GHOULIES (1985)

MOVIE REVIEW

The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution - May 31, 1985

Author: RINGEL, ELEANOR: STAFF

GHOULIES: A "Gremlins" rip-off starring Peter Liapis and Lisa Pelikan. Movie Guide: code rating, PG-13; sex, one scene; violence, fairly graphic; nudity, none; language, perhaps an occasional profanity. Playing at selected theaters around town. `Ghoulies' not likely to frighten true horror -movie aficionados By Eleanor Ringel Film Editor

"Ghoulies" is a harmless "Gremlins" rip-off whose main attraction is a number of cleverly designed puppets that look like Muppets that have been through a Cuisinart.

The plot concerns a nice-enough college student named Jonathan (Peter Liapis) who inherits a not-very-nice mansion that was once home to a cabal of devil worshippers led by Jonathan's dad, Malcolm (Michael Des Barres).

Jonathan and his cute girlfriend, Rebecca (Lisa Pelikan), move in, but before you can say "hellzapoppin'," he's spending all his time reading Daddy's old books on dat ol' black magic. Guess what gets whom in its spell?

It takes Rebecca a little while to figure out what's going on until the day she comes home and finds her lover in the basement, dressed in Dad's conjuring clothes and summoning up an indoor thunderstorm. "Becky, you're home early," gulps our hero, sounding as if he's been caught with another woman instead of another dimension.

Rebecca packs her bags, but Jonathan, using his magic powers, gets her to come back and start dressing like a Charles Addams character. He also invites his buddies over for a heck of a dinner party in which, given the ghoulies' perverse appetites, the guests end up as the main course. Meanwhile, out back, Daddy has risen from the grave and is ready to show Sonny-boy that there's no ghoul li ke an old ghoul.

In its relatively restrained bloodletting and sporadic attempts at character development, "Ghoulies" is mercifully old-fashioned (i.e., early '60s). Compared to a ghastly thing such as "Superstition," it almost seems good-natured and well-written. Actually, it's neither, but the actors do try to keep straight faces - even during a party scene in which Trivial Pursuit and Charades are rejected in favor of A Ritual -and the director, Luca Bercovici, doesn't seem all that obsessed with staging a gory floor show.

The tongue-in-cheek ad - a ghoulie popping out of a toilet - is misleading, though possibly useful to more disenchanted movie critics. The film flirts with campiness, but is essentially straightforward about its ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties.

However, these things that go bump in the night aren't likely to turn up bumping around in your nightmares, either. As scary movies go, this one's only a little more frightening than Disney World's Haunted House.

A film-lore footnote: Jonathan conjures up a pair of non-puppet dwarfs dressed like extras from a midget's version of "The Ring of Nibelung." One of them, Tamara de Treaux, once spent a few months as E.T.'s innards.
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'GHOULIES' TAKES THE LOW ROAD

Boston Globe - April 27, 1985

Author: Michael Blowen, Globe Staff

High Concept.

This Hollywood phrase perfectly describes "Ghoulies" - a genetic misfit that wants us to believe it's a cross between two Steven Spielberg productions - "Gremlins" and the soon-to-be-released "Goonies."

Under the High Concept concept, the filmmakers needn't worry about quality direction, convincing performances and professional production design because the whole reason behind the movie is a title and advertising campaign.

The story is stupid. A couple moves into a house. The man conjures up spirits. The spirits harass her. She screams. He becomes a sorcerer. His father returns from the dead. They fight. Sonny wins. The couple drives away.

The production uses the old house as a single set, thereby cutting costs to a minimum. They save on actors by hiring a bunch of stiffs who'll seemingly do anytyhing to be in the movie business.

The producers may be jaded and sleazy with this sort of exploitation but they realize a fundamental law of the movie business - once the theater has your money, it's tough to get it back.

The advertisement will attract certain people to the theater under the false notion that it's a frightening monster picture. The ad features a Gremlin-like creature emerging from a toilet bowl. The patrons of horror films might be attracted by that. But, instead of capturing the audience, the producers have created a marvelous metaphor for their own behavior. May they reap what they have sown.

MOVIE REVIEW GHOULIES - Directed by Luca Bercovici, written by

Bercovici and Jefery Levy, starring Peter Liapis, Lisa

Pelikan, Michael Des Barres and Jack Nance as Wolfgang, at

the Cinema 57 and suburbs, rated PG-13 (violence).
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Ad for 'Ghoulies' really says it all

San Diego Union, The (CA) - January 22, 1985

Author: David Elliott, Movie Critic

For the Glasshouse Theater's first showing of "Ghoulies," 22 customers, including me, showed up. I was there to review. What's their excuse?

Maybe we were all siren-charmed by the ad. The one of a ghoulie, a little geek of gunk with snappy suspenders and sawmill teeth, rising up out of a toilet. Perhaps all of us hoped he'd be popping up in the movie with the Tidy Bowl man in his mouth. But in the film, Ghoulie comes out of the toilet once, for two seconds -- he's only there to justify the ad.

"Ghoulies" is a Dumb Teens in Creepy Old House movie. The leading character, Jonathan, comes from an old line of devil worshipers who did well in Los Angeles real estate. (Don't they all?) He has inherited the mansion, including the bulging, black magic library of his late father. After learning to babble in a kind of Spanish Latin with Transylvanian overtones, his eyes glow lime-green while frisky creepies, or "ghoulies," come out of the woodwork to do his bidding.

In my favorite scene, Jonathan has his satanic robes on and is starting to light up with infernal power down in the basement. His young wife, Rebecca, still in the dark about The Dark One, opens the door. They converse:

"Jonathan, what's going on here?"

"Rebecca, you're home early!"

Rebecca looks perplexed, but goes up to fix dinner. She must have read in Modern Bride that every husband needs a hobby. Later, of course, when she is in a zombie state and the dinner guests have been minced into leftovers by the ghoulies, she must realize (dimly, in her case) that Jonathan wasn't down there rehearsing for the office Halloween party. For horror flick teeny-heads like Rebecca, revelation is always a little too late.

Nothing in "Ghoulies" matches for impact the alluring ad, a pitch that's barely true to the movie but does, in essence, define the "genre." Director Luca Bercovici concedes creative control to special effects contriver John Buechler, who gets on a roll with his ghoulies. These snarling, skittering dermatological disasters drip pus and slime, but are sort of lovably revolting. They seem to know they're marketable, like the critters in "Gremlins."

The sagging truth is that most of the newer shock movies are so sullied by satirical irony that they're not scary. They're so busy "just kidding" that they barely go "boo." They seem to be made for teenagers who are nostalgic for the safe TV spooks of their childhood. For those of us with richer childhoods, the cry rises: "O Vincent Price, where art thou now?"

Here's another angle on the importance of "Ghoulies." Assuming that we 22 morbid suckers each paid $3 at the door, and didn't slip in through the theater plumbing, ghoulie-style, that means on a lovely afternoon in San Diego at least $66 went into the coffers of this, uh, film. But, hey man, why beef? Tell it to the kids in Ethiopia.

"Ghoulies" * An Empire Pictures release. Directed by Luca Bercovici. Produced by Jefery Levy. Photogaphy by Mac Halberg. Written by Luca Bercovici, Jefery Levy. Music by Richard Band, Shirley Walker. Rated PG-13. At local theaters. The Cast- Peter Liapis-Jonathan, Lisa Pelikan-Rebecca, Michael Des Barres-Malcolm, Jack Nance-Wolfgang.