| The SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review |
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| Science-Fiction |
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| Horror |
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| Fantasy |
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NIGHT OF THE GHOULS
Rating: 
USA. 1960/1983.
Director/Screenplay/Producer – Edward D. Wood Jr, Photography (b&w) – William C. Thompson, Music Supervisor – Gordon Zahler, Art Direction – Kathleen O’Hara Everett. Production Company – not listed.
Cast:
Kenne Duncan (Dr Acula), ‘Duke’ Moore (Lieutenant Dan Bradford), Valda Hansen (The White Ghost/Sheila), John Carpenter (Captain Robbins), Paul Marco (Patrolman Paul Kelton), Tor Johnson (Lobo), Criswell (Himself), Don Nagel (Sergeant Crandel), Jeannie Stevens (The Black Ghost), Harvey B. Dunn (Henry), Margaret Mason (Martha), Marcelle Hemphill (Maude Wingate Yates Foster)
Plot: Police are sent to investigate reports of ghosts around an old house near Willows Lake. Lieutenant Dan Bradford, a detective who specializes in ghost hunting, is invited in by Dr Acula who runs a fake medium scam from the house. Meanwhile Patrolman Kelton sees ghosts, which may be real or may be part of Acula’s scam, around the house.
Night of the Ghouls is one of the films of the legendary ‘world’s worst director’ Edward D. Wood Jr. Wood made films such as Glen or Glenda? (1952), Bride of the Monster (1955) and in particular Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959). Wood gained immortality after he was vilified in Harry and Michael Medved’s book The Golden Turkey Awards (1980). In the subsequent cultish fascination that grew up around Wood following the Medved book, Night of the Ghouls developed a reputation as one of the lost Wood films – and was even at times alleged to be an alternate title or a sequel to Plan 9. The new burgeoning video revolution brought Wood’s films into circulation once again and amidst this there was a clamour to find lost Wood titles. Among these genre B movie restoration expert Wade Williams uncovered Night of the Ghouls and the Wood scripted Orgy of the Dead (1965). Both of these were never released because Wood had failed to pay for the lab processing costs and the films had languished forgotten in obscurity. In 1983, thanks to Williams, both films were able to see the light of projectors for the first time and joined the legendary Wood pantheon.
Night of the Ghouls alas disappoints somewhat – ironically because it isn’t really bad enough. It lacks any of the spectacularly gaffes, the hilarious purple prose or notorious behind-the-scenes freakshow melodramas that other Wood films do. In fact it is actually quite possibly the best made of all Wood films. Williams’s DVD restoration is an amazingly crisp job, which actually lets the film look quite well lit. Wood does quite a decent job of conjuring atmosphere during moments such as the Bride in Black’s appearances. Did the film not come with the Wood association it could have favourably passed for a 1940s Monogram or PRC poverty row production such as The Invisible Ghost (1941) or The Corpse Vanishes (1942). This is all something that brings the film up to the level of a competent B movie. The biggest problem is that it is all really rather dull. It is too well made for the unintentional laugh quotient that accompanies other Wood films and only routinely competent enough as standard horror fare. All it really transpires as is a routine medium plot with a banally fantastic ending.
Still there is its fair share of bad movie moments. There is the odd moment of Wood-esque overwrought prose: “He remembered the cold, clammy sensation of the railing. Cold, clammy like the dead ... Yes, the railing was as he remembered it. Perhaps colder, perhaps more startling.” And there is of course Criswell who appears, as he did in Plan 9, rising up out of a coffin to introduce the film, his eyes wandering all over the place as though he were drunk. The corny ending with the dead clambering out of their coffins to claim the fake medium is the only moment the film actually enters the supernatural. Criswell is of course present to offer a portentous final warning: “And now we return to our graves – the old and the new. You may join us soon.” As with most Wood films there is no real such thing as linear plot development – his films are mostly a series of scenes and flashbacks that could fairly much be put in any order.
Wood also makes some effort made to tie Night of the Ghouls up with his other films. There’s a return appearance of Paul Marco who played Patrolman Kelton in both Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 from Outer Space. He has an amusing line that makes direct reference to such at one point: “Ghosts, monsters, space people – I always get these screwy assignments. I resign.” There’s also a return appearance of Tor Johnson’s Lobo from Bride of the Monster (and with the benefit of quite a decently horrific makeup effect on his face).
Copyright Richard Scheib 2003
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