By Geno McGahee
I had no intention to watch any of the GHOULIES movies. They looked really stupid and I didn’t think that I would get any enjoyment out of it, but since the first two were free to watch on EPIX, I decided that I would give them a chance and I’m glad that I did.
GHOULIES came out in 1985. We start out with a cult that wants to kill a baby that is eventually wrestled away. The master that tried to kill the child had these demonic green glowing eyes and this is the first time that we get to see the little Ghoulies. They are very funny looking and I don’t think that they intended for them to be scary. This is just a fun movie.
Jonathan Graves (Peter Liapis) moves into a mansion with his group of friends and soon becomes consumed by the power that he discovers. He summons the ghoulies and can now control people, including his girlfriend. It was all going so well, but the old master, Malcolm Graves (Michael Des Barres) returns and a battle for control begins. I was happy to see Mariska Hargitay from LAW & ORDER: SVU in this. She played “Donna,” a secondary character, but it was cool to see her in it and she didn’t have to work with much. She was very funny in the role.
GHOULIES was great fun. It wasn’t a good film, but it was entertaining and if you don’t take it too seriously, you’ll enjoy it.
Rating: 6.5/10
GHOULIES II came out in 1988 and this one involves a traveling carnival that that Ghoulies invade. Now we’re talking. If the Ghoulies are going to be at home, it will be at a carnival setting.
Larry (Damon Martin), his Uncle Ned (Royal Dano) and their short friend, Sir. Nigel Penneyweight (Phil Fondacaro) operate a haunted house at the carnival, but some unwelcomed visitors hitch a ride in their truck when they were out. The Ghoulies are back and they have found joy at the carnival. Initially, they were just feeding off of the haunted house customers, but when a battle ensues between Larry and the ghoulies, an escape is given and now they are free to roam and create chaos.
As they wreak havoc and kill the patrons, Larry finds a book and reads a spell to stop them and send them back to hell, but that creates another problem. A huge Ghoulie crawls out of the ground and starts eating the small ghoulies, but when he’s done, he becomes a big problem for the people still there. They have to find a way to stop the big ghoulie and send him back to hell now.
GHOULIES II is an improvement on the original. It’s better because there are more of the little monsters and they have more personality. When people think they’re part of the show and clap, they bow and then high five each other. I found myself laughing aloud several times. The first one was fun…this one is very fun. I really liked the follow up.
Rating: 7/10
GHOULIES III: Ghoulies Go to College came out in 1991 and if you know anything about 1990’s horror, you know that it mostly sucks, but this came on the tail end of the 80’s, so I thought that there was going to be hope that I would see a great movie. The ghoulies released on battling frats is a recipe for success.
Professor Ragnar (Kevin McCarthy) is furious. Prank week has begun and he has become the target for rival fraternities and he’s not taking it anymore. He finds a book and summons the ghoulies to take down frat head, Skip Carter (Evan Mackenzie). Skip is trying to get the prank crown and is also trying to rekindle a romance with Erin (Eva La Rue), but she has a relationship with the rival fraternity head. It’s complicated.
I was tempted to shut this movie off after the first twenty minutes. The ghoulies were now turned into the Three Stooges, more or less. They looked different and wouldn’t stop talking and repeating themselves. I was nearly disgusted that they did this to the characters, but hanging in there proved to be the right thing to do. This movie eventually found its footing and became incredibly funny.
One of the best characters is campus police officer, Barcus (Stephen Lee). He is always getting hurt and is really stupid, but in one of the best scenes of the film, he approaches Erin and warns her of an upcoming panties raid. He offers to hold onto all of her panties and all of her friends’ panties so the frats won’t get then. He then stutters and says that he will get them back to her and her friends by Monday…or Tuesday…or, at the latest, Friday. He then walks away and walks into the wall…it was hilarious.
The ghoulies actually become very funny. I think that the writer, Brent Olson, didn’t really understand the first two films and came at this one with a much zanier approach. It took him some time to really get a rhythm going, but when he did, he did. This, by far, is the silliest of the three, but what started out as complete garbage turned out to be a hilarious horror flick. I really enjoyed this one.
Rating: 7/10
There is a fourth in the series that I plan to watch, but the ghoulies don’t resemble the normal ones and I’ve heard that it’s not a real GHOULIES movie, but I plan to watch it soon nonetheless. The GHOULIES trilogy is pretty good and if you have a night to waste, it’s not bad way to do so.