Ghoulies II (1988)

... aka: Duhovi II (Ghosts II)
... aka: Ghoulies 2
... aka: Ghoulies II: Il principe degli scherzi (Ghoulies II: The Prince of Jokes)

Directed by:
Albert Band

Ned Prentice (Royal Dano), formerly a stage magician called "The Great Fausto" but now a washed-up, grumpy old drunk, runs a traveling carnival spook show called Satan's Den. His teenage nephew Larry (Damon Martin) has decided to tag along with him for the summer in hopes of learning the magic / carnival trade and ends up having to both pull all of the weight and keep the showing going. He's helped by dwarf Sir Nigel Penneyweight (Phil Fondacaro), a Shakespearean actor who used to perform at the Old Vic but is now slumming dressing up in monster costumes. Little do they know, but they're about to get some unwanted additional help when they pull their overheating truck into a closed gas station late one night. Prior to their arrival, a priest (Anthony Dawson) being chased by some red-cloaked gnomes ducked into the station and threw a bag full of ghoulie demon puppets into a smoking drum labeled "extremely toxic." However, the corrosive waste didn't even phase the critters and one managed to knock him into the barrel, quickly reducing him to a skeleton. Attracted by the horror art on the side of the Satan's Den truck, the ghoulies decide they've found a new home and quietly sneak on board.

Ned, Larry and Nigel arrive in the small town of Greenville and start setting up with the rest of the acts. Head of accounting Phillip Hardin (J. Downing), whose father owns Hardin Enterprises, shows up to audit all of the company's holdings, which include the carnival. And he's planning on shutting down any act that doesn't show a profit by the time he leaves. That puts added pressure on the old fashioned Satan's Den, which hasn't been performing well for the past 16 months since contemporary kids can get all of the monsters and gory thrills they want at the local cinema. If they're not able to pull it around in a couple of days, Phillip's going to replace them with a ladies mud wrestling tent. However, never underestimate to power of mischievous, murderous little demons to help boost your sales!

After a couple of little boys encounter one of the ghoulies, which spits sticky green goop and chews through a ninja star, word gets around and soon everyone's flocking to Satan's Den to see them. Some customers don't make it to the exit. There's death by razor, pendulum and electrocution, but most of the mild carnage takes place during the big finale when the ghoulies decide to leave the spook show and wreak havoc on the entire carnival. There are some fun bits involving the rides and carnival booths, including bumper cars, the shooting gallery, the dunk tank and ring the bell. One even removes a screw holding a ride together, sending the car two people are riding in flying off. During the finale, a spell book is used to conjure up a "demonic intercessor," which is basically a big man-in-a-suit ghoulie that runs around eating the smaller ones.

Even though they're basically stuck with a bunch of sub-Gremlins gags, the creatures are given more screen time and more to do here, which is an improvement over the original. They also made the smart decision to only feature five of them, each patterned after a regular animal, which helps give each a bit more personality. There's a bat one that flies, a rat one that spits green slime, a cat one that can imitate a cat's meow to lure victims, one that looks like a baby doll crossed with a fish and a squatty one that (I think) is supposed to look like an alligator. They head bang to W.A.S.P. (who even released a tie-in Ghoulies music video for "Scream Until You Like It"), give each other high five's, laugh, belch and do other silly things in between killings. Of course this is all incredibly silly and juvenile, but creating something that would appeal to young teens was, I think, obviously the whole point here.

Filmed at Empire Studios in Rome, this utilized a mostly Italian crew and mostly Italian actors serving as extras and filling some of the smaller parts, including former spaghetti western regular Romano Puppo as the strongman. The DOP was Sergio Salvati, veteran of many Lucio Fulci films. John Carl Buechler was again in charge of the creature design and, though he sticks closely to the designs of the first film, they're given a bit more mobility this time out, which is helped even further by a few stop motion animations courtesy of David Allen. Charles Band was the executive producer and Dennis Paoli (Re-Animator) wrote the script.

The cast is littered with familiar faces from 80s horror, including a wasted Starr Andreeff (Dance of the Damned), William Butler (Friday the 13th Part VII) and Sasha Jenson (Halloween 4) as some of the obnoxious teens, Kerry Remsen (Pumpkinhead) as the harem dancer love interest, Donnie Jeffcoat as a cynical, foul-mouthed little kid (so basically the same role he had in NIGHT OF THE DEMONS), fx man Michael Deak as a clown who gets his arm torn off, Dale Wyatt as a dancer, Donald Hodson and Mickey Knox.

While this was given a limited theatrical release, it did most of its business on home video and cable. A tiny bit of gore was removed to secure a PG-13 rating, which not only helped get this regular play on cable, but also made it perfect filler for premium movie channels that were always desperate for PG and PG-13 films they could run before 8pm. This one fit the bill so it was on TV all the time back in the day. There have been multiple DVD releases, plus a 2015 Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory, which comes with the 17 minute documentary short Ghoulies II: More Toilets, More Terror.

★★

Ghoulies (1985)

... aka: Beasties
... aka: Duhovi (Ghosts)
... aka: Les goules (The Ghouls)

Directed by:
Luca Bercovici

The heavily-publicized Gremlins (which began production in the spring of 1983) became the fourth largest domestic box office draw of 1984, behind only Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It was also a huge hit globally and merchandising of various Gremlins products (dolls, toys, video games...) sent profits even further through the roof. The Joe Dante directed film had finished principle photography an entire year before its '84 summer release. In the meantime, the Charles Band-produced Ghoulies went into production at the end of January 1984. Filming had to be closed down for several months when they ran out of money but was eventually picked back up again. The finished product was dumped into around 350 theaters about a year after production first began... and just a few months after Gremlins finished its theatrical run. The result? While exact figures aren't known it clearly was profitable; likely highly profitable. According to the (I think self-penned) bio for director Bercovici on IMDb, Ghoulies "was the top grossing independent film in 1985." I'm not sure if that's true or not but I could see it being at least one of the biggest independent films of the year.

At a Satanic mass, manic, green-eyed cult leader Malcolm Graves (Michael Des Barres) plans on sacrificing his own son until mother Anastasia (Victoria Catlin) steps in. She puts a protective necklace around the babies neck to where he cannot be harmed. Malcolm orders it taken away by cult member Wolfgang (Jack Nance) and decides to use the mother as his sacrifice instead, unleashing his slimy puppet monsters on her. Several decades later, the father has died and the now-grown baby, college student Jonathan (Peter Liapis), has shown up to take possession of the family mansion. His girlfriend Rebecca (Lisa Pelikan, from JENNIFER) comes along to help whip the dilapidated place into shape. Serving as the caretaker there is Wolfgang; the only family Jonathan's ever known and thus someone he has no plans of dismissing despite his odd behavior. While looking through the basement, Jonathan finds a box containing his father's ceremonial robe and a book of spells.

Before they really start cleaning up, Rebecca decides to host a party there. After all, the place is already a mess so what harm could anyone really do? Once it clears out some and only a few guests; Rebecca's best friend Donna (Mariska Hargitay in her film debut), oddball Mark aka "Toad Boy" (Ralph Seymour), obnoxious druggies Mike (Scott Thomson) and Eddie (David Dayan), slutty Robin (Charene Cathleen) and tacky horn dog Dick (Keith Joe Dick), remain, they're at a loss as to what to do. Hide-and-seek? That's for kids! Trivial Pursuit? That's for nerds! Strip poker? That's for people in an R-rated movie! Strip monopoly? Wrong movie! How about conducting a Satanic ritual in the basement using the dead father's ancient spell book? Sure! While they go through with part of the ceremony, which doesn't seem to work, they all leave the circle before Jonathan has a chance to "dismiss the spirit."

Against his girlfriend's objections, Jonathan decides to temporarily drop out of school to tend to his inheritance. Now spending more time in the home alone, he starts following in his warlock father's footsteps and gradually taking on his evil persona. He makes weapons and talismans, causes it to rain, conjures up a bunch of little rubbery puppet demons that he can control plus two helmeted dwarf servants, Grizzel (Peter Risch) and Greedigut (Tamara De Treaux), and continues to try his hand at spell casting. He gets so into it that his eyes permanently glow green, just like his father's. Rebecca isn't too fond of the new Jonathan nor his sudden obsession with black magic. When she threatens to leave him, he casts a spell on her to keep her around and obedient.

In his quest for unlimited knowledge and power, Jonathan needs seven people to take part in some kind of ceremony. He manages to lure his friends over and entrances them long enough to recite the incantation. And then, well, everything backfires because he's been tricked by the dwarfs to help resurrect his father from the grave. The zombie father then sends all of the ghoulies on a mission to kill off all the friends while plotting to complete the sacrifice of Jonathan from twenty years earlier for his own power gain.

This Empire release is another of those unfortunate horror comedies that's neither scary nor funny. It's not good camp, nor is it enjoyably over-the-top, nor is it good exploitation with its mild PG-13 rated "thrills." While I doubt anyone, even children, could possibly be scared by any of this, the film fails even harder in the comedy department. The antics of some of the obnoxious friend characters aren't amusing in the least and that's about the only intentional "comedic" content in this one aside from reaction shots of the cheap-looking monsters to various goings-on. Most of the film focuses on the unlikable Jonathan and those scenes are played completely seriously. The acting is highly variable and there's needless narration (by Nance) added in spots, which serves no purpose other than telling us exactly what's already been put up on screen.

This would have also benefited from more focus placed on the titular creatures and less on the generic Satanism stuff. Sure, the ghoulies eventually get to kill a few people but they mostly just sit around watching what everyone else is doing. The oft-criticized John Carl Buechler-designed rubbery / toothy / slimy / ugly monsters are undeniably hokey, and could have used some more mobility, but they're really the least of the film's problems.

Faint praise, I know, but this also could have been worse. Partially redeeming it are some enjoyable fantasy elements being bandied about and the fact it's well-produced and not horribly made from a technical standpoint. Photography (by Mac Ahlberg), art direction / sets and lighting are all pretty good and some imaginative moments occasionally come through, like a ghoulie controlling a killer clown doll and a temptress (Bobbie Bresee) strangling someone with her elongated mutant tongue. We also get a five second shot of a ghoulie emerging from a toilet, which became the fitting central image of the marketing campaign.

Ted Nicolaou was the editor and the score (available on a soundtrack CD) is from Richard Band and Shirley Walker. This was followed by three sequels: GHOULIES II (1987), GHOULIES III: GHOULIES GO TO COLLEGE (filmed in 1989 but not released until 2 years later) and the curiously ghoulie-free Ghoulies IV (1994). Band was later sued by Hemdale Film Corporation for misrepresentation over the home video distribution rights. Director Bercovici, who went on to make Rockula (1990), The Granny (1995) and some action movies, co-wrote with Jefery Levy (who also produced and contributed several songs as "Fela Johnson").

★1/2