Ghoulies (1984 franchise)

Summary

"Ghoulies: they'll get you in the end!" A young man and his girlfriend move into an old mansion home, where he becomes possessed by a desire to control ancient demons. In the sequels, a stage magician working for a bankrupt amusement park accidentally summons the creatures, a college professor brings the little creatures back to his campus to terrorize the faculty and students, and a retired occultist turned police officer must battle a former lover after the escapes a mental asylum and tries to summon the Ghoulies.

Details

Promotional image for Ghoulies (1984 franchise)...

• Release Date: 1984, 1988, 1991, 1994
• Country/Language: USA, English
• Genres/Technical: Horror, Fantasy, Black Comedy
• Setting: 1980s California
• Runtime: 1 hr 21 min
• Starring: Peter Liapis, Lisa Pelikan, Michael Des Barres; Damon Martin, Royal Dano, Phil Fondacaro; Evan MacKenzie, Kevin McCarthy, Eva LaRue; Peter Liapis, Barbara Alyn Woods, Stacie Randall
• Director: Luca Bercovici; Albert Band; John Carl Buechler; Jim Wynorski
• Writer: Luca Bercovici, Jefery Levy; Charlie Dolan, Dennis Paoli; Damon Martin, Royal Dano, Phil Fondacaro; Brent Olson; Mark Sevi
• Producer/Production Co: Charles Band, Empire Pictures, Ghoulies Productions, Taryn Productions Inc., Lightning Pictures, Taurus Entertainment Company, Vestron Pictures, Cinetel Films
• View Trailer: (link), (link), (link), (link), (link)
• TVTropes: (link)
• IMDB Page: (link), (link), ([URL link]), ([URL link]), ([URL link])

Ratings

MPAA Ratings

• Rated: MPAARATING (notes)

Tentacle Ratings

A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:

• SS___ (Two Tentacles: Barely Lovecraftian; vaguely similar in tone, could be a very loose adaptation)

The first film is a very loose, uncredited adaptation of "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (fiction)", with all the Lovecraftian serial numbers filed off, given a black comedy make-over. The sequels are a bit less Lovecraftian than even that.

Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.

Reviews

Review Links:

• (review needed)

Notes

Comments, Trivia, Dedication

• Originally, the first film was going to be about a kid moving into his grandfather's house who finds out that the inspirations for his grandfather's stories are living in the house and trying to kill him.
• Actors in costumes played the Ghoulies in the final film because Cinetel Films could not afford the puppets used in earlier installments; a fifth Ghoulies movie was planned but never materialized.

Associated Mythos Elements

TO_DO:

• fiction: the original film was basically a clone of ([The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (fiction)]]
• tome: Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, The Secret World Of Magic, The Black Magic Ritual, The Grimoire Of Abramelin
• race: Ghoulies
• demons: Lucifer, Paimon, Vepar, Procell, Astaroth