Ghoulies

Rarely as fun as one might’ve anticipated, Ghoulies follows Peter Liapis’ Jonathan Graves as he summons the mischievous title creatures during a satanic ritual. It’s ultimately clear that Ghoulies‘ various problems stem from its obvious shoestring budget, as the movie, which transpires almost entirely in and around a remote country estate, suffers from an egregiously stagy vibe that’s compounded by an almost total lack of compelling performances/characters. Far more problematic, however, is the aggressively uneventful nature of Luca Bercovici and Jefery Levy’s screenplay, as Ghoulies entire midsection seems to consist primarily of sequences in which Jonathan attempts to summon up one thing or another – to the point where the viewer can’t help but wish that filmmaker Bercovici would just get on with it already. The third act admittedly does stand as an demonstrable improvement, certainly, given its emphasis on the havoc wreaked by the Ghoulies and their various cohorts, although it is, by that point, impossible to work up much interest in or enthusiasm for any of this – which undoubtedly does secure the movie’s place as a terminally underwhelming little low-budget horror/comedy.

** out of ****