I haven’t seen any of the other Ghoulies movies. I’ve seen the covers for the first two, but I just never cared to see them. I don’t think I’m missing anything I need to see to appreciate this.
The first thing I noticed is that it’s weird. The tone is mostly cartoonish, with only the slightest amount of horror mixed in. There’s a sitcom-like feel to a lot of the jokes - particularly the stuff with the campus security guard. The music is cheap and dated. I think there was an effort to sound like Danny Elfman, but instead, it sounds more like a cartoon.
The plot is the biggest problem. Kevin McCarthy is a real pleasure to watch, but I always felt kind of confused about his motivation. The fight between the frats isn’t that interesting. The ghoulies are dumb. It’s a collection of dumb punchlines, and crass behavior. Where Gremlins did a good job of making their evil creatures compelling and dangerous, in this… they’re annoying and not especially dangerous. This is made more obvious by the few deaths they’re involved in. None of them have any blood. They involve cartoonish - literally cartoonish - methods of death. Pulling a tongue out like a rubber band.
The one area that I didn’t feel like I understood was the role that the toilet plays in this mythos. Do these creatures come from the sewer? Or are they supposed to be somehow summoned from hell? The inclusion of the toilet as a source of horror seems especially childish. I don’t mind this, but I wonder if that’s the target audience. Maybe this is supposed to be like a beginner horror movie.
I wonder if this started out as a straight college comedy, and the ghoulies were inserted later.
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