Ghoulies II

My review was written in August 1988 after watching the movie on Vestron video cassette.

Assembly line filmmaking (in this case, Charles Band's former stomping ground Empire Studios in Rome) is the curse of "Ghoulies II", a lame followup belatedly debuting this fall in video stores.

First pic, a shameless "Gremlins" imitation that emerged as Empire Pictures' top box office attraction, was a west coast-lensed horror comedy spotlighting cutesy John Buecher hand puppets. Sequel features a few more puppets and is set in the Carolinas, but lensed on gaudy sets in Rome with a nondescript cast.

A priest (British thesp Anthony Dawson) tries to destroy the little title demon, but they escape, holing up in a failing carnival show run by Royal Dano and his nephew Damon Martinl Presence of the supernatural critters perks up attendance, staving off the foreclousr efforts of meanie J. Downing, but the ghoulies start killing people, a no-no even for a Grand Guignol attraction.

Preposterous climax has the good guys conjuring up an oversize monster (it doesn't look much better than its pintsized ghoulies) to knock off the beasties.

Albert Band (father of defunct Empire's majordomo Charles) directs with apparent disinterest, just cranking out another title in a production slate. These doll-like figures just aren't scary and the attempted black humor falls flat. The inherent contradiction of producing fantasy films without imagination is evident in bold relief.

Technical team, largely Italian, delivers competence within a creative vacuum. Dwarf actor Phil Fondacaro sticks out as way too talented for this material.

This time the focus is much more on the ghoulies themselves. And they're all ready to have some fun at the carnival!

There's lots of fun to be had here. You get to see ghoulies eat off a clowns arm (hoorah!)and my favorite scene features a ghoulie running over a man with a bumper car. Priceless.

Oh yeah, one of the more subtle moments I had to rewind a couple of times was when the mummy pops up and the kid kicks it back and you can hear the mummy say 'ow!'

Sure these films can be laughed at, but I have a feeling the movies are laughing with you. It's all very tongue in cheek and not to be taken too seriously. The only moment I think that was to be taken seriously was the terrible moment where the girl is talking about an incident that happened when she was younger; ala Pheobe Cates in Gremlins.

Still, that moment passes quickly and is completely forgettable.

I find these 'Ghoulies' films to be completely charming. If you're into Gremlins and Critters and Munchies and the like, check'em out.

Larry (Damon Martin) and Uncle Ned (Royal Dano) are driving a truck to an amusement park with their attraction Satan's Den. They have to stop in a repair shop and four demons sneak and hide in the truck. They arrive at the carnival and hide inside the Satan's Den. The arrogant owner of the carnival P. Hardin (J. Downing) threatens to fire the employees if their attractions are not profitable and assigns the dwarf Sir Nigel Penneyweight (Phil Fondacaro) to work with Larry and Ned in the Satan's Den. He also hits on Larry's girlfriend Nicole (Kerry Remsen). When the audience sees the demons in the Satan's Den, they believe that they are part of the attractions and the entertainment becomes a sensation. But when people are attacked by the demons, there is panic in the carnival. Now Larry, Nigel and Nicole try to use an incantation to get rid of the creatures.

"Ghoulies II" is a funny and cheesy franchise similar to "Critters" and other "evil toys" in the late 80's and early 90's. The plot is silly with one dimensional characters and gruesome scenes, but entertains and is cult. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Before you watch this flick, don't expect much from it. It's a sequel to "Ghoulies", which should, respectively to the series, lower your standards of what to expect. It's unrealistic. It's cheesy. But it's damn ENTERTAINING! What you get is some rubber puppets, who take over a ghost house in a carnival, attracting visitors who think they're part of the attraction. It starts off with some lovable characters, namely Nigel the dwarf. Anyway, the ghoulies start killing some people who go in there. Then, near the end, they come out and there's a carnival massacre. Some mean killings here, such as death by being run-over by a bumper car. That's about it. This flick, the only "Ghoulies" movie I currently own, rests easy in my collection. Overall: 9/10

GORE BONUS: You wouldn't expect this, but there was actually some gore in this movie, which was edited for both the US PG-13 rating and the UK '15s' rating. The two scenes were, when the girl who is leaving the carnival goes in to the ghost house, she is tied to the floor and the ghoulies stab her before pulling the ropes. And, when the left over teenager gets lost in the ghost house, and the axe is lowered, it shows his stomach being opened and (fake looking) blood spurting out for a while. In the cut version, you just see the axe being lowered. "0m55s" was cut from the original UK video release, but the TV version is completely uncut.

Rated 15s for horror violence and mild gore, and some language

Royal Dano ("Go back to the hell that spawned you!") is Uncle Ned, a sweaty old drunk who operates a spook house called "Satan's Den" at a traveling carnival with his teen grandson Larry (Damon Martin) and dwarf sidekick Sir Nigel (Phil Fondacaro). When an @$$hole businessman takes over and threatens to close them down, Ned uses a satanic book of magic to call up five little mutant monsters (gator, cat, rat, fish, bat) to help with business. They do, but naturally being the demons they are, can't help themselves in the killing department as characters bite it with a pendulum, switchblade, carnival ride, electric wires, bumper cars and other toned-down PG-13 silliness. A giant monster that looks like a rejected extra from HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP shows up at the end to burp and explode.

Dennis Poali's script attempts to create sympathetic characters, but there's too much juvenile humor and other than some brief stop-motion, the creature FX are cheap rubbery puppets. If you recognize names like Mickey Knox, Romano Puppo and Anthony Dawson, it's because this was, surprisingly enough, filmed in Rome.

Grade: 3 out of 10