July 1, 2020

For those of us that grew up in the 80’s, I think we all took great comfort knowing that we were about the same age as the kids in The Monster Squad. And while I’m sure you saw either yourself or your friends in any one of the character roles, let’s face it, we all wanted to be Rudy.  
 
Played by Ryan Lambert, Rudy started as the reluctant, non-serious member that eventually evolved into the M.V.P. He stood up against the bullies when they picked on Horace, and when the infamous monsters do attack, he’s the one that steps up and racks up the biggest body count. It’s no surprise that the actor behind Rudy has always been a lifelong horror fan himself.  
 
“My parents took me to The Shining the first weekend it came out,” confesses Lambert. “Because my mom was a Stephen King fan, and said we have to go see this. Well, about a week after that I was sitting in a psychiatrist’s office because of the Grady twins! I could not get that image of them out of my head. And I would torture my brother with it too.”  
 
Although that first experience may have been traumatizing, it didn’t stop Ryan and his brother’s full-fledged fandom for the genre. “When I was younger, we found out they were shooting Poltergeist in Simi Valley over by where we lived. And we biked over to the house to watch them shoot. It was one of my first times on a set. Poltergeist is one of my favorite films of all time. In the horror genre, it’s pretty much at the top. I just think it’s a brilliantly made film, it looks amazing, and it’s scary as fuck.” 
 
It wasn’t too long after that when Ryan started acting professionally, first in several TV guest spots, and then a regular stint on the music themed show Kids Incorporated. But it all eventually led to The Monster Squad. It was a bit tough at first though as his monster co-stars were intentionally distant. “Tom Noonan (Frankenstein’s Monster) and Duncan Regehr (Dracula) had made the decision that we were never going to meet them until we were going to work with them. Being ‘method actors,’ both Tom and Duncan really got into their roles. We never talked to them. Especially Tom. First time I saw Tom, I started to get a little freaked out.” 
 
As a lifelong horror fan, what did it feel like to share screen time with Stan Winston’s reinterpretations of the classic Universal Monsters? Lambert recounts a story of standing with his mom in the town square set while prepping to shoot the finale with all the monsters accounted for and turning to her son to ask, “can you believe you’re doing this? 5 years ago you would’ve ran for the hills, and now you’re fighting them like it’s no big deal.” 
 
Besides sharing screen time with some classic monsters, Lambert also almost got to work with one of the renowned Masters of Horror. He was cast by the late, great Stuart Gordon as one of the kids in Honey, I Shrunk The Kids before Gordon has to bow out for health reasons. “I think my agent sent me a VHS of RE-ANIMATOR,” recalls Lambert. “I was laughing my ass off and thought it was brilliant, and couldn’t believe I was going to get to work with this guy. I worked with Stuart for at least 2-3 weeks, rehearsing. I was ready to go. I signed the contracts, my bags were packed, and I had a plane ticket to Mexico City. And then he got sick and the doctor said he could not do the film. And the new director insisted I screen-test again.” He ended up being recast at the last minute.  
 
For a lot of people, The Monster Squad served as a “gate-way” horror film. To this day, Lambert meets countless kids whose parents grew up with his film, and share it with their children, but the actor-turned-writer longs for more similar themed genre fare. And he found one such potential project he’s been extremely passionate about. “I was at a convention, and this guy Mark Poulton came up to my table and he gave me this graphic novel he’d co-written with his son Chase called PIZZA TREE, and it’s great! This should be a giant adventure kids movie, but scary. It’d be a great movie for Fred Dekker! Studios need to start realizing that the new generation coming up needs to have stuff like this. These families at conventions tell me they keep showing their kids The Monster Squad because there is not a lot more they can see. And I think there needs to be more gate-way horror.” 
 
Regardless, he does still keep up on all the latest genre offerings, and continues to get that same thrill he got when he first saw The Shining. “I’m in awe of anything that anyone is doing in horror now that is of a higher level. That includes Midsommar or The Witch. I just watched The Hunt, and thought it was amazing. Even my mom asked me if I saw Hereditary. And by the way, I have yet to get killed in a movie, so to any filmmakers out there, I am available and would love a spectacular death in a horror film!” 
 
Fans have longed for a proper return of The Monster Squad, especially after Platinum Dunes failed with their attempted reboot to the original several years back, and with the continuing growing fanbase, thanks to revival screenings and convention appearances. It makes us wonder, if we did get a sequel, where would Rudy be today? “We were on the road somewhere and someone asked Fred Dekker that question, and he said ‘well I’m sure Sean is probably the Captain of the police force or a detective. And Rudy probably works in a garage, working on bikes or something like that.’ And I always thought that was so obvious. What I would really want to do is have Sean go around and round everyone up again. He comes to my house, and one of the kids comes to the door and says, ‘oh he’s at Al’s, which is the local bar.’ And you think, OK, here we go. He’s going to be the loser at the bar. But we get there, and he’s in a full suit and tie, with glasses, on a computer, and he’s got a root beer. He just went and got married to Patrick’s sister, and now they have kids and live in the suburbs and everything is fine. Everything is great with him. He tells Sean ‘no. I’m past all that.’ But then he kind of thinks about it a bit and the garage door opens up, and he’s standing there with an arsenal in his garage and he says ‘screw it.’ Puts on the leather jacket, and his daughter runs in and says ‘I’m coming with you!’ And she’s got her leather jacket and they go fight monsters. Let’s do that! Let’s not go cliché with it. I’d like to think that he had a full life and did well, and Rudy was just fine.” 

 
Photos by Ryan Anderson. Special thanks to Joe Magna.