GHOULIES (1984) ON THE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT

Ghoulies

In the middle 1980s, way down on Level 31, we had The Texas 27 Film Vault. Before Joel and Mike, we had Randy and Richard. (I make a point of opening my T27FV posts with similar reminders because it cuts down on furious reactions from people who don’t pay attention to the broadcast dates and accuse Randy and Richard of ripping off MST3K even though their show came first.) 

In honor of the FORTIETH anniversary of this forgotten 1985-1987 cult show Balladeer’s Blog has been posting about parts of the program’s history. This time I’ll examine the final movie presented and mocked by the machine-gun toting Randy and Richard and their colleagues in the Film Vault Corps – “the few, the proud, the sarcastic”.  

Randy Clower and Richard Malmos of The Texas 27 Film Vault (both lower right) featured in a Movie Host article with Stella from Saturday Night Dead and Elvira.

FILM VAULT LORE: A T27FV fan calling herself Georgia remarked at Egor’s site: “I still lived (in Dallas) when they did their last show. They knew they were going off the air because they talked about it and seemed pretty sad about it. I was sad, too. It was the best thing on tv.” 

The show was still hot in the ratings but Randy, Richard, Ken “Tex” Miller and Joe “The Hypnotic Eye” Riley got hot job offers they couldn’t turn down. Combine that with the collapse of the Film Vault Guys’ most recent attempt to get a syndication deal (what might have been) and the gang disbanded after roughly 2 and 1/2 years of bad movie fun.

Ghoulies poster

THE MOVIE: This was a product from Charles Band, so lovers of bad 1980s horror films know what they’re in for. Jack Nance from Eraserhead and Mariska Hargitay from Law and Order: SVU can both point to this flick as their most embarrassing moment on camera!  

A Satanist played by rock singer Michael Des Barres leaves his mansion – which was the site of his Black Masses and human sacrifices – to a young couple played by Lisa Pelikan and Peter Liapis. They move into the creepy old place and the man starts to become possessed by the dark forces that linger in the mansion. Eventually his dabbling in Satanic rituals causes his zombified father Malcolm (Des Barres) to climb out of his grave,which is conveniently located in the mansion’s backyard.

His mucking around also unleashes the title menaces, some of whom are midgets, one of whom is a clown-doll a la Poltergeist and some of whom are ugly, fake-looking Gremlins-wannabes. The attack scenes are almost as comically inept as those in Attack of the Beast Creatures, a film previously reviewed here at Balladeer’s Blog.

As for Ghoulies, a large part of the film involves the resurrected and still-malevolent Malcolm and the Ghoulies slaughtering the guests that Liapis has invited to the vile mansion. Hargitay is one of the guests who gets wiped out in the laugh-til-you-cry death scenes.

Richard (left) and Randy between takes on The Texas 27 Film Vault.

Jack Nance shows up at the end of the film to battle Des Barres in a duel of black magic vs white magic. The special effects here are typical of Charles Band Productions – which means a public access cable show could do better. The little person who played ET portrays one of the title creatures so that’s another nice bit of trivia from this hilariously awful film.

SPOILERS: The triumph of white magic at the end reverses the evil that’s been done, so the dead teens all get resurrected, but then the film says “to hell with our own continuity” and throws in a closing scene featuring the Ghoulies still alive and functioning and about to slaughter the human characters all over again.

IN THE NEAR FUTURE BALLADEER’S BLOG WILL PRESENT MORE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT MILESTONES. Be here to share the Film Vault Corp’s mission of “safeguarding America’s schlock-culture heritage”.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFO ON THIS SHOW – https://glitternight.com/texas-27-film-vault/