[Ghouls]
Plot:A college student returns with her father to his home country only to discover her family holds a dark secret that involves her.

Cast:Kristen Renton, James DeBello, William Atherton, Erin Gray, Dan Badarau, Lucia Maier, Ion Haiduc, Constantin Florescu.

My Thoughts:Ghoulish!

Review:So many things were sad about this indie straight-to-tv effort called "Ghouls". So really where do I begin? The story involves a teenage girl (Renton) who returns with her father to her home country of Romania for a simple visit to get acquainted with members of her family. Little does she know however, that the family is into some really dark shit, and she is about to become a part of it herself. "Gasp!"....coming up on the next episode of "Scooby-Doo!" Seriously though, "Ghouls" is ghoulish.....ghoulishly bad that is. While the movie does come up with a half-way decent and non-cliche way of getting it's female lead to the spot where she's supposed to be terrorized and run for her life, everything after that just falls into the "wtf?" and "yawn" categories.

Also one has to wonder....what is it with horror films and Romania? I'm starting to think maybe the U.S. economy is so bad that Hollywood can't even afford to shoot a simple cheapie in L.A. anymore. So it seems alot of indie and C-grade horror films are shooting in Romania. Usually it'd be Canada but I guess it's even too expensive to shoot a cheapie there now. Go figure. "Ghouls" pretty much plays out alot how you'd see a film like this playing out, only a whole lot worse. The budget you can tell is really lacking. The ghouls themselves are CGI tattered-rag-wearing creatures which fly around and only land to devour the flesh of the living.

The blood and gore are all over the place in this film, but the ghouls are so terrible looking that when they dismember, bite, or slash someone up....those are the only moments woth watching with them involved. In fact, these creatures don't even really look like ghouls.....they kind of mimic a really low rent impresison of the boogeyman from 2005's "Boogeyman". The saddest thing of all about this film is that it really has no plot. It's not-to-bright girl gets taken to Romania by father and his girlfriend.

Not-to-bright girl fails to realize that everyone in the small village where she's staying is up to no good, not-to-bright-girl runs around like a chicken with her head cut off after realizing flying cgi creatures have invaded the village and are eating the villagers, and not-to-bright-girl finally learns what's happening but just a little too late which is when she's konked over the head and taken away for the obligatory "demonic ceremony", which always makes an appearance in films like these. You can't have a D-grade occult horror film without the obligatory chanting, red robes, and secret underground hideout where people are sacrificed and portals to hell can be opened.

Without that....it's just another shitty SCIFI Original picture right? James DeBello (Cabin Fever) makes an appearance in this stinker. For what reason, I don't know. Probably just had a mortgage to pay. But for someone who appeared in "Swimfan" and "Cabin Fever"......this film was way beneath him. I guess they needed a name to get people to even click on this movie though. Without him, I wouldn't have given it a look, that's for sure. DeBello plays a ghoul-hunter who helps not-so-bright chick kill the demons and avoid becoming the host for a very powerful evil which seeks to destroy the world.

While his character does get to sport a pretty cool-looking "Highlander"-ish outfit in the film, seems to me the writers forgot that ghouls can't be killed with grenades or guns, which DeBello's character Thomas uses on them throughout the movie. If demons could be killed by a simple shotgun slug to the chest of a tossed grenade, then would there be any need for exorcists at all? Probably not, just like there's really no need to see this film. "Ghouls" tries though....it fails miserably but it tries.

Even when the films put the viewer through hell for 60 painful minutes, it wraps up by throwing in the "evil relative" twist and some CGI green orbage. Yeah.....it's that bad. "Ghouls" is another cheapie-D horror film that you should avoid at all costs. You'd be better off renting out some occult books, and trying to summon up your own ghoul. It'd be a much more entertaining experience than this shit.

Positives:The ending.

Negatives:Everything except the female lead who was atleast slightly easy on the eyes.

Overall:Trash.





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