Ghoulies II

Those hostile little beasts are at it again in this adequately entertaining sequel. It takes quite a while for it to really get started, but the final half hour is worth waiting for. It's actually played fairly straight for a while, with comedy elements getting introduced more and more as the movie goes on. The Ghoulies themselves are definitely cute in an ugly sort of way, and are a genuinely amusing bunch. Fortunately, some of the human characters manage to be almost as interesting.

After an attempt to kill the Ghoulies fails, they hitch a ride with a truck carrying the contents of "Satans' Den", a house of horrors for a travelling carnival. They hide out inside Satans' Den for a while, intermittently killing people, until the big finale when they finally break out. The place has been hurting financially, but when patrons get a look at the Ghoulies and assume them to be part of the act, business starts booming.

I have to be partial to any movie featuring the following elements: an appearance by old Hollywood pro Royal Dano, who's in fine form as drunken old Uncle Ned, a song by the metal band W.A.S.P. ("Scream Until You Like It"), old school effects (puppeteering, stop motion animation, etc.), a role for Italian exploitation veteran Romano Puppo ("2019: After the Fall of New York"), and a carnival atmosphere (even if done on a budget). Production design, by Giovanni Natalucci, and cinematography, by Sergio Salvati, are both well done.

The enjoyable cast features familiar faces from other horror films: Kerry Remsen ("Pumpkinhead"), Sasha Jenson ("Halloween 4"), Starr Andreeff ("Dance of the Damned"), William Butler ("Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III"), and Donnie Jeffcoat ("Night of the Demons" '88). Damon Martin ("Pee-wee's Big Adventure") is our likable young lead, Phil Fondacaro (who played the title role in "Troll") the engaging Sir Nigel Penneyweight, and J. Downing the appropriately odious money man Mr. Hardin.

Overall, agreeable entertainment for genre fans; produced and directed by Albert Band, veteran director and father of Charles Band of Empire Pictures and Full Moon fame.

Six out of 10.

This is the rare case where a sequel is actually better than the original. Considering that original is the cheap and nasty Ghoulies, it's really not much of an accomplishment. Anyway the plot here is that the Ghoulies make their way to a carnival where business is poor. Their presence manages to help business pick up but of course they do what Ghoulies are meant to do and start killing people.

What makes this a better movie than the first? Well for starters the carnival setting is more interesting. The special effects for the Ghoulies is improved over the first. The cast is better, helped in large part by veteran Royal Dano and "little person" Phil Fondacaro. But ultimately it's the camp humor that this movie has that elevates it above the previous movie.

All this being said about how it's an improvement over the first Ghoulies, it's still not a very good movie. It's watchable enough for a movie of its kind. But let's not get carried away and say it's anything better than that. So, better than the first Ghoulies but still not very good.

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

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

I was very young when I saw this the first time and it really gave me the creeps then. Now a few years later I saw it again and I think it´s cool. The little monsters are pretty funny and scary actually. I especially like the "toilette" scene. Ghoulies II is a 5/10