The odds are good that if you were born in the 1980s, you remember a truly bizarre and sometimes disturbing kids’ comedy called Little Monsters. The film starred Howie Mandel as the monster under Fred Savage’s bed, and followed Savage into a hidden world of creatures whose entire raison d’etre is to terrify children. Think of it as Monsters, Inc., but in this movie, the kid teams up with Randal, and there are a few more explicit threats of physical violence. At any rate, Savage and Mandel are apparently interested in revisiting the world of Little Monsters in the near future.
Videos by ComicBook.com
When ComicBook’s Chris Killian asked Fred Savage about the prospect of a sequel to the movie — taking the horror-movie mold of doing a thirty-years-later follow-up — Savage told him, “you lead the charge!” and recounted how much he enjoyed making the film. Shortly after, to everyone’s surprise, Mandel quote-tweeted the original video and just replied, “I’m in!”
You can see it below.
Little Monsters was directed by Richard Alan Greenberg, a production designer famous for (among many other things) conceiving the beloved title sequence from 1978’s Superman: The Movie. Here’s the official synopsis, which hardly does the bizarreness or charm of the film justice, from a recent Vestron Video Blu-ray release: “Leap into a fantastically monstrous world where hijinks become high art, curfews and chores vanish from sight, and a wacky, irrepressible monster can become your best friend! Eleven-year-old Brian (Fred Savage, “The Wonder Years”) knows that there’s a monster under his bed. And when he sets a trap for it, he captures an experience beyond his wildest dreams! Led by Maurice (Howie Mandel), a horned, blue-green prankster extraordinaire, Brian discovers the vast subterranean hideout of the ‘Little Monsters’ and the best friendship he’s ever had. But soon, Brian realizes he’ll have to shut the door on this dream come true…or risk the nightmare of becoming a Little Monster himself!”
Little Monsters, no relation to the 2019 movie of the same name that starred Lupita Nyong’o, was one of those 1980s movies that bombed at the box office, only to become a cult classic and find financial success on VHS. It earned less than $1 million off a reported $7.1 million budget, which is pocket change now, but it’s hard to imagine a sequel to the film getting made without an adjusted-for-inflation budget that would hover somewhere around the $25 million it reportedly cost to make Bill and Ted Face the Music.
Of course, streaming services have money to throw around, and rarely hesitate to bank on nostalgia. Maybe if the Amazon/MGM acquisition goes through, Little Monsters (which was distributed under MGM’s sister banner United Artists) could have a chance to come back as a limited series.
If it happens, of course, Killian wants his cut.
Would you want to see a new installment of Little Monsters? Sound off in the comments, hit up @russburlingame on Twitter, or call 1 (900) 89-Maurice.
Actually, don’t do that last thing. The phone number almost certainly doesn’t work anymore.
