35 years ago, The Monster Squad, one of the greatest coming-of-age horror movies ever, graced the screens. In the film, a rag-tag monster club of young teens goes toe-to-toe with a plethora of real-life monsters, including Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman, and more. To celebrate its milestone anniversary, we got a chance to chat with actor and filmmaker Andre Gower, who not only played the main character of Sean in the film but also created a documentary about the film in 2019, titled Wolfman’s Got Nards.
Horror Geek Life: Looking back three decades since The Monster Squad, did you ever have any idea the film would become such a cult classic and fan favorite among the horror community?
Andre Gower: Not from that point of view 35 years ago, of course. What we wanted, was a gigantic box office smash hit in the summer of 1987. When we didn’t achieve that, you don’t know what you have. What you had was a movie that underperformed for, depending on who you talk to, between two and five different reasons, and you just kind of put it in your pocket and move down the road.
I mean, the next year, it came out on VHS and HBO, but nobody knew that. No one really knew that impact that it had after the first initial waves of a very short theater run, where it impacted a bunch of fans. Where the majority of them found it was at the local video store, or they would tape it off of HBO or see it daily, and they connected with it. We didn’t understand the impact until almost 20 years later when we all got together for that first cast reunion screening, and the whole thing blew up, and we’ve been enjoying this 15-year resurgence.
HGL: This is one of those movies we would rent constantly when we were 5-6 years old and burned the VHS up in the player from watching it so much.
AG: And you’re not the only one! Which is great, but we didn’t know it was happening until almost 20 years later, which is really fascinating!
HGL: How old were you when the filming took place?
AG: When we filmed, I was 13, and when it was released, I was 14.
HGL: Were there any moments that genuinely scared you or the rest of the cast while filming?
AG: Not really, because Ryan was a little older than I am, and Robby and I are the same age, and we knew how it was all done, and how it was made. So, I was just fascinated to see all this amazing stuff with the effects, the action, and the creature effects all actively working in front of you and beside you. Now, it’s a different story for Michael Faustino and Ashley Bank, who were 5-6 years old at the time.
I’m sure there were some elements that were unnerving to them. But, even Ashley Bank, as a five-year-old, is a pro. She knows how movies are made and that things aren’t real. She did not like when Duncan Regehr had his contacts or his fangs in. So, they were aware of that, and only used that against her once.
HGL: Duncan Regehr was such a great Dracula!
AG: He’s a fantastic everything, and he was a fantastic Dracula.
HGL: Oftentimes in those ‘80s and ‘90s coming-of-age films like Stand by Me and IT, the younger members of the cast develop strong bonds and friendships that last throughout their lives and careers. Is that the case with The Monster Squad?
AG: Yeah, without a doubt. We all stayed in touch for years after the movie. We went to each other’s birthday parties, swam in each other’s backyards, and saw each other when we could. And then you get a little bit older… Ryan moved off to be in bands and live the rock star’s life for a while, and I ended up going to college and staying away from the business for a number of years.
In 2006, when the three of us got together with Fred for that original Alamo Drafthouse screening, that kind of started everything again. Ever since, we get to see each other constantly, and it led to so many things. Ryan Lambert is one of my closest, oldest, and best friends. We started working on projects together. I created a show that we co-hosted and created 22 episodes of and then sold it to Nerdist and Legendary Studios, where we celebrated short films.
We’ve got our podcast, and when you’re going around half a dozen to a dozen times a year to various screenings, appearances, and conventions, you get to hang out with everybody. So, it’s great to reconnect in more ways than one.
HGL: What part of filming The Monster Squad was the most fun for you?
AG: I think if we’re talking fun as an experience, it’s got to be that final sequence. We’re shooting at night, and we’re on the lot at Warner Brothers in Town Square, which has been in a hundred other iconic things. Shooting at night with effects, wind machines, explosions, Wolfman exploding in mid-air, bats flying, and creatures getting blown away, and sheriff’s deputies piling up in a body count, that was a pretty unique and impressive thing to experience.
HGL: How did you first get involved in acting?
AG: I started off when I was very young. I was five years old, and my sister, who was a few years older than I am, began doing commercials on TV and print work when she was very young. Her name is Carlena Gower, and she was actually the little girl in the huge disaster movie, The Towering Inferno. I started off with a running start and was always kind of around it, and then I just started doing it myself. It wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t around it, and if my parents and sister weren’t in LA, and if she wasn’t working, I would have been adjacent to other things. But I just happened to be adjacent and knee-deep in film and television at a very young age, and just started off from there.
HGL: What non-Monster Squad project have you enjoyed working on the most throughout your career?
AG: I don’t know if one rises above another on a likable scale. You know, I did so much television as a kid, and had great experiences with so many different people, castmates, producers, and directors, whether it was a leading role on a network show or a guest star on a show. I’ve done a lot of iconic stuff, that some of my acting peers have, and some haven’t. I’ve been in Kit in Knight Rider, I’ve chopped down a tree with Mr. T, and I was TJ Hooker’s son, so there’s a lot of names, faces, and automobiles that a lot of people don’t get to interact with. I feel fortunate and rather cool to say that I have that.
But I would say there were a couple of projects that I really liked, because the characters were a bit of a departure. I was on a show called Heart of the City, which was produced and developed by Michael Zinberg and Randy Zisk way back in the mid-80s. It was a cop drama, and he had two kids, and I wasn’t one of the kids, but it was Jonathan Ward and Christina Applegate, and I was in the storyline because I was a 12-year-old drug dealer that he had to arrest, and got involved with my storyline and my mother, and that was kind of a unique thing to kind of step outside of the norm of the cool, plucky kid in the school yard with the cool jacket and the cool hair, to be a street kid that was shooting people, haha!
HGL: Now that you’ve gotten behind the camera with Wolfman’s Got Nards, do you prefer acting or directing?
AG: They’re both completely different; I enjoy both! The other thing, which is kind of the third leg of that tripod is developing and producing. I’m a creative person, and I’m also very logical and pragmatic by wiring, so blending those two things together, I really enjoy conceptualizing projects, and putting the people and pieces together, to make them happen. You get to do all of that when you’re producing or developing. Sometimes you get to throw yourself in as an actor or as a director, so, I enjoy all three of those legs separately, but equally.
HGL: How did it feel to not only direct a documentary about a film that so many people love, but also receive both critical and audience praise for your work?
AG: The end result of what Wolfman’s Got Nards became was so far-and-above what I originally thought could be achieved, and that has a little bit to do with me, and a massive majority about to do with my production team at Pilgrim Media Group led by Henry McComas, and supported by Wes Caldwell and Aaron Kunkel, and that team. Because of that team, along with me, we worked for a year straight and put a lot of work and effort into it, and it never seemed like a job.
Those guys put so much work and effort into crafting something that was beyond my wildest dreams in terms of quality and substance. Now, I’m just happy I was associated with them, even though it was my project. I really am pleased with the way it came out.
To receive audience favor and acclaim is one thing. To achieve critical, review, and journalist acclaim, is a whole other thing. Not everybody gets that, and I put that squarely in the lap of Henry and those guys, and I’ll put myself at the end of that list, in regards to who deserves the majority of that credit.
HGL: We actually got an early screener of that when it came out, reviewed it, and were blown away by it.
AG: I appreciate that! That was a fun time, getting those early links out to people and seeing the reviews before it released. When you make something and you put it out in the world, and you hope people respond and get what you’re trying to do. You’re kind of in a tunnel vision. You can hear and see what you think should be there, but like said, with Henry and those guys, I think we achieved just about as much as we started out to, and even more, and that’s a good feeling.
RELATED: ‘WOLFMAN’S GOT NARDS’ IS A GREAT REMINDER OF MONSTERS & MEMORIES
HGL: Were there any guests on the documentary that you geeked out about meeting?
AG: Not that I geeked out about, but I do love the path where we ended up with Adam F. Goldberg and now, we’re friends. When you make something like a documentary with talking heads, there’s always a handful of people, one or two big gets, that you ultimately want and never get, because of timing and interest, and we have one or two of those. No matter what, as soon as you’re done and something’s out, a whole bunch of great faces and names come out of the woodwork and ask why they weren’t asked to be in it. It’s like, “I didn’t even you liked The Monster Squad, didn’t even know you were a fan, and didn’t even think that you would sit down to discuss it, because, you know… you’re you.”
But there’s so many great Monster Squad fans out there, whether it’s a young girl Christina in Orlando; Kevin from Kentucky, or Ryan Gosling and Kenan Thompson, or whoever… there’s all the same when they’re Monster Squad fans. It doesn’t matter if they’re on a show, or a giant movie store, or work as a clerk in a store in Ohio.
HGL: What was your favorite part about making Wolfman’s Got Nards?
AG: I think going around and hearing the stories from the fans out on the road, especially during the screenings and during the 17-city Alamo Drafthouse tour. Because you can’t plan for that. You can plan for some of the things you know, like “maybe we’ll get this person here”, but the stories are how you come up with a lot of things by surprise, and you end up with documentary gold that you’re not anticipating, and we have two or three examples of that.
One of them was getting to go see Douglas Mercer in the hospital because he couldn’t come to the screening the night before, and only because his mother came to the theater just to ask the theater if he could get the signed poster, because everyone that attended received a signed mini poster. So, I walked down there and handed the poster to her, and as she was walking out, I asked what hospital he was at, and I the next morning, I asked the gang if they wanted to go visit him, and we made that happen, and that’s just not something you can plan for.
And then, meeting someone like Sean Dekker, who showed up at the last stop on the tour and hearing his amazing story about becoming HIV-positive when he was 14 because of a transfusion, and being shunned and an outcast, and how this movie helped him get through a difficult time. You don’t know that this person exists, until you run into them by accident.
HGL: What would say the first movie responsible for your love of horror would be?
AG: I do like the horror genre! What’s funny is that everybody likes the super scary, or the Italian weird stuff, or they’re hardcore slasher Freddy and Michael fans, and I kind of resonate with the horror comedies. My favorites, over time, are Young Frankenstein, April Fool’s Day, and Shaun of the Dead. Shaun of the Dead is almost 20 years old at this point, and now it’s in the archives as one of the best. It’s not a parody and not a spoof, but it’s a take on a particular genre in horror, and it’s absolutely f*cking genius.
I’m not sure why I’ve always liked April Fool’s Day, maybe because I always like a twist. When I first saw it, I got the twist, and I was like “Aww man! Now I got it and like it!” If there was no twist in April Fool’s Day, then it would be your typical ‘80s slasher movie, and the ending elevated it and made it better! Then, there’s the jump scare at the end, and it’s just fantastic. That (and Valley Girl) started my love for Deborah Foreman, and 30 years later, I get to meet people like her at conventions, and then literally last week, I did a scene in a movie with her. Life is pretty good when you look at the full circle.
HGL: If there was one horror franchise you could be involved in, what would it be?
AG: Oh wow! Good question! I’ve never been asked this one before. I like horror, I watched the older stuff when I was a kid on syndicated black-and-white television, but I was a sci-fi kid! I think it would maybe be a blend of the horror and sci-fi genres, like Predator or Alien.
HGL: What’s your favorite Universal Monster?
AG: Creature from the Black Lagoon! It’s very interesting that he’s sort of forgotten because he’s not “the classic”, but he is a classic! It’s even more of an unfortunate monster tale because Creature from the Black Lagoon is very parallel to both Godzilla and even Jaws. Which, is Jaws a horror movie, or is it a monster movie? I’ve had a three-hour podcast debating that. I don’t think Jaws is a monster. I don’t think Creature is a monster. He’s a little abduct-y, but that’s his pump! I think it’s social commentary, I mean, we’re there, we’re messing it up. Is he evil to begin with? I don’t know… of course, it’s very ‘50s and trope-y, but he just wants to hang out with the good-looking leading lady. He abducts her, which is bad, and then has to be hunted, which is very human for us to do.
I think there’s always conversations like that. Look at Frankenstein. I mean, he didn’t ask to be him; he just became him. Our Frankenstein’s monster is a great example because he gets to choose. Even something like Dracula is an interesting character over time. I love the story that Duncan Regehr told about approaching the character and filling in the cape from all these great faces and iconic movie names that played Dracula, but you know… Dracula used to be a guy. He can never be a guy again. Does he want to be? Does he care? He’s so arched but sensitive in his own angle, and fierce. I think these are all great character studies for people, and that’s what all the original monsters from literature are.
HGL: What’s the second way to kill a werewolf?
AG: Well, apparently, we were wrong. It’s not falling out of a window onto a bomb. It’s anything with silver. I learned early it’s not just silver bullets; you can kill him with a silver arrow, which I’ve always loved; maybe attack it with a silver mace. There’s all sorts of stories about how to get rid of werewolves with silver that I’ve read and that I’ve written, and they’re all cool, haha.
HGL: Lastly, do you have anything coming up that you want to share with the readers, or any new acting or directing projects on the horizon?
AG: Yeah, we’re currently working on new projects with Henry McComas, who is a fantastic story builder, writer, and director, so we’re trying to get his first directorial movie off the ground. I just did two movies this month. One is called Retro Freaks, which is sort of a spoof and homage to not only the collecting world of collecting toys and figures, but also the multiple genres of horror. I also just shot a movie directed by Stephanie Hensley in Ohio called The Demons Within, and that’s where I got to work with the amazing Deborah Foreman. So, all those things should be coming out relatively soon, so keep your eyes open for that.
Myself and my cohort in crime and fun, Ryan Lambert, we love to hear from filmmakers that would love for us to be in their projects, even if they don’t think we would or if they don’t think they can approach us. It’s always worth reaching out to us.
Horror Geek Life would like to thank Andre Gower for his time, and you can find him on Instagram @andregowerofficial and on Twitter @andregower.
