Ghoulies II - 1.5/5

Ghoulies was the surprise hit of 1985 for Charles Band and the crowd at Empire Pictures so naturally all hits deserve a sequel and Ghoulies was the first Band film to get sequelized, a procedure he would do to death with later films (what are there, ten Puppet Master films now?). Surprisingly however of all the films that he produced in the 80's that didn't deserve a sequel, it was Ghoulies as its hollow plot really didn't cry out to go on. However it was a simple concept with silly little monsters and that made a sequel easy to make and thus a dopey franchise was born.

Changing the scenery a bit, this time the writers have Ghoulies go to a Carnival. Yes after escaping from a vat of what looks to be toxic waste, our Ghoulies hitch a ride on a traveling carnival semi, which just happens to be the "house of horrors" exhibit. After setting up, our little bastards start killing people and putting them on display in the attraction. In order to get rid of the little shits, some carnies raise a gigantic ghoulie to eat them... but how do they stop the big one?

The ghoulies themselves are definitely more in the spotlight for this sequel but like the original, they look like melted stiff puppets. We get the same three basic ghoulies from the original along with a new alligator looking one. To top off the lame looking ghoulies, the film is also loaded up with stock characters and villains, our stock villain being a douche bag who wants to close down the carnival.

The directing is a definite bore as Charles Band employed his father Albert Band do direct and I have NEVER been a fan of Albert's directing "talents." He tends to make his films a complete bore to look (check out Zoltan, Hound of Dracula for more proof) and Ghoulies II is no different. Further proves that some producers should stick to producing.

I can't really bitch a lot about Ghoulies II because it's exactly what it is supposed to be, a dopey dumb little monster movie with PG-13 style shenanigans. The ghoulies are more frequent but the boring direction counterbalances it making this sequel no better, but also really no worse that the lame original. The series would forge on after this but without producer Charles Band and the later sequels would become more silly yet at the same time loading up on more adult themes like sex and nudity.

Written by Eric Reifschneider