Noite das Assombrações

All the mad ingredients that make up Ed Wood's delirious world are in full force here.

A spiritualist is busy raising the dead in a haunted house, and the cops investigate in classic Wood style. Ghouls, skeletons, bizarre and protracted dialogue aplenty in this 'sequel' to Bride of The Monster, which the script constantly refers to. There's even a narration delivered from a coffin by the inimitable Criswell!

It's no use arguing the merits of any Ed Wood film. At best, they're interminably silly by any conventional standard. Yet to his many fans they radiate with a weird appeal that defies explanation. I like 'em anyway.

The story goes that 'Night Of The Ghouls' sat in the can for over twenty years because Ed Wood couldn't afford to have it developed. I've sometimes seen it passed off as a sequel to 'Plan 9 From Outer Space', but it's actually a sequel to 'Bride Of The Monster'. The links are slim but the mad scientist played by Bela Lugosi is mentioned once or twice, and his assistant Lobo (Tor Johnson) appears in horribly disfigured form. As well as Johnson a few Wood regulars are involved, notably Criswell and Paul Marco. Criswell is a hoot as always but Marco is tiresome. He's the comic relief but I can't stand his character who is always whining and screwing up. Duke Moore from 'Plan 9' plays the main cop and Kenne Duncan, who trash hounds might remember from 'The Astounding She-Monster', plays "Dr. Acula", a crook posing as a spiritualist. 'Night Of The Ghouls' is a lesser Wood movie. It's neither as crazy as 'Glen Or Glenda' or as effective as 'Bride Of The Monster', and frankly I miss Lugosi. So don't get your hopes up, it's fun but pretty forgettable.

Seriously bad movies takes the viewer into unexplored realms of weirdness quite beyond the range of more conventional films (there's an extraordinary sequence in 'Night of the Ghouls' depicting a seance, for example); although when a film begins with Criswell rising from a coffin to deliver a pious homily on the existential threat posed by juvenile delinquency you've got a pretty good idea what to expect. Veteran cameraman William C. Thompson meanwhile creates some memorable images; the single most haunting probably being the closeups of Jeannie Stevens in her fleeting appearances as the Black Ghost.

If you like Ed Wood's crazy body of work, you'll like this film. It's not as good as "Plan 9," and it rivals "Glen or Glenda?," but it's better than the rest of Wood's films. It's clearly shot with such a low budget that it's almost like watching a live, closed-circuit video feed from the inside of a spookhouse, circa 1959. The plot is inexplicable, and Wood's ensemble of actors is in top (or should I say bottom?) form, especially Paul Marco as Kelton. For sheer ultra-low budget fun, the film is right up there with "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies," "Robot Monster" and "The Brain from Planet Arous." See it, if you get a chance.

Old couple driving past the house where Old Lugosi experimented years before with Lobo (from "Bride of the Atom"). They see a woman dressed in white and are so alarmed they go report it to the police then have to go to hospital for a sedative. In the urgency, the cops call for their off-duty Luitenant, Bradford, to call off his night at the opera with his wife to go investigate. Un-offically, he's the resident ghost chaser you know (though the department can not and will not admit it!!). Anyway, he chooses idiot Cop Paul marco to go join him instead of any of the other guys. Marco somehow doesn't actually go with him, but goes alone about an hour or so later after finally managing to get a patrol car. He spends 1/2 the film in his car outside the mansion fainting from seeing this woman in white and taking potshots at her (as well as a woman in black who has now turned up) Bradford meanwhile, has broken entry to the house and is greeted by a *cough* Dr.Acula. This Acula guy holds seances. he spends ages on one seance with Bradford watching. The viewer is treated to a trumpet that plays by itself, a black man pulling faces as well as a few indescribable objects that look like parts of a car. Anyway, after a (long) while We learn Dr. Ac is a FAKE!!! The woman in white is infact...a woman in white who has to scare the cops away!!! Bradford, in Ac's absence goes off to explore the old mansion and spends some time reminiscing about the bannister (luckily(!) for the viewer, we can hear his thoughts). He bumps into Lobo (who is more hilarious + wooden than ever). Ac finds Bradford with Lobo who lock him up in a room.

Meanwhile Marco has called for help and by now actually gets out the car and enters the place. There are a few confrontations between cops (Bradford escapes from the room with no problems at all) and Ac and the white lady + upon receiving $10K from the seance decide to make a run for it. He sends one of his "actors" to shoot at the cops!! (for a fake seance??). Lobo is finally shot dead, but the real twist has just started...

This is grade Z rubbish. REALLY bad. In an attempt to escape right at the end, Dr. Ac actually RUNS TOWARDS his nemesis'!!

Not as "good" as plan 9 (unfortuntely) but worth seeing for Wood-Fans