Decaying flesh is a ghoul’s best friend. A sticker on the front of the shrink-wrap proudly proclaimed, “As seen on the Sci-Fi Channel.” I’m not sure that is something to be proud of and is definitely not the case in this derivative, decaying mess of a film.
Jennifer (Kristen Renton) is a typical American girl, however she’s accompanying her father Stefan (William Atherton) and his girlfriend Liz (Erin Gray) back to his European homeland at the death of her grandmother.
Things seem afoot in the village as the villagers (looking as if they’ve borrowed the Universal European back lot) turn away as she and her father pass in the horse drawn cart.
When Jennifer is viewing her granny’s corpse, it springs to life and does the hustle, only to be stone cold again when somebody else comes into the room. A lad named Thomas (James DeBello), a ghoul hunter wearing a duster and sporting a belt full of shotgun shells, comes into Jennifer’s life and tells her that her family is ghoul worshipers and a new female vessel is needed to have the ghoul start the end of the world and she’s it. Hilarity ensues.
Actually Ghouls is pretty much a corpse from the first moment on the screen. The acting is horrendous and the special effects lousy. The story is so goofy that I was hoping that the ghouls would hurry up and cause the end of the world so I wouldn’t have to watch anymore.
Perhaps the only bright spot was recognizing Erin Gray from Buck Rogers, I wondered what she was up to nowadays. If this is what she’s appearing in, she might want to rethink a return. Actually, she’s the best actress of the lot.
The actual ghouls are mostly represented by some shoddy CGI that turns into a stuntman in bad makeup when it has to do battle with our fearless ghoul hunter. He looks like he just got his outfit off of the rack at the local Ghoul-mart.
Not that he’s going incognito since it’s obvious he’s up to something with the obvious shotgun shell holster across his chest. He was only missing a fedora with “Have ghouls? Will travel” written across it.
Ghouls is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The only special features are previews for other First Look Studios films.
Ghouls is dead on arrival and pretty rotten when it does arrive. The film is one that might be worth a look if you’re up late and in need of something to help you sleep.
Ghouls is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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