Welcome back to my Dark Corner of this Sick World.
‘Well speak of the devil’
Night of the Ghouls is Ed Wood’s sequel to his ‘classic’ Bride of the Monster .
‘You mean that place where the mad doctor made monsters?’
Taking place in a new spooky house out in the marshes built on the remains of the old spooky house out in the marshes.
‘Brings back memories’
Really? Did you see it in the cinema? Cos you sure as hell weren’t in the film.
‘The old scientists control room used to be over here’
I don’t know what’s weirder, the fact that he’s remembering a house he’s never been in
or the fact that he’s finding his way around this house by remembering...
'The one that was destroyed by lighting’
It’s a different house!
The main question about this movie has to be; why make it a sequel?
‘I can’t see where that’s any of your affair’
The story has nothing to do with the Bride of the Monster.
‘Oh it was a nightmare of horrors’
The only way to connect them is to keep referring back to it every 5 minutes!
‘So I figured these stories about the old place since the doctor and his monsters were killed was a just figment of someones imagination’
‘The old scientist and his monsters, Lobo here served him well.’
‘He entered into a hall he did not remember from his previous visit there’
We do still have Tor Johnson’s Lobo.
Just turn to your right so we can see the make-up.
Lovely
And of course Patrolman Kelton, played by Paul Marco who is also in Plan 9 from outer space.
‘Monsters, space people, mad doctors! they didn't teach me about such things in the police academy.'
Forming the films into a seamless and consistent trilogy if you ignore everything except for Kelton.
‘Why do I always get picked for these screwy details all the time?’
There’s no monsters or mad scientists here.
‘That’s too bad’
Just a turban wearing medium.
‘Perhaps I’ve been hasty in assailing you’
but is he really contacting the dead? Or is he just fleecing the bereaved.
‘I am Dr Acula your host’
Well, nothing suspicious about his name. What about the séance itself?
No, clearly he runs a slick operation, you can’t blame people for falling this.
'We tonight will bring him back from what was thought to be his final resting place.'
How long has this séance being going on?
‘It shouldn’t take you too long’
Frankly next to Dr Acula, you could almost call Sally Morgan legitimate.
‘Over my dead body.’
As you’d expect from Wood there’s some wilfully incompetent filmmaking technique.
‘One could almost read his thoughts’
‘It’s only a metal railing…’
'This Dr Acukla probaly has this rigged up too.'
Set dressing for a police station that includes little more than a photo of Wood himself on the wall.
And Criswell.
‘I am Criswell…’
Who provides voiceover and shows up at the end with a posse of ghosts.
‘Good evening Dr Acula, we have been expecting you’
Who kick shit out of the doctor.
The acting is more horrifying than the story.
‘You’re not my actors’.
and the plot relies on the doctor having a steady supply of actors who are the spitting image of his wealthy clients’ dead relatives.
‘Even now life is being restored to her through the scented candles, spices and oils’
We’ve also got some pot pouri that’ll cure cancer.
‘This is no time for silly jokes’
And at one a point the action speeds up so it looks like a silent comedy.
It’s terrible.
‘I don’t think I’m gonna like this’
But it’s Ed Wood!
‘Gotta give him credit, he uses good material’
He really doesn’t, but if you can’t laugh at a ghost playing a trumpet...
Then you need to re-examine your life.
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