
The way to to approach it is II pulled up the the act, it
doesn't apply to like the CoastGuard, which is why Coast Guard
can go out and do lawenforcement.
And we had some changespost-9-11, and those have since
expired.
Broadly speaking, the Act saysfrom the 45th Congress, uh, it

(01:13:01):
shouldn't shall not be lawful toemploy any part of the Army of
the United States as a possecomitatus or otherwise for the
purpose of executing the laws,except in such cases and under
such circumstances as suchemployment of said force may be
expressly authorized by theConstitution or Act of Congress.
Then we get into uh some of theother language that is whenever

(01:13:25):
except in circumstances underexpressly authorized by the
Constitution or Act of Congress,willfully uses any part of the
army, the navy, the marinecorps, the air force, or space
force as a posse comitatis orotherwise to execute the law
shall be fined under this titleor in prison, not more than two
years or both.
So again, we don't want thearmy conducting law enforcement.

(01:13:47):
A monster incursion where thefate of civilization is hanging
in the balance, it would be oneof those circumstances where no,
we're gonna send in the troops.

Jordon Huppert (01:14:00):
I'm sure it's there in the constitution
somewhere, except in case ofDracula.
Yes.
If a mummy is involved, go forit.

Josh Gilliland (01:14:15):
So again, I think it does raise some issues
of like National Guard shouldhave gone in first, but from an
issue of just you know, the kidwho's not believed by his dad
that the mummy's in his closetto the army shows up when the
kid sends a letter for help isendearing.

Jordon Huppert (01:14:33):
That is nice.

Josh Gilliland (01:14:34):
Fun fact about the kid's room he's wearing
Robotech PJs, he has a StarBlazers poster and a Punisher
poster uh on the wall.
So again, that looked thatlooked full-on 80s, and the kid
liked anime on top of it.
Uh, two very popular anime thatwere mainstream at that point

(01:14:58):
in time.
That was cool.

Jordon Huppert (01:15:01):
Um I loved Robotech.
I also love Star Blazers, but Iwatched more of Robotech.

Josh Gilliland (01:15:07):
That 80s kid had a very 80s kid bedroom and and
toys and pop culture in there.

Jordon Huppert (01:15:14):
So nice little clearly good taste in it.

Josh Gilliland (01:15:16):
Yeah, yeah.
So, which meant the setdesigner had excellent taste.
Uh so since this was a newexperience for you, what were
your overall thoughts on uhMonster Squad?

Jordon Huppert (01:15:28):
Well, I think my overarching thought is that was
an aggressively 80s movie.
Um it was good.
I liked I like the kind ofearly team-up work.
I don't know that there was alot of kind of team up movies,
and that's become kind of athing.

(01:15:50):
Uh but the early kind of theall these monsters have teamed
up.
I enjoyed.
Some of it was a little toocringe-worthy to watch in modern
times, which is fine, but itdidn't have the nostalgia trip
for me that it that probablywould have made that more

(01:16:11):
bearable.

Josh Gilliland (01:16:12):
It's interesting to hear that because I again I
have gray hair and a recedinghairline because I've I was a
kid when this came out.

Jordon Huppert (01:16:20):
I do too.
I just fuzz my camera and wearmy hair long.

Josh Gilliland (01:16:23):
Bless you, sir.
The so again part of it isthere's a nostalgia factor.
I do think this is a brilliantlove letter to all the universal
monsters.

Jordon Huppert (01:16:34):
Very much so.

Josh Gilliland (01:16:35):
I think they really nail the universal
monsters and and give humanityto two of them and extreme
malice to Dracula.
And it's a very effective gillman as well.
I mean and being scary in agood costume.
The cringeworthiness ofpreteens is painful to see.

(01:16:56):
So, like that that did not agewell, and that's that is
uncomfortable to see uh at thebeginning of this film because
of some of the language that thecharacters use.
Again, plot points of peepingtoms and others is equally
disturbing.
That said, it it is a fun 80stime capsule of monsters and
kids fighting monsters.

(01:17:17):
If any kid watches it, you'relike, parents are gonna have to
talk to their kids aboutappropriate language and and how
we're we should be better thanwhat happens.

Jordon Huppert (01:17:29):
I will say, I do love that the trope continues
all the way through of like thekids have to save the world.
There's a world-ending threat,and the adults are nowhere to be
found.

Josh Gilliland (01:17:45):
So the adults go from not believing to rallying.
So like hero dad steps up,yeah.

Jordon Huppert (01:17:53):
Realizing, oh my kid wasn't making this up.
Oh no.
Oh dear.
I made a mistake, I'm fixing itright now.
Yeah.

Josh Gilliland (01:18:06):
Um like that's endearing.
Um again, there's there's somesins in this, some are
forgivable, some are not, and uhuh yeah, some are very awkward.
Uh, but overall, again, I I dohave a strong affinity for this
movie because of timing andwhatever it means.

Jordon Huppert (01:18:30):
But like there are a lot of movies from that
time period that I love becausethey were things I watched with
my dad or something.
Just wasn't one of them.
Um, but it is it is a very funmovie, yes.

Josh Gilliland (01:18:43):
And again, I I do especially if you love
classic universal monsters, Iwould say check this out.
And um yeah, and if and ifyou're a parent with a pre-teen
and they watch it, you're gonnahave to talk to them.

Jordon Huppert (01:18:57):
Yeah, you watch it after they go to bed, yeah.

Josh Gilliland (01:19:00):
Okay, let's talk to your kids of appropriate
behavior and how we maybe both.
Yeah, we've learned we're gonnado better.
That's the that's a goodmessage here.
Yeah, so with that, uh Jordan,thanks for for helping with
this.
And so Josh uh celebratingspooky season and um happy

(01:19:23):
Halloween, everybody.
Yes, yes, stay spooky.
So, everyone, thanks for tuningin, and uh, we will have more
coverage.
So, the plans to cover a ahammer film, we won't tell you
which one yet, and anotherclassic from the late 80s.
So, with that, wherever youare, stay safe, stay healthy,

(01:19:44):
and stay geeky.
Take care.