Ghoulies IV

Ghoulies IV isn’t really a horror movie so much as it’s an action movie with some supernatural elements. Heck, it’s barely even a Ghoulies movie. The familiar puppety oddballs we’ve seen in every other installment in the franchise have been replaced by two little people in Ghoulie costumes with inexpressive masks. The story follows Jonathan Graves, the lead from the first Ghoulies movie, who’s become a play-by-his-own-rules cop who is really into kinky sex. One of Jonathan’s ex-girlfriends is attempting to steal a jewel that will allow her to release her dark master from Hell. She coincidentally brings two Ghoulies to Earth who proceed to watch the events of the film unfold without ever really getting involved. It’s literally 75 minutes into the 83 minute film before any of the characters directly interact with the two Ghoulies. At one point I was impressed by an action sequence involving a runaway car and multiple vehicle crashes, but it turns out that said sequence was edited into the film from an entirely different Jim Wynorski production.

Rating: 36%

(Image from racksandrazors.com)

Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College

Mixing comedy and horror is not an easy task, it’s a delicate balancing act that requires a fundamental understanding of what makes each one work on their own and how to shift from one to the other. There are countless movies that have attempted to combine horror and comedy only to wind up failing on both fronts, Ghoulies III is one of those movies. The humor is, at best, at the Troma level with only the most obvious jokes being delivered at the most obvious times. Most of the jokes come from the Ghoulies themselves, since they’ve been given the gift of speech in this installment of the franchise. When they first started to speak I thought, “Oh, they’re kind of referencing the Three Stooges here.” Then the slapstick came into play and I realized, “Oh, they’re just ripping off the Three Stooges here.” If you’ve ever seen Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds or UHF, you’ve pretty much already seen all of the best parts of this movie.

Rating: 42%

(Image from imdb.com)

Ghoulies II

Ghoulies II is not a very good movie. It is, however, better than the first Ghoulies movie. The puppet demons look a lot better this time around and they're aided by some passable stop motion animation. Black magic is only a minor part of the movie, leaving room for a great deal more Gremlins style puppety mayhem. Once again there are no Ghoulies wearing suspenders featured in the film, but at least they had the decency to reflect that in the poster art.

Rating: 46%

(Image from impawards.com)

Ghoulies

The best part of Ghoulies would have to be the poster art. If you haven't seen the movie, you might think it was a creature feature à la Gremlins. It's actually a very boring movie about a guy who inherits a creepy old house and gets really into black magic. Sure, there are some gloppy puppet creatures roaming about but they're pretty lame. Also, none of them wear suspenders in the movie.

Rating: 38%

(Image from impawards.com)