A very unlikely smash hit in 1985, Empire Pictures' Ghoulies pulled in hordes of young viewers with its iconic poster art of a rubbery monster popping out of a toilet along with the tagline, "They'll get you in the end." That simple but brilliant marketing decision helped it stand out from the many Gremlins imitators at the time, though the film itself barely makes any use of the ghoulies themselves as they mostly stand around watching Satanic shenanigans or pop up in random insert shots without actually doing much of anything. It's still a fun monster movie though, which was enough to ensure that a sequel would go into production quickly. This time Albert Band, director dad of Empire's Charles Band, got into the director's chair for Ghoulies II, which delivers exactly what you would have wanted from the first film: lots and lots of violent, ridiculous ghoulie action. Of course, the success of this one on home video meant the series would continue, so Band sold the rights to save the rapidly declining Empire to Vestron which led to two more, extremely bizarre entries: 1991's Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College and 1994's Ghoulies IV.

Ditching any sort of narrative connection to the first film, this one begins in the middle of the night as a sweaty, panicking priest (Dr. No's Dawson) hides out from red-robed cultists while trying to dispose of a ghoulie stashed in a sack. Naturally he fails and ends up in a barrel of acid, and the main story begins at a carnival where the new yuppie owner Phillip Hardin (Downing) intends to slash any jobs that might affect his bottom line. Onetime magician and operator of the big spook attraction Satan's Den, Uncle Ned (Dano) is less than thrilled with the situation and experiments with a spell he found in a book, which rouses a bunch of ghoulies who stowed away on the carnival's truck at the beginning. Soon the beasts are wreaking havoc in the lives of the carnies including Ned's truck driver nephew Larry (Martin), theatrical and diminutive Sir Nigel Penneyweight (Hard Rock Zombies' Fondacaro), and potential love interest Nicole (Pumpkinhead's Remsen). Before long the carnival is turning into a bloodbath with pendulums, guillotines, bumper cars, and anything else around used as implements of death.

One of the real treats of watching an Empire film is spotting unexpected names behind the camera, and this one's no exception thanks to a screenplay by regular Stuart Gordon scribe Dennis Paoli and cinematography by Sergio Salvati (The Beyond), with the Rome-based shoot also meaning that you get tiny roles for Dawson, Mickey Knox (StageFright), and Romano Puppo (2019: After the Fall of New York). On top of that the younger cast is stacked with faces like a young William Butler (Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III) who went on to become a busy Full Moon director, Sasha Jenson (Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers), Dale Wyatt (Spellcaster), and the debut of child actor Donnie Jeffcoat (Night of the Demons) who stayed busy in front of the camera and became a martial arts instructor. Of course, the real stars here are the ghoulies themselves who get tons of screen time thanks to the great John Carl Buechler and his team (including Butler) complete with some charming pre-Subspecies stop-motion work. If you're looking for a fast-paced fright film, this is really the ghoulies movie to beat.

The last in the series to get a theatrical release (albeit much smaller than the first film), Ghoulies II hit VHS from Vestron in 1988 and has remained more or less available ever since in all the major formats. MGM released a DVD in 2003 pairing this up with the first film, marking the first widescreen release for both of them and featuring their respective trailers. In 2015, Scream Factory issued a Blu-ray of both films in improved HD scans from interpositives, this time with this title having options of DTS-HD MA 5.1 or 2.0 with optional English subtitles. The 2.0 is just fine as it reflects the Ultra-Stereo surround mix intended for theaters with lots of dramatic directional activity throughout. Also included are the trailer, a photo gallery, and "More Toilets, More Terror: The Making of Ghoulies II" (16m50s) with Charles Band, Donnie Jeffcoat, Kerry Remsen, and FX artist Gino Cragnole looking back at the production including anecdotes about the Rome crew and being agog at some of the pre-CGI effects work. However, the biggest draw on that release was the discovery of several Ghoulies II trims (2m43s) made to secure a PG-13 rating instead of an R. That includes extra cheek biting, pendulum slashing, arm floating, and uh, bumper car aggression, all of which would have given it a nastier edge. (On the other hand, Dano's f-bomb had no problem staying in PG-13 safe territory.)

As with their release of Swamp Thing, Scream Factory claimed they were legally prohibited from releasing the full cut of Ghoulies II on Blu-ray, but in 2017 German label NSM Records released a special edition featuring the standard cut as well as the extended one tucked away in the special features, with all the more violent bits integrated back into the same scan seen on the Scream Factory disc. That Region B release also has trailers for the first two films, an intro (1m15s) and interview (33m36s) with Paoli about this film and his tenure with Empire, the deleted scenes reel, and W.A.S.P.'s "Scream Until You Like It" music video (obviously yanked from YouTube), and talent filmographies. Audio options come in DTS-HD German 2.0 and English 5.1 with German or English subs.

In more recent years with its MVD Rewind Collection, MVD managed to pull off some miraculous releases including an uncut (and gorgeous) 4K UHD of Swamp Thing and a ridiculously impressive-looking UHD of the first Ghoulies. Their announcement of Ghoulies II led to a 2023 Blu-ray release taken from the same scan with word that a possible UHD was in the works but would take more time to lock down; that Blu-ray combines basically everything worldwide including the trailer, the Paoli intro and interview, deleted scenes, a 1m50s photo gallery, and "More Toilets, More Terror." In this case you get the original LPCM 2.0 surround mix with optional English subtitles, and it still sounds excellent (though it's worth noting some dialogue scenes have baked-in sibilance that seems to be inherent in the original recording on all releases, especially around the 31-minute mark). In 2024, MVD released a combo UHD and Blu-ray edition featuring the same Blu-ray disc and a UHD featuring - finally! - the full unrated cut of the film in addition to the usual theatrical version. In this case it's a new 2024 16-bit scan from the original camera negative with HDR-compatible Dolby Vision, and the extra footage has also been given a new scan looking much better than ever before. The bar was set high with the first film, and it's easily met with this one as well. Note that Blu-ray frame grabs are present here for now, but UHD ones should be coming shortly. The LPCM 2.0 surround mix is on par what we've had before with optional English subtitles, plus the trailer and Paoli intro on the UHD. As usual you also get a "collectible 4K LaserVision mini-poster" folded in the package, perfect for hanging up in the office.

MVD (Blu-ray)

NSM Records (Blu-ray)

Reviewed on July 20, 2024