Ghoulies IV (1994)

Director: Jim Wynorski

Screenplay: Mark Sevi

Cast: Peter Liapis as Jonathan Graves, Barbara Alyn Woods as Kate, Stacie Randall as Alexandra, Raquel Krelle as Jeanine, Bobby Di Cicco as Scotty, Tony Cox as Ghoulie Dark; Arturo Gil as Ghoulie Lite

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies)

 

Ease up Dirty Harriett!

The end of the Ghoulies franchise was the first I ever saw the whole of, from one of many multi-film DVD packs that used to exist in the 2000s era of DVDs with their own separate whole DVD case with another film. It was also once a film I held as one of the worst I had ever seen, though I have moved back from this opinion as being too harsh. It starts with another change in distributor in CineTel Films, a company that exists from the late eighties as one meant to produce films for the straight-to-video market but with an eye for getting notable names over the years - be it Gary Busey for Bulletproof (1987) or Rowdy Rodder Piper for Sci-fighters (1996). They were a company I crossed paths with in that DVD era of releases, with those two films mentioned among those I found at the time, and they lasted until 2023, past an entire change to the film industry with the streaming market, until they were bought out by Vision Films in 2023. In mind CineTel Films moved to making films for the likes of the SyFy Channel, this feels less like a tragic end but the follow-on to a group who have managed to survive healthier than most major film industry giants over the decades since they were founded in 1980, and got to be bought out well off.

The film itself is set up with a woman in tight leather armed with martial arts, guns and shurikens mowing down security guards in a warehouse to steal a jewel, one used in a ritual there drawing a pentagram with spray paint on the floor, and sacrificing the guards' corpses for summoning her master. This is Alexandra (Stacie Randall), who however fails the ritual, needing to find another owner of a red jewel, an on-the-edge cop named Jonathan (Peter Liapis), and accidentally summons two Ghoulies in the process. Aside from these are not Ghoulies as before, in a film attempting to follow up from the first 1984 film, even using some footage from the production, this feels like its own narrative bolted into the final film. We do get some bang for our buck, as Jonathan is introduced with his put-upon partner getting caught up in a gun battle in a convenience store with a shotgun welding till thug, which is least more distinct than the first Ghoulies film. It is explicitly connected to that film as this is the same Jonathan who was centre to the first film, replayed by the original actor Peter Liapis, somehow finding his way out of being an occultist to being a cop who has a habit of dating sex workers he arrests, a taste for using handcuffs in the bed room, and has an old relationship with a female officer Kate (Barbara Alyn Woods), now promoted as his superior and dragged back into helping him. The later is not surprising as, whilst involving one dubious Indian stereotype for a trigger happy shopkeeper, played by a white actor, most police partners would not want to stay with a guy like Jonathan who keeps getting into shoot-outs in liquor and convenience stores. Jonathan, naturally from his past, is knowledgeable of ancient occultism and is immediately aware the warehouse crime scene is suspicious, especially as he knows Alexandra, a former girlfriend who escaped a mental hospital and wants to resurrect an evil side to him as a permanent lover. It is an odd choice to follow up the original but as sequels go, but at least it's distinct.

I definitely can see, however, why I did not like this originally, if I was too extreme in my severity in opinion. This is very broad, still wacky as the Ghoulies, more actors who are wearing masks which cannot move and are visible in the eyes behind said masks, are side characters with broad accents and very little to do. One of them is actually Tony Cox, in a very early role before he would star in films like Bad Santa (2003), playing with co-actor Arturo Gil what are closer to actual goblins as comedy foils bolted onto the plot. It is very silly if not as severe as when the Ghoulies went to college in the film before, only instead with a strange contradiction where the Ghoulies feel like children's film characters, even when mugging a caretaker for his keys, but has them look on curiously at female sex workers waiting to be picked up by clients in one scene.

Directed by Jim Wynorski, he is arguably the most distinct director for this franchise, where the silly tone fits some of his films I have seen. He was eclectic if one pretty notorious for titillation in his films, including a string of erotic thrillers in the early nineties such as Sins of Desire (1993). Yes, he would also helm family films and Christmas films as many did into the 2010s, but this was a man who cut his teeth on erotic parodies like The Witches of Breastwick (2005) by the 2000s, so it comes with a surprise, when the third Ghoulies film did bring in actual nudity and sex comedy humour, this is "tamer" than before in air quotes. Titillation is not necessary, and that Wynorski is definitely a director who stands on a knife edge in the modern day to whether to roll your eyes on that softcore side of his career or not, especially as the documentary on him making The Witches of Breastwick is named Popatopolis (2009), the title an abbreviation of saying "pop your top off" to do a nude scene. Ghoulies IV is thirsty just in the dialogue and the costume choices for the female cast, not explicitly lacking of but in terms of how fetishishtic it can be, but one of the more curious choices for this film, considering its director, is that this was the film rated as suitable for twelve year olds in the United Kingdom, and is lacking overt sexuality but also more overt horror edges of the previous films. It suggests more that dichotomy between the films of before and a more cartoonish tone that feels more appropriate for a kid's film, which is an odd combination and really does emphasis how, sex or sexless, Ghoulies as a franchise was an odd duck in terms of how its selling point could have been sold to kids, cuddly little critters, but was juggling both more edgy content against pure slapstick.

Credit to Ghoulies IV, this feels like it had some production values even above films from before in the franchise, shot in exterior city locations of Los Angeles and even having a stunt involving an exploding car. It however does not feel like a Ghoulies film, like a different script only to get footage from the first film and explicit references. I found it a fun film, especially as to be brutally honest, I think the original Ghoulies was the least rewarding of all four, all curious in the directions they went for a series which never figured itself out and lasted as the Puppet Master franchise did in terms of anything Charles Band briefly got involved with that had sellable puppet figures. By Ghoulies IV, we have definitely seen the sunset fall on this entire franchise by here, never to come back, but even if slightly lame in finale, it is lame in a charming way here. This is a great example of a horror franchise when they unexpectedly swing in tone and mood per sequel, as Ghoulies IV quaintly waves us goodbye, literally, with a sense of playful fun.

 

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1) Vision Films heads to MIPTV, Cannes market with CineTel library (exclusive), written by Jeremy Kay, and published for Screen Daily on 14th April 2023.