Friday, July 21, 2023

So, How Was "Ghoulies 2," Darlings???????????????????????????


                               This picture says it all.  The best thing about "Ghoulies 2," was its setting, which was a travelling carnival.  Especially the spook house attraction, "Satan's Den," which made an excellent play space for the actors and the cute little Ghoulies who upstaged them all the way.



                                 Sure, there was Royal Dano --from "Killer Clowns From Outer Space," made the same year, and also known for its striking, colorful visuals. --as Uncle Ned, playing the Grayson Hall role here, only where was Grayson?  Maybe after "Gargoyles" sixteen years before she just couldn't take it.  And would you believe, girls, that Kerry Remsen, as Nicole was the daughter of actor Bert Remsen, who appeared in Altman's 1975 masterpiece, "Nashville?"  Cute kid, but I guess the Remsen talent skipped a generation.



                                 Sadly, this was the last theatrically released "Ghoulies" film, and the last made by director Albert Band and his production team, all of whom used stop animation puppetry for the cuties. When the franchise was taken over by some hack, they used actors in costumes; it did not work, and the two film, 3 and 4, went straight to video.



                                  The one sequence that stands out here was borrowed from 1983's "Sleepaway Camp."  One of the murder scenes in that film had a guy on the toilet, while the killer, through a window overhead, threw in a beehive, provoking the creatures, who killed him on the commode.  In "Ghoulies 2" the hetero corporate pig--Are there any other kind?--is dealt the same bit when a ghoulie comes up from below the commode and bites him in places he never thought of being bit.  The look on his face is hilarious, and the character so despicable it is easy to cheer the ghoulie on.



                                  The climax is explosive, destroying the nasty large Ghoulie, who is just nasty, not cute.  Witchcraft and demonology are dragged into this, and the film becomes convoluted.



                                    My advice, unless you really care, is to watch this film up to where Mr. Hardin (played by a young Jay Downing) is killed sitting on the can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



                                     But a colorful carnival and cute ghoulies can't be beat for hilarious fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



                                       I bet some "Svengoolie" fans out there will have designed a room in their house, like Satan's Den!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



                                   



                                       

2 comments:

  1. a different slant on “bathroom humor”!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Victoria,
    Definitely. Was it needed? No.
    But it was a campy way of killing off the film's
    most despicable character.

    ReplyDelete