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.
