Little Monsters (1989) Review

     One of the first films that scared me as a child was a crazy children’s horror fantasy film with Fred Savage as a lonely boy named Brian who meets the monster from under his bed named Maurice, played by Howie Mandel.  The film was advertised as a children’s film and had a PG rating, however due to the nature of hellish scenes in the monster dimension and adult humour that doesn’t always go right over children’s heads, many parents thought that the film should have been rated PG-13.  Still watching it today, I can see how it is still scaring children, however the humour may be a lot more tamer for today’s standards as many children watch show like Family Guy.  When Little Monsters was released in 1989, the show parents didn’t want us to watch was The Simpson’s, and the old episodes are really quite tame compared to Family Guy or even Little Monsters for that matter.

     The film starts with lonely Brian, after moving away from friends, finding himself blamed for several things he apparently has not done.  A quart of ice cream is left in the cupboard, Brian's bike is left on the driveway, causing his father to crash into it on his way to work.  Brian insists he is innocent and blames his little brother Eric who claims to have seen a monster the night before.  As revenge, Brian snatches Eric's lunch on the school bus and tosses it out the window, hitting Ronnie Coleman, the school bully who boards the bus and antagonizes Brian.  Ronnie seems to be almost a live action version of Nelson Muntz from The Simpson’s.

     That night, while sleeping in Eric's room for a bet, Brian hears a loud noise, the source of which quickly disappears under Eric's bed.  Brian subsequently is unable to make it through the night in Eric's room, making his way to the downstairs couch for the remainder of the night.  The next morning, Eric and his friend Todd find Brian on the couch and joke about Brian being unable to sleep the entire night in Eric's room.  Brian bets Eric "double or nothing" to sleep in Eric's room another night.  The next night, a determined Brian sets booby traps, leaving bait in the form of cheese Doritos to attract the alleged "monster" and alters the legs on the bed to collapse once he determines the monster has come out from under the bed.  He succeeds with this method, trapping the monster intruder: a blue-skinned monster named Maurice.

     Though scared and startled at first, Brian soon discovers that he and Maurice share the same interests and befriends him.  Over the course of several nights, Maurice shows him a fun time in the monster world beneath Eric's bed.  It consists of every child's dream: all the junk food and video games they want, and no adults to tell them what to do.  It also has innumerable staircases leading to the spaces beneath children's beds, from which the monsters cause trouble.  Maurice and Brian have fun making mischief in other people's homes, and Brian feels he has found a true friend at last; although Brian seems to be changing.

     One night, Maurice brings Brian along with several other monsters to the bedroom of an infant baby, with intentions to scare the baby.  Brian finds this to be cruel, and attempts to turn on the lights to cause the monsters to collapse into clothes (this happens when the monsters experience any form of light).  He opens the bedroom door, exposing the hallway light to the baby's bedroom.  In doing this, Brian learns that he is turning into a monster, as his body parts shrink when the light hits him.

     He escapes the house through the front door and walks through Todd's backyard, where Todd is sleeping in a treehouse.  Todd falls from the treehouse and sees Brian.  He shines his flashlight on Brian, shrinking Brian's arm in the process.  This causes concern for Brian and changes his mind about Maurice, thereafter he saws off the legs of all the beds in the house.  Due to Maurice's failure to convert Brian (all monsters are former children), Eric is kidnapped by Snik (another monster) through the couch bed in the living room…

     The best part about the film is that the scary scenes weren’t watered down in cheesy ways like so many children’s horror films are today.  It was a bit too scary for me at my first time watching it, but my parents didn’t exactly watch over my sister and I as we watched it.  To re-watch it today, brings back those memories of when I was so terrified of some of the scenes but today I see the scenes as all part of a really cool children’s horror film and not delivered like any other.  The only complaint I critically have is that the main problem or goal is introduced very late into the film, that being saving Eric.  Thus the rising action of the film is quite rushed but the climax somewhat delivers with obvious holes within.  It certainly isn’t one of the greats, however it’s just a really fun kid’s movie to watch with family especially because a lot of the content within the film simply would not be acceptable in today’s world.  Thus I have decided on giving a fair 2.5 out of 5 to this film.  After all, it’s a film that even the children of today would enjoy but the 80's and 90's inner children even more so. 

⭐⭐1/2

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Monsters

Images:

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Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUwGvf-bOto