I’m not saying that history is inaccurate, but I adamantly and blatantly refuse to believe that directors Luca Bercovici and Joe Dante had similar ideas about green terrifying creatures coming to torment humanity. I know sometimes ideas are borrowed from other things, other concepts, etc., but to fully believe that two different creatives came up with the idea that creatures just want to be monsters, but the year was 1984 and both Ghoulies (Bercovici) and Gremlins (Dante) came out. Granted that Ghoulies certainly feels like the B-movie version of Dante’s Gremlins, but it is still a delight of pure madness and chaos.
The movie focuses on Jonathan (Peter Liapis), who decides he’s not all that into getting an education even though he is well past his school years. He decides to dabble in home renovations and takes it upon himself to fix up the house from his dad, Malcolm (Michael Des Barres). His dad was not an ordinary dad as he was a possessed satanic wizard with inexplainable powers, and when Jonathan starts his renovations, he inherits the powers of his father. Shockingly, more than anything though, Rebecca (Lisa Pelikan), Jonathan’s girlfriend, is a saint who puts up with all of his chaos. While the monsters/ghoulies aren’t prominent throughout the film and its more focused on Jonathan and his satanic wizardry, the chaos they erupt into is certainly entertaining, even if short lived.
It is now 2023, and if you haven’t seen Ghoulies, there is a chance it’s probably not on your radar. It has had a double feature Blu-ray release in the past, which I haven’t seen, but looking at this newly-restored 4K from a 16-bit scan of the original camera negative and HDR, it is clear this is the best the movie has ever looked. This transfer is simply sublime; it is pristine and mint and honestly proves that restoring films from their prints is the only way restorations should happen as this is simply astonishing at how beautiful it looks.
While there are plenty of movies which tackle B-type movies and have creatures and monsters, there aren’t many which also contain satanic wizardry. However, in all seriousness, Ghoulies is an absolute blast of a popcorn flick that just entertains its audience and knows exactly what it’s doing and why it exists. It is meant to be a silly, over the top, and very unrealistic creature flick. Its biggest shame is that it opened against Gremlins in the same year, as this certainly would’ve appeased to an older-ish audience and the younglings who don’t get too terrified.
While the restoration does look absolutely spectacular, this 4K Blu-ray entry in the MVD Rewind Collection is truly packed to the brim with extra content and bonus features. It does not appear that there are any *new* features which were not on the previous Blu-ray releases, but they are now on this masterful restored version. The added bonuses, aside from owning the movie, are that there is a mini poster included inside the case of Ghoulies that come with most, if not all, of the MVD Rewind Collection titles. If you’ve seen Ghoulies in the past and found yourself enjoying the madness that unfolded in the short run time, or if you just generally like over-the-top creature movies that don’t feature the creatures too heavily, then the MVD Rewind Collection 4K Ultra HD version of Ghoulies is the best version of the singular film to exist on the market to date, with all of the legacy features included as well as a snazzy new poster in this new edition.
Ghoulies Special Features
- 4K UHD Disc: 2023 4K Restoration (16-Bit Scan of the Original Camera Negative) of the film presented in its original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio in Dolby Vision / HDR
- Blu-ray Disc: 2023 HD Restoration of the film presented in its original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio
- Archival 2015 Audio commentary with director Luca Bercovici
- Archival 2016 Audio commentary by director Luca Bercovici moderated by Jason Andreasen of Terror Transmission
- Video Introduction by Luca Bercovici (HD) (Blu-ray disc only)
- Editing an Empire: Interview with Ted Nicolau (HD, 27:30) (Blu-ray disc only)
- The Mind Is A Terrible Thing to Waste: Interview with Scott Thomson (HD, 22:02) (Blu-ray disc only)
- Just For The Chick Man interview with Luca Bercovici (HD, 33:46) (Blu-ray disc only)
- ‘From Toilets to Terror:’ The Making of Ghoulies (HD, 29:49) (Blu-ray disc only)
- Photo Gallery (Blu-ray disc only)
- Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1:55) (Blu-ray disc only)
- 4 TV Spots (Blu-ray disc only)
- Collectible 4K LaserVision Mini-Poster
Available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray September 12th, 2023.
For more information, head to the official MVD Entertainment Group Ghoulies webpage.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
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Categories: Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews
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