Little Monsters
Released the same year as
“The Wizard”, Fred Savage, from The Wonders Years was only 13 when he did this
film, and was already two years into his hit TV show. Savage proved he was one
of the best child actors of his generation. He wasn’t necessarily a good
looking kid, and not an amazing actor the likes of Haley Joel Osment or Dakota
Fanning, but he was dependable and could turn in a half decent performance.
The story is about Brian
(Savage) and his family, moving into a new house. Things are not all quiet in
the night as they should be. First, Brian’s younger brother Eric claims to have
seen a monster in his room on the first night in the house. Rushing in, his
parents comfort him and naturally, believe he’s been dreaming. But little Eric
is convinced a monster visited him that night.
Even though the family has
moved into a new house, the family’s problems weren’t left behind at the old
house. Eric still gets blamed for almost everything, even though he claims he
didn’t leave his bike in the driveway causing his dad to hit it with his car.
So who put it there? Eric’s theory is that the monster from under the bed did
it. Brian wants to prove Eric wrong, and offers to sleep in his little brothers
room that night. Not believing in monsters himself, Brian is in for a big
surprise. He hears and sees a couple of strange things that night, and offers
to stay in Eric’s room again the following night. Not the type of kid to get
scared of very much at all, he set’s himself up that night to catch the monster
under the bed.
Preparing a trap that will
lure the monster out with Doritos. Brian tries to stay awake all night, but
nothing happens. Not until about 5.30 in the morning when an obvious crunching
sound comes from under the bed. Someone or something is eating the chips, which
wakes Brian up. He reaches for the handle of his homemade booby trap, which
brings the bed down on top of whatever might be under there. But it’s loose in
his room. Brian can only hear grunts and see shadows whizzing past, until
someone grabs him from behind. Without fear, Brian wrestles his assailant until
his dad comes in and turns the bedroom light on. The visitor vanishes, and once
again Brian gets blamed for the mess he’s caused and sentenced to a day of
chores the next morning.
Then as dad leaves the
room, the monster reappears. He’s tall, ugly, with blue skin and dressed in
denim. “Boo” he says and taunts and teases Brian. He rolls and tumbles around
the room, cracking jokes and plotting to get Brian into trouble. As the morning
sunlight peeks into the room, the monster reacts to it, and pretends to melt
away to nothing. All just a joke, as he ducks under the bed again and says “The
name’s Maurice, I’ll catch you later”.
Maurice returns the next
night, and he’s not as scary as he first appeared to be. He is more of a
prankster, cracking rude and crude jokes every second. But he’s come back with
an offer for Brian; to go under the bed with him and check out the monster
world, where he’s guaranteed to have the time of his life. A world solely of
kids, where they can have fun and where trouble is the code of honour. No
rules, no parents and the chance to do whatever you want. Brian reckons that
sounds great, and takes the monsters invitation. And so the crazy adventure
begins.
Entering a whole other
world, Brian discovers that monsters truly do have fun all the time. It’s a
visually inventive place, where tall staircases reach up to the sky, and into
some kid’s bedroom. There are all types of monsters just hanging out and as
crazy but friendly as Maurice. Brian discovers there’s other kids down there,
having fun and playing games all night long. There’s even a room where all the
best tasting foods in the world are available; pizzas, lollies, chips,
chocolate, cake, soft drink and more. Maurice even takes Brian up to some other
kid’s bedrooms to show him how scaring is really done.
Since Brian is a bot of a
brat, he plays along with Maurice joining him in an onslaught of jokes and gags
at a bunch of houses, like putting peanut butter on the phone and gladwrap over
the toilet seat. Realising they can go anywhere, Brian asks Maurice to take him
to the bedroom of the kid he fights at school. They arrive and create a few
surprises for the bully to wake up to in the morning, such as swapping the tuna
fish in his sandwich for school with cat food. Maurice even goes as far as to
swap his apple juice with piss. Yes, it’s a bit of a crude film, and probably
shocked the parents who let their kids watch it, even mine I guess. But that’s
the whole point. Kids like gross stuff, and pulling pranks on kids they don’t
like or the school bully. That’s what this film is all about.
Brian had so much fun the
night before in monster world, he waits impatiently for Maurice to reappear but
he doesn’t. Discovering he can just enter the portal under his bed himself,
Brian nose dives in and is greeted by Maurice at the bottom of the hole.
Maurice is played by
comedian Howie Mandel. He steals the show with an energised and offbeat
performance. Essentially playing a big kid in a mans body, he dresses like a
punk and behaves like a more filthy and deranged version of The Fonz. That’s
the best way I can describe him, but certainly, Maurice is a very original
character. He’s the kind of guy you’d like to hang out with for fun, but not
for long, because you know he would just get you into trouble. Aside from all
that, Maurice is actually a nice guy and genuinely cares for Brian, as the two
become friends.
But not all is fun and
friendly in monster world. There is another monster called Snik, that isn’t
nice whatsoever. He hurts other monsters and doesn’t like it when kids come to
visit. Turns out he had plans for Brian; he wanted to turn him into a monster.
When Brian decides he’s had enough of Maurice’s shenanigans, he decides to stop
the monster from visiting him anymore. So Snik plots to grab him back and turn
him into a monster. Unable to reach Brian, he takes his little brother Eric
instead. Once Brian discovers his brother is gone, he teams up with a couple of
mates to go into monster world and try to save him.
Little Monsters was a
great kid’s film. It lets kids be the stars, doing whatever they want; no
parents, no rules and no limits to the imagination. For a film about monsters
coming up from under the bed, it’s got a lot of heart and has that classic 80’s
sense of magic and adventure. Creative, outlandish, gross and funny. They
really don’t make them like this anymore.
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