Ghoulies (1985)

Thanks for the memories!

Redundant and unnecessary.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

No doubt Ghoulies was rushed into production in order to cash in on the success of Joe Dante's Gremlins, but there is a yawning chasm in quality between the two films: Gremlins is ingenious, anarchic, demented, loaded with terrific black humour, features excellent creature effects and stars the yummy Phoebe Cates; Ghoulies is moronic trash with dumb characters and bargain basement monsters.The film's uninspired plot sees a young couple, Jonathan and Rebecca (Peter Liapis, who is way too old for the part, and Lisa Pelikan), move into a creaky old mansion where they discover a collection of books on black magic. After reading one particular book, Jonathan becomes obsessed with conducting Satanic rituals, unaware that he is being controlled by the spirit of his dead father, who seeks to return from the grave.The 'ghoulies' of the title are diminutive demons that appear to kill the couple's friends (most of whom are so obnoxious that their deaths are more than welcome). Shonky rubber hand puppets created by John Carl Buechler, these critters have none of the mischievous charm of a gremlin (or even a Critter, for that matter) and are neither funny or scary—just embarrassingly bad. Also serving to irritate: two devilish dwarfs, Grizzell and Greedigut (Peter Risch and Tamara De Treaux), and a silly happy ending that sees all of the dead characters miraculously return to life unscathed.

The camp and cheese levels are off the charts with this effort from Charles Bands' Empire Pictures, one of a few movies (and subsequent franchises) to jump on the "Gremlins" bandwagon. This means combining comedy (which, in this case, is never really that funny) and horror (although the movie sure ain't scary at all) and trying to go for a playful approach. The result is a movie that does have some fun moments, but nothing special enough to make it compare to its inspiration.Eric Roberts lookalike Peter Liapis stars as Jonathan Graves, who moves with his girlfriend Rebecca (pretty Lisa Pelikan of the "Carrie" ripoff "Jennifer") into the mansion he's just inherited. Turns out his dad Malcolm (pop singer Michael Des Barres, in a hilariously unsubtle turn) was one of a group of Satan worshippers, and the mansion has been home to demons in the past. As any moron character in this type of genre movie would do, Jonathan lets his curiosity get the better of him, and he becomes obsessed with wearing robes and performing rituals. The title creatures show up to create mayhem, followed by an endearing pair of little people (Peter Risch, Tamara De Treaux).The Ghoulies themselves don't get to do all that much; they would be brought more to the forefront for the sequels. The human cast - including Scott Thomson ("Police Academy"), Ralph Seymour ("Just Before Dawn"), Keith Joe Dick, and Mariska Hargitay in her film debut - is amusing, but it's the Ghoulies who are the most fun. Jack Nance of "Eraserhead" fame is wasted as the wise old caretaker of the mansion. Bobbie Bresee ("Mausoleum") has a bit as a temptress. Special effects and makeup by John Carl Buechler and his company are generally pretty good. The score, credited to both Shirley Walker and Richard Band, is catchy."Ghoulies" is indeed pretty ridiculous, but this viewer doesn't see that as necessarily being a bad thing. Just don't go in expecting anything resembling a serious genre film.Six out of 10.

Ghoulies (1985) * 1/2 (out of 4) Lame rip-off of GREMLINS has a man moving into an old mansion where he eventually decides to bring out the title creatures who of course go on a killing spree. Apparently this thing started off as a higher-budget R-rated horror film but then the budget was slashed and they decided to aim at the kid market. Well, this here was obviously a mistake because what remains in the film is a semi-horror film that's too tame to go all the way yet at the same time there's really nothing here that would appeal to children. I think the producers forgot that they were trying to aim this at kids and instead us poor viewers were left to suffer. The story itself is a pretty silly one that takes way too long to get going. At just 82-minutes this film seems twice as long and this might be due to the fact that the actual ghoulies don't appear until around the forty-minute mark. Even when they do arrive they don't exactly bring any excitement with them as they're just not scary enough to have any impact. A lot of the violence is also off screen so gore fans aren't going to get any of that here. Even worse is that there are a couple sexual scenes here that have been toned down and in this condition they just really don't serve any purpose to the film. Of course, in a R-rated film they might have at least been used just to show off some cheap nudity. The performances are pretty much what you'd expect from a film like this. John Carl Buechler does a fine job with the special effects but sadly they're not used nearly enough. GHOULIES might appeal to those who enjoy bad 80s movies but the rest should just stay clear.

This must be the worst 80s movie ever. Because the acting is bad, the Ghoulies don't do much and its another Gremlins rip off. Let me give you a quick summary of the movie. Its about a young man who moves into his fathers house. Who somehow died, {we don't really know}. As he lives with his girlfriend. Later in the movie he goes down to his basement to clean up as he finds something strange in the basement. As he has a look into the box he finds some cloths I don't know. Then he takes it out of the basement he puts it on he starts to turn evil as he later on summons the Ghoulies, then turns into a bad guy summons his dad back to life as Wolfgang safes him. In the end everyone lives happily ever after. so I give this movie * out of ***** and also please no more gremlin rip offs.