A Resurgence of Ghoulies: The Current Era's Perspective?
Back in the day, the sight of a slimy, green creature scrambling onto a toilet seat left kids everywhere cringing. Indeed, it's the iconic poster for Ghoulies that still lingers in our memories. This flick's genius marketing strategy draped one of its creatures in overalls, ensuring that bathroom training would forever be associated with razor-sharp teeth.
Released in the first month of 1985, the movie was initially brushed off as a cheap knock-off of the previous year's Gremlins or an early preview of the more successful Critters that would come the following year. But its box office performance exceeded expectations, raking in $35 million against a minuscule $5 million budget. A cluster of sequels followed, but after 1994's Ghoulies 4, the franchise appeared to meet its end. Yet, could we be witnessing a Ghoulies renaissance in the summer of 2024?
In just the last year, we've seen the birth of Ghoulies plush dolls, life-size puppets, clothing, Halloween masks, soundtrack releases, and 4K remasters of the first two films on Blu-ray. Last March, it was announced that a new Ghoulies trilogy is in development, with original director Luca Bercovici and screenwriter Jefery Levy leading the charge. Even director Steven Kostanki of Psycho Goreman lately cited the third film, Ghoulies Go to College, as a key inspiration for his latest project, Frankie Freako.
This sudden surge of affection for these annoying little demons begs the question: have we stumbled upon a Ghoulies revival? And if so, what is it about these towheaded terrors that feels so pertinent in the gloomy heart of summer 2024?
Upon revisiting the series, you may be perplexed to learn that the monsters in the original film are merely toilet-adjacent. The poster "Ghoulie" only briefly emerges from a latrine in a scene speculated to have been shot in post. Ghoulies II took tentative steps toward rectifying the issue with its human adversary getting bitten during a bathroom break. In the third film, the titular monsters are summoned from hell through a college dormitory's commode.
It's essential to remember that Ghoulies are not sewer ghouls with collapsible skeletons who sneak into your sewer pipes for a home invasion (that's rats) nor displaced water elementals outraged by modern plumbing. They are, in fact, demons. Given this fact, the series' renewed popularity becomes more logical as interest in the occult has been on the rise in recent years.
Although critics may question the quality of the four Ghoulies movies, the franchise offers a peculiar charm. The first movie revolved around Jonathan Graves, a young man with a legacy of supernatural curio, who rounds up his friends for a deadly summoning ritual gone awry. The sequel saw the original film's demons still lurking on Earth as they insinuated themselves into a carnival's haunted house (fans of the Muppets will appreciate the story's nod to Jim Henson's famous mission statement, "it all ends in one of two ways: either someone gets eaten or something blows up"). The third film concerned an enraged humanities professor who resorted to occult tactics to thwart prank week on his college campus. The fourth film brought back Jonathan Graves as a police detective hunting an occult dominatrix on a murder spree. Unsurprisingly, Ghoulies 4 delivered the best tagline the franchise ever saw: "Mothers 0. Ghoulies 4."
Alas, the public perception of the series remains: Ghoulies equals toilets, a perception that the upcoming trilogy will have to address if it ever sees the light of day. Thankfully, pairing toilets with the occult is effortless, thanks to one simple truth: bathrooms are among the most haunted places on the planet.
Whether you're conjuring the ghost of Bloody Mary or are grappling with an unsolicited visit from Aka Manto, contemporary folklore is chock-full of bathroom specters. This is likely due to bathrooms being liminal spaces--rooms with both running and standing water--which any self-respecting witch or warlock recognizes as perfect for summoning something. The inclusion of a mirror also makes divination, communicating with the dead, and scrying a breeze.
Another factor tying Ghoulies to the occult is the variety of its monsters, making them far more marketable. There's one that resembles a fish, another a rat, a cat, a bat, and a toad--not to mention the elusive "clown ghoulie" who only appears in a single scene or the controversial non-puppets of Ghoulies 4. In this way, Ghoulies share traits with domestic spirits, protector entities of a single dwelling whose appearances vary from culture to culture and home to home. If you're seeking a reliable entry point to fulfill the long-awaited promise of a bathroom creature invading your sacred space, you could do worse than a band of angry household deities.
This reexamination of Ghoulies brings us back to our original question: why Ghoulies? And why now?
Although people love both nostalgia and small monsters, the demonic nature of the characters offers a "cooler" alternative to the invasive species of Gremlins or the alien prisoners of Critters. As demons, the Ghoulies are freakin' edgy. And those who seek escape from their present disappointments are sure to yearn for the unmet promises of their past, such as a green ghoul finally emerging from a toilet bowl and swallowing a child, as promised! It's going to take three more of these tiny tormentors to finally make things right.
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- The new Ghoulies trilogy, scheduled for summer 2024, is under development, with the original director Luca Bercovici and screenwriter Jefery Levy leading the project.
- Despite the iconic association of Ghoulies with bathrooms, the series' monsters are actually demons, making them a peculiarly logical choice for renewed popularity given the rise in interest in the occult.
- The charm of the Ghoulies franchise lies in its peculiar storylines that revolve around supernatural curio, haunted houses, enraged professors, and occult dominatrixes, offering a compelling alternative to more conventional creature features.
- bathrooms are often seen as liminal spaces ripe for supernatural encounters, making them a fitting setting for a Ghoulies renaissance, with contemporary folklore brimming with tales of bathroom specters such as Bloody Mary and Aka Manto.