Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

BA_Harrison 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.

bowmanblue I've always loved horror films – ever since I was a child. I remember back in the eighties being a young boy and walking through the video rental shop. There, I would browse films which I was not going to be (legally) able to watch until I was eighteen. One such video box depicted – what I would describe through my child-like eyes – one of the most grossest monsters I'd ever seen. It was effectively a green, slimy, mutant 'baby' coming out of a toilet. It looked so cool. I just had to see that film.And I did. I can't remember how. Maybe I annoyed my Dad suitably until I wore him down and he hired it for me. Maybe I saw it at a friend's. However, I loved it. It was truly as gross as I had hoped.However, I'm now pushing forty and decided to buy it on Blu-ray. Part of me wished I hadn't. I think I'd rather have remembered it as the coolest cover art box of the eighties rather than what it is. What it is is a pretty low budget, rubbish little horror film with bad puppets as monsters and terrible acting.Okay, so I didn't hate-hate it – I was just disappointed. A failed demon ritual catches up with some students at university and one of them decides to call back the monsters (aka 'Ghoulies') to serve him. Things go wrong and they start killing people. Only they're about as threatening now as Kermit the Frog. Despite being nicely crafted puppets, they're still puppets. My adult brain couldn't look at them without seeing through their latex skin to the hand operating them from within. It was because of that I just couldn't take them seriously as a threat. How they kill anyone is a mystery. I think if I saw one in real life I may be creeped out, but I'd just step on it to kill it.The acting is terrible (no surprise there for an eighties horror film), but sometimes you can overlook that if the script is good, the characters at least a little bit fun or, if nothing else, likable. None of that here. The second half of the film does pick up, but the first half was so forgettable you might as well just skip it until you get to the bits with the – not that scary – monsters.Yes, the green Ghoulie in the toilet scene is still there and it is quite funny. But really some films are better left remembered through nostalgic eyes. There are plenty of classic eighties films that may be cheesy, but are still fun. I found this a little too hard to watch nowadays. And now I find there are multiple sequels to watch.

lurch99-198-323833 This takes me back to that 1980's era of "humorous monsters," which I guess started with "An American Werewolf in London." The "ghoulies" themselves are far more interesting than the human characters; too bad they weren't given more to do. The chief problem is that the "hero," played by Peter Liapis, is such an absolute stiff that it's hard to work up any interest in what happens to him. His girlfriend is a bit more appealing (and looks pretty hot wearing shades) but their friends are mostly the usual gang of 1980's dorks. I also didn't care much for the two dwarfs, was hoping they'd turn out to be incestuous brother and sister like in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." The plot is pretty much bargain basement haunted-house stuff, with everybody dutifully going off alone so they can be killed. I only recognized three names: the English musician Michael Des Barres as the cult leader; Jayne Mansfield's kid Mariska Hargitay (from "Special Victims Unit") in her film debut--damn, she was pretty hot herself back in the day; and the late great Jack Nance from "Eraserhead" and other David Lynch flicks. Nance could do more with less than any other actor I can think of, letting those puppy-dog eyes speak volumes. In "Ghoulies" he's criminally underused, but it's nice to see him in almost anything. So as usual, if you can see it for free and have plenty of beer available, sure. go for it. By the way it's hard to believe they were bold enough to rip off the exploding-out-of-the-chest bit from the original "Alien," but what's that line about "imitation being the sincerest form of flattery" –or the laziest

Michael_Elliott 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.