Prolific B-movie producer Charles Band, who sired the original GHOULIES back in 1985, has declared that the reason his initial GREMLINS takeoff did any business at all was its attention-getting ad campaign: a bald, green mini-ogre emerging from a toilet bowl, with the tagline "They'll Get
You in the End."
This sub-moronic comic sequel perpetuates the potty fixation. A supernatural bowl covered with gargoyle faces and known as the "Porcelain Vessel" has long served as a commode in the Beta Theta Zeta frat house at Glazier University. Diabolical dean, Professor Ragnar (Kevin McCarthy), wants to
become all-powerful through black magic, and he uses a spell provided by a comic book to invoke a trio of dwarf demons who pop out of the Luciferian latrine. They are, of course, three of the "Ghoulies" from the previous films: the bald one, a rat-creature and a mutant pussycat. That's still not
cretinous enough for the filmmakers, who endow the evil imps with Three Stooges mannerisms as they bop heads, gouge eyes and kick groins. Their path of death and destruction is blamed on overzealous fraternity jerks celebrating "Prank Week." Finally Greek lovers Skip Carter (Evan MacKenzie) and
Erin (Eva Larue) wise up--so to speak--and permanently flush Ragnar, but not before he and his Ghoulies meld into one visually impressive composite monster.
This installment boasts the best special effects of any GHOULIES picture so far, which is no surprise considering that make-up ace John Carl Buechler is directing. But it is also the lowliest of the whole ugly lot, an ordeal for any viewer with brain cells. Gags, stereotypes and vulgarity are
trawled from the septic discharge of NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE-inspired farces, with much time expended on the raunchy BTZ guys and their pursuit of girls, drugs and a paper-and-tinsel "Prank Crown" that looks like the thing Jughead used to wear. It's a Hollywood-burnout's-eye-view of
college life as an orgiastic keg party and nonstop panty raid, although Brent Olson's screenplay drops the names of Magritte, Man Ray and Roy Lichtenstein in a futile try for academic ambiance.
And that's even before the Ghoulies show up. Chattering immortal lines like "Who cut the cheese?" and beating the Stooges schtick into the ground, they wear out their welcome at once, even though Buechler's puppet creations manage a wider range of facial expressions this time out. Their antics
include an encounter with a monolith-like refrigerator stocked with 2001 (get it?) bottles of beer, and an ambush on familiar TV face Marcia Wallace, playing Ragnar's secretary. "She's famous," quoth a Ghoulie. "She's on 'Newhart!'" (Wallace actually acted on the older "Bob Newhart Show," but
that's a lot of syllables.) If GHOULIES GO TO COLLEGE seems a bit out of step with the times, there's a good reason: distribution company Vestron went out of business (thanks in part to junk like this), leaving the movie on the shelf until its home video release a few years later. (Violence,
substance abuse, profanity, nudity, sexual situations.) leave a comment
