Little Monsters

I 'll do this every once in awhile where I try to go through a whole movie.  My first one will be the 1980's blockbuster Little Monsters.  This movie definitely tops the list of most disturbing, sexually frustrated, horror stories ever conceived.  When you break it down on the very basic story level, this is a movie about those monsters that every single kid thinks are out there, you befriend one but it almost gets you killed and he takes you to hell and you torture people and you spy on people and you get your parents to hate each other.  But there are some pretty scary moments even for adults, and the effects are actually very well done since they used a lot of actual make up and in-camera tricks.  To get this out of the way I'm all for the subtle adult additions to kids movies.  I think it helps the stories span generations and makes us see new things about a film when we "mature".  Not necessarily like Shrek and the Pixar movies that contain jokes for us adults sprinkled throughout, but like how we grow up to watch movies from our childhood only to be revealed the horrible truth about something later on.  People were on drugs while they made Willy Wonka, No Way! Or Princess Leia did coke?!  Snow White and The Land Before Time was about the Nazi's, etc, etc etc.  This movie definitely goes down this path but takes it to a hyper extreme.  I saw this when I was younger in my room on TV (I had a huge fucking 13 in black and white) and I don't remember anything that bad about it, but there is no subtext about anything in this movie watching it now.  Sources close to me say that the plan was to make a much darker movie but their thinking was throwing in Fred Savage would automatically make it a kids one instead but kept a lot of the same script in tact.  Meaning it would only be marketed as such, people seeing Fred Savage would think oh okay, that is a kids movie.  Ironically that he was famous for Wonder Years and therefore should have been thought of as more mature as that is how we see him on that show.

 I think this would have worked much better as a dark tale for adults but those studio genius thought otherwise which is why it grossed a whopping $793,000 (imdb).  I was scared when I saw previews for this when I was younger, I mean this reaffirms every kids suspicion that shit is going down at night, but it becomes very dark in the last 20 minutes from the relatively light-hearted fair early on. I remember dragons coming out of the bed during one of the commercials but I couldn't find it in the final film, did I just imagine that happening?  The commercials kind of scared me in that regard since I was only 7 too so I didn't see it in the theater, I waited until I was a little older and saw on TV by myself.  Still kind of scared me though I might have been 4th grade.  I thought maybe things like that could happen to me.

The story follows a young boy who discovers how to enter the world of the monsters under his bed.  He proceeds to act like an asshole the rest of the movie until his brother gets kidnapped by some kind of man child who needs playmates for eternity and they go to rescue him and learn a valuable life lesson.  Straight up, it is about being a pedophile, being the kid effected by said pedophile and growing up to kill (probably), or reverse of that, where Kevin is the pedophile when he is younger.  That is the story of how he came to be, Boy is in his head, it is all in his head . that isn't California it is New York.  reason why, they were just in the sewer.   

Great title sequence for a kids movie sets the tone real well this is going to be a fun romp. 

A Film By Richard Greenberg.  I'll get this out there now, there is nothing more a pompous asshole can do that put a "film by" as their credit.  Every time I see it, it takes you down a least 3 notches from whatever low platform you were on.  I died a little inside when I saw Jon Favreau do it for Iron Man 2.  Unless you created every facet of the film, and did electric, catering, extra work, transportation, accounting, among dozens of other things it is not a film by you.  You are the director, that is what you do, the film is directed by you yes.  But if you are willing to do this, then everything wrong with it can be blamed on you so I guess there is a trade off.  Brett Ratners lives by the code and dies by this code. I guess it is good in that sense, you get to put 100% of the blame onto one person for it, and it's always his fault. 

 Why is Maurice in quotes, are we led to believe something about his existance?

I hope the movie actually did start out black and white and it is not just me.  Through exceptional voice over work we are brought to the attention that this family is having some problems.  It is a good thing they moved to relieve their stress.  Did anyone check to see if more movers went in than came out?

Early on the movie establishes that Fred Savage is good at making electronics and things that look like a bomb.

 One of the kids is scared by a monster we don't see at first.  Can you see the monster in this shot?  (Hint:  It could be the dad)

 

 The acting by the kids is exceptional all the way around. 

 Don't look at the camera!!

This is our first encounter with Maurice, the monster that seems to be stalking this family, or this house, what happened to the previous owner? Killed?  Probably.  Fred Savage traps him the room and waits for him to die before putting him back into his world where he can be revived.  The death scene is quite painful to watch as he melts away.  Imagine the Wizard of Oz except 2 minutes longer and more writhing in pain.  

 Is someone watching him??

 The average distance between Fred Savage and Maurice throughout the movie is 1.4 feet, they are really close together constantly.  

Maurice decides it would be best for everyone if Fred Savage came to the monster world.  Not sure why he was chosen.  Maurice goes over the typical rules of a place full of adults and some kids, like you can do anything, there are no parents, wait I guess there are no rules which also means natures and society's laws don't apply down here, it is Bangkok for the Jim Carrey's of the world, horay.  .

He then proceeds to show Fred what he does all night, presumably 8 hours at a time and Fred joins in.  Keep in mind Fred just moved here.  Sure there is one bully, but he then becomes the jerk off, getting tons of innocent kids in trouble with their parents by pulling jerk store brand pranks, and doing the safest thing in the world putting a roller skate on stairs.  I'm all over small pranks, the salt shaker thing will crack me up every time.  But a lot of theirs are borderline sadistic. 

 This is who he harms and puts in trouble, because this kid doesn't have enough problems of his own.

To the one bully that we have met thus far in the film that actually deserves a sort of punish they decide to do exactly what you think his is doing above.  Yep, they took it that far.  The sad thing is the bully got about even what everyone else did.  Well I guess maybe a little more, but the point is it seems Fred Savage has an out for everyone in the school, revenge or not. 

Is Fred Savage coked out during this movie?  Maybe, but he seems to having fun.

When Fred Savage finds out about his parents' divorce he will bomb Pearl Harbor.

 All these kids look like they are up to no good.  If that was my table gang, I would have been killed. 

 It is discovered that Fred has a thing for this red head, and the red head is quite the stalker herself.  The best idea he could think of was to go B&E on her.  That is breaking and entering for you, and watch her sleep quite a bit.  In fact they watch a lot of other kids sleeping.

 Not weird at all to watch kids sleep.  Does anyone's dog watch you while you are sleeping?  Is that normal?

Is he wearing ladies glasses?

We soon find out that a world full of the monsters run by hideous beings that are bastards to everyone isn't all fun and games and running around with your adult partner hiding under kids bed.  The dialogue between these two goes along these lines.  Boy, the ruler of the monster rule, needs playmates apparently.  This child tried to give boy what he wanted and he complains about his knees hurting (he really says that).  Maybe they are playing badminton a lot, I don't.  But the big guy trying to give the best for boy yells at him for his knees hurting and then proceeds to rip his head off.

Savage is slowly become a monster he realizes and he double checks the fact that he is shrinking because noticing that your body disappears in the light wasn't good enough.  Why are 7, 9, 10 not written out like the others, what is this code.  Wait a minute...

 Where have I seen this clown before????

Ahhhh

 Ahhh!!

 Anyway, at one point his right hand turns into a dog and eats this girls homework and ruins her life, then he says man's best friend is his right hand, yep.

Why isn't the one on the right enjoying any of this?

If this thing comes to life I am shitting myself.

They say little monsters 1 hour 12 minutes and 33 seconds into the movie!!!!

Appleton represent!  Even though that is horrible geography if I'm not mistaken.  Unless they are a point east of it that angle is correct. 

After enough shenanigans and Fred gets pants'd by Maurice.  Things start to get serious.  His brother is kidnapped by this underground society and not he is has to save them.  Is this kind of like the Time Machine with the morlocs.

I bring you Boy.  The leader of the monsters, who everyone should fear because he is dressed like he came from Prep School, has the knickers and everything.  I don't think that is Chris Kattan but someone should check. 

Try to name everything that is wrong with this picture.  I guess he kidnapped the brother to get to Fred to be his playmate, for life.  BFF in today's church. 

I guess Boy went all Silence of the Lambs on someone's ass. 

Fred gives him the dreaded 10 second ultimatum to give him his brother back and proceeds to take 20 seconds to count down.  Nothing bad could happen in the 10 seconds, oh except this. 

They do get a piece of boy melting his face off....

 Kids Movie!!

The plan doesn't work, they get captured are able to escape and come back with more fire power, this time wearing suits of light which were pretty cool looking when we were kids.  They manage to explode Boy and his henchmen.  His henchman is able to get back together when they save the brother so they do the only humane thing possible...

Burn his ass to death with a flame thrower.  He screams for a good 20 seconds afterward.  Like Deja Vu all over again?

They aren't able to get through the normal bed due to the sun light rising.  They have to run west thereby discovering a way to travel great distance almost speed of light by running.  They keep this scientific breakthrough all to themselves for all humanity not to discover.  They make it out at the very end under a beach bum, I guess any bed will do.  They call their parents who have a handicap phone and everything is okay.  I think the parents even say they aren't getting a divorce anymore, I can't remember.

Conclusion:  This movie does leave a lot of open ended questions.  They never really go into detail on who these monsters are.  We are left with the fact that had Fred and his friends remained underground that they would have become monsters.  Are all these monsters just people who didn't make it out?  Are they in hell?  Maurice also says goodbye in the end, could they never see each other again?  Couldn't Maurice just come and visit once and awhile, he even suggests Fred should stay as he would be a hero.  If one were to believe that Fred and Maurice are the same that could be the explanation and he is wearing Maurice's coat in the end.  This also leads me to wonder what will happen to Fred's character when he is older.  This experience probably did set him up  great for adult interactions.  After the divorce Fred is wandering around cutting the legs off the beds to stop the monsters, his mom is okay with it as she explains it to herself that he is just going through the grieving process and better this than become a serial killer in 10 years.  Perhaps a foreshadow that he does because Maurice is the little monster that lives inside his head.  Starts innocent enough with the pranks, pissing in kids juice bottles, soon he becomes sadistic like Boy, kidnapping people.  Or maybe Boy is his future self, it is him needing to grow up by killing him off.  Maybe the whole underworld was Fred Savage's mind.  He kidnapped his brother and took him to California. Funny point about this movie, Daniel Stern plays his dad in the movie, Daniel Stern is the voice of Kevin Arnold on the Wonder Years as an adult.  

The End 

(Sha Pow)