Deep Cuts Podcast: Ghoulies II Night at The Rendezvous
“They’ll get you in the end…again!”
Built in the 1930s as part of Seattle’s film row, The Jewelbox Theater is a small, fully restored stage in the back of Belltown’s Rendezvous. Normally home to cabaret and burlesque performances, the vibe is very different on the second Sunday of each month. Deep Cuts, a podcast-in-the-making sponsored by Scarecrow Video, takes over the Jewelbox to host a movie screening followed by a live podcast recording right on stage.
Hosts Morgue Anne and Evan J. Peterson discuss that night’s feature presentation, providing insights from behind the scenes as well as more nuanced critiques of the subject matter. If you’re active in Seattle’s horror scene, those names may seem familiar to you. Morgue Anne is literal goth royalty, elected Ms./Mx. Gothic Seattle 2020 and dubbed “The Plague Queen.” She is a burlesque performer, DJ, panelist, and more. Evan J. Peterson is a horror/game writer whose work has appeared in Weird Tales, Nightmare Magazine, and PseudoPod, to name a few. Their podcast aims to examine the horror genre’s nooks and crannies, finding forgotten crumbs and rereleasing them to the public.
Still from Ghoulies II / Empire Pictures
November offered up a classic ‘80s sequel for us to enjoy: Ghoulies II, a “little bastards” style horror movie playing off the popularity of Gremlins starring the iconic Phil Fondacaro (Willow, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Troll, and approximately a thousand other things) and Royal Dano (Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Twin Peaks). It was the only sequel in the Ghoulies franchise to have a theatrical release.
Produced by Full Moon Features, a company whose name might as well be synonymous with classic B-movies, the first Ghoulies was pitched as a bottle flick with the entire film taking place in the protagonist’s home. The ghoulies are demons summoned through a satanic ritual. But besides the little monsters themselves, there isn’t much overlap between the first and second films. The ghoulies mostly resemble small animals: the fish ghoulie, cat ghoulie, rat ghoulie, etc. The “little nasties” are brought to life through a combination of puppetry and stop-motion, a dated practice even by 1980s standards, giving the film a Jason and the Argonauts vibe.
The sequel doesn’t stray far from the original model, except instead of a house, the titular ghoulies find themselves in a carnival. They take over a struggling haunted house called Satan’s Den run by an uncle and nephew team. Uncle Ned (Dano) is a stage magician struggling with alcoholism. His nephew Larry is helping him for the summer. Their friend and coworker, Sir Nigel Penneyweight (Fondacaro), helps them with the attraction by playing an impish demon—foreshadowing at its finest. The owner of the carnival, a gray-suited Wall Street wolf named Hardin, gives the Satan’s Den’s crew an ultimatum: turn a profit by the end of the week or else. Lucky for them, the Den has just gained some supernatural denizens…or is it?
Ghoulies II movie poster / Imdb
The demonic ghoulies quickly begin wreaking havoc on the carnival, killing attendees and performers alike and hiding their bodies among the mummies in the haunted house. The Den’s popularity grows in time with its body count. Before long, the ghoulies escape the confines of Satan’s Den and begin exacting their unique brand of childish violence on the entire carnival. Comedic shenanigans ensue, culminating in some of the most over-the-top death scenes this era of horror has to offer.
After the film, Evan and Morgue Anne invited me to join them for their recording. We talked at length about Full Moon Features and its figurehead, Charles Band, as well as their star attraction (to borrow the parlance of Ghoulies II): the Puppet Master series.
What I found most engaging about the hosts’ discussion was the kindness with which they approached their analyses. Too often with cult classics, the narrative centers around a “so bad, they’re good” mentality. These sorts of reviews often rely on mockery and mean-spiritedness á la CinemaSins to keep their audiences engaged.
As a lover of all things horror and cult, I am immediately turned off by this approach, and I appreciated Morgue Anne and Evan’s commitment to focusing on what Ghoulies II had to offer. Like many cult films, what it lacks in budget, it makes up for in its earnest sincerity.
And it is memorable; how can anyone forget a capitalist yuppy dying by a doll-sized demon crawling up from the toilet to eat his ass TO DEATH? Furthermore, it is rare to find a film of any genre with a nuanced and interesting disabled character who isn’t exclusively defined by their disability. Fondacaro’s character is a fully developed person who plays an integral role in the plot. While the script does not ignore the fact that he is a little person, his characterization doesn’t rely on it either.
To close our discussion, I asked the hosts why it was important to keep an appreciation for these kinds of movies alive:
Evan: “It’s a comfort. It’s like eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead of a meal. It takes me back to being a monster child.”
Morgue Anne: “I keep coming back to the weirdness, which to me is the highest of compliments. Horror is like the carnival [in Ghoulies II]: it celebrates so-called freaks and weirdos.”
