Ghoulies Reviews

To capitalize on the success of GREMLINS--which featured dozens of crazed puppet creatures wreaking havoc on a small town--cheapo production house Empire Pictures hustled out this silly horror movie with its own set of evil little creatures. Upon the death of his father Peter Liapis inherits the family mansion and decides to live there with his girl friend, Lisa Pelikan. Unbeknown to Liapis, his father was a warlock, and curious about his heritage, the new homeowner rummages through Dad's possessions. He finds books and notes pertaining to witchcraft and becomes so obsessed with the material that he quits school so he can have more time to delve into the occult. During one of his incantations Liapis conjures up the "ghoulies," devilish little creatures who do his bidding. To increase his power, Liapis calls together all his friends (one of them is played by Mariska Hargitay, the beautiful daughter of Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay) and, on the pretense of performing a party trick, has them participate in a satanic ritual. The ritual goes too far, and all hell breaks loose, with ghoulies attacking the guests, and Liapis' long-dead father bursting out of his grave. GHOULIES is an unimaginative horror film thrown together just to show off the ghoulie puppets--which aren't very impressive. There are only five different types of ghoulies, and since there seem to be several dozen popping up all over the place it is hard to tell them apart. The ghoulies are supposed to be articulated puppets, but their construction is so crude that they are relegated to peering around corners and from behind chairs, with the puppeteers obviously hiding just behind them. Because of their restricted movements and expressions, we never believe for a moment that the creatures exist, thus making the film an utter failure. One of the now-defunct Empire Pictures' few hits, GHOULIES spawned an even dumber sequel.