Ghoulies (1984)

Episode 435, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, we are ready to do another request this month. And you know, I think I say this every now and then on our outros, that we have a feature on our website where you can go and you can leave us a voice message. You don’t have to sign into anything.

You don’t need any special software. You can just do it right through your browser and then record something up to 60 seconds and then it just sends it right to us. And we love it when people do that and whenever people do that, of course, we featured on the show this time around, we have loyal listener Russ.

Who sent us this request? 

Russ: Hi there. I just started listening to you guys podcast and I really like it. I think you guys should do an episode on the Ghoulies because I’d love to hear your take on that. Alright. Also, Silent Night, Deadly Night 2. I don’t remember seeing that. Your podcast. Thanks guys. Keep up the good work.

Craig: Thank you, Russ. I appreciate hearing from you. I, I, somebody’s gonna have to really twist my arm if we’re ever gonna do Silent Night, Deadly Night 2. 

Todd: I know, right? 

Craig: My arm is gonna have to be really, really twisted, isn’t it? 

Todd: Now you’ve seen it? I haven’t Isn’t it mostly just like clips from the first movie?

Craig: Yeah, it’s mostly just cuts from the first, I don’t know. It’s fine. Whatever. Like there are funny moments. In it. Gosh, we’ve 

Todd: done like the first one, the fourth one, the fifth one, the sixth I, I think the third or the sixth one as well. We’ve done quite a few of them. I don’t know. 

Craig: Yeah. However, Russ, we can accommodate you.

I. With Ghoulies. Yes. Ghoulies. We’ve been talking, I, I feel like we’ve mentioned Ghoulies a million times. 117 times. Yeah. Yeah. Like so many times, give or take, and we’ve talked about doing this and when we’ve talked about doing this, and I will stand by it. I’m, I’m happy to talk about this movie. I’m excited to talk about this movie, but I will stand by it.

Goey two. Is the better Ghoulies movie. Ah, I’d imagine it is. I haven’t seen it. Yeah, it is, and I hope that someday, I mean, it set it at like a carnival, my gosh. It’s just, it’s, it’s more fun. This movie’s weird, weird. This movie actually, I, for, I forgot how weird this movie is in, in all honesty, the, the Ghoulies, the little puppet monsters are just kind of.

Background. Yes. Like they just kind of hang out in the back. 

Todd: They don’t really themselves do much at all. They, they kill a few people, but ultimately they’re not the focus of the story. Unlike Critters and Munchies, Gremlins, obviously we recently did Critters 4, but we’ve also covered critters on this.

We’ve covered Gremlins here. It’s interesting ’cause this movie’s in 1985, and I remember when Gremlins came out. It was 1985, wasn’t it? It was huge. Steven Spielberg produced, Joe Dante directed Fitz credited with setting off a whole craze of little monster creature movies. But what I didn’t realize until we started working on, you know, really covering these other films for the podcast mm-hmm.

Is these other movies that we think of as knockoffs. They were in production at the same time. Yeah, yeah. They didn’t even know about Gremlins until they were well into it in at least a case of critters and this movie. The concepts and the scripts had been finished for years before they ever went into production, and just so happened to start to go into production at the same time that Joe Dante is doing gremlins.

In fact, this movie was sued by Warren Warner Brothers because they were afraid that the title was too similar, Ghoulies and Gremlins, and if they come out at the same time. People would get confused. Ultimately. They either drop a lawsuit or they lost the lawsuit. Not quite sure which that is. But, uh, yeah, this movie was able to come out and capitalize on some of the success of Gremlins could have come out before Gremlins, but there were some factors we’ll probably talk about later that kept it from getting released as, as early as it could have been released.

There had to be some reshoots and they wanted to put together a proper marketing campaign. And then also this being a a Charles band movie, this was one of his. One of his first movies out on his Empire Pictures studio, and he really knew, thought that this one was gonna be a, a big hit for them and wanted to use that momentum to finally get into distribution because up until now the movies they’d been making, I.

You know, I think when you have somebody else distributing the film, you just don’t see a lot of profits or there’s a lot of shadiness and bookkeeping that goes on and upstream and so, so a lot of the profits don’t end up coming back to you for whatever reason. And he was like, if we’re gonna make any money in this business, we really need to start controlling distribution.

And this was the one that, that he did it. He, they did a hundred thousand prints of this back when this was all necessary and to spend a lot of money into that. Spent a lot of marketing and it paid off. To the point where this movie that only cost, I think it only had a budget of less than half a million.

I think it was like two or 300,000. They did, of course, sink million. A a million or so into marketing, but it went on to gross, like 35 or 36 million plus. Even more in rentals and, and sales afterwards. So, uh, this is really the movie that set Empire Pictures going and Charles Ban’s whole machine to start doing all the stuff that came after it.

All of the little puppet creature movies that came after 

Craig: it. I didn’t know that. Yeah. That’s interesting. Well, thank goodness. Yeah. I, I loved all those movies. You know, this one reminded me very much of my favorite of all of them, troll. Yes. Anybody who’s listened to the podcast like Troll is one of my favorite movies and Stop period.

Mm-hmm. Like they love that movie. We love Troll and a lot of the little monsters in this kind of look. Like they’re from that. 

Yeah. 

Craig: Like, well, when I, when I was seeing those little like rat faced monsters with the sharp teeth and like, they’re like dripping KY jelly. All I could think of was the trolls in trolls.

Like, hey. Yes. 

Todd: Weren’t, weren’t some of the trolls in that movie actually reused puppets from this one? I swear there were a puppet. 

Craig: Maybe. Yeah. Maybe because they look so similar. I don’t know why, and maybe it’s just my blind love for that movie. I just feel like the trolls in that movie, though, they still look like handheld puppets.

They look better. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: I, I don’t mind in, in this movie that they don’t. Look amazing. Like it’s fine. I, I, I love the conceit of little handheld puppets. That’s great. Like I am so in for that. It, it’s charming to me. It’s it’s super eighties. Yeah. Love it, love it, love it. 

Todd: Well, there’s a reason for that. And, and, and a lot of Charles Band’s puppets kind of look like this because they’re all based on the work of this one guy, Joe Beagler.

And it’s so interesting how this came about and how his involvement in it came about because this whole movie, so I don’t know if many people realize this, but Charles Band, I. And his brother Richard Band got into the movie business ’cause their father was in the movie business. Their father Albert band was producing spaghetti Western and Italian horror movies over in Italy.

And they were over there with him. And then when they became of age, they were like, we really want to get in the movie business. And Richard Band went off and did music. And so he ends up scoring most of Empire Pictures in full Moon productions films. But, um, Charles Band started right out directing and he was directing a few of these guys very much Roger Corman style.

He was doing some sci-fi. Once he was doing some action ones, he directed to me Moore in her very first movie I. Parasite. Yeah, I read that. Yeah. That was one of their earliest productions. And it was in 3D because 3D was kind of a thing at the time. And on Parasite, Charles Band worked with Stan Winston.

He had been working with Stan Winston for a couple of his previous films, and so he was really interested in all these creature and monster effects, but he realized that sci-fi is expensive. Horrors a little. Cheaper. So, um, one of the actors on Parasite, actually Demi Moores CoStar on parasite is Luca Luca Kochi, and he pitched.

Band. This idea that he and a friend of his had come up with for these little, this little creature movie that they called Beasties. Band got excited about it and he was planning on directing it and Stan Winston was gonna do the creature effects. But you know, it just like time passed and it got kind of put on hold.

Yeah. As he was doing some other things. And when he came back around to it, he was no longer gonna direct it. He actually allowed Luca Barko Vici this to be his directorial debut. So this guy was thrilled. But Sam Winston by now was already. Ha getting too expensive. He was already moving on to bigger and better productions in Hollywood.

And so Stan Winston offered up one of his proteges, which is Joe Bler. And so Joe Beeker took control of this. Did the creature effects on this. Did the creature effects on Troll. Gosh, we’ve done so many that he’s been involved inm Cellar Dweller. Yeah. TerrorVision, From Beyond. Yeah. Dolls, Demonic Toys, Seed People.

Uh, but he also did effects for, you know, some of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, the Friday the 13th movies. And one of maybe the pinnacle of, oh yeah, that’s definitely a Joe Beeker movie: The Garbage Pail Kids film. You remember that one? 

Craig: Oh boy. Oh God. Vaguely. You can’t find it. Like, I’m sure you can find it.

I can find it, but you can’t find that movie. It’s in, it’s impossible to find.

Todd: I saw it in the theater. Can you believe that 

Craig: somebody, I mean, if somebody. Happened to stumble upon it and wanted to share it with me, then maybe we could watch it and do it for a mini so or something. It’s almost as much a horror movie.

I know it’s weird. But these movies, all the ones that you just listed, some of them, many of them that we’ve already covered, I love them. Yeah. I love the Puppet Master movies. I love dolls. I, you know, like they’re great. Yeah. They’re just silly and fun, but they’re so of this time, they’re of a certain time.

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: I don’t remember when the last Puppet Master movie came out. It wasn’t that long ago. Probably within the last 10 years, but I just don’t. Don’t think there’s really the market for it anymore. And that’s fine. Like 

Todd: yeah, I mean 

Craig: it was, it was a fun, it was a fun time. 

Todd: Unless you’re looking, yeah, you’re right.

It was like a short, intense flash in the pan and then you didn’t really see them anymore. Unless you look at Charles band’s lineup, which to this day is filled with fair. This stuff to 

Craig: this day though, really? I think so. I, I wonder. What’s he doing now? Like what is Full Moon doing now? Because I feel like their whole market was based on the video shelves.

Like, oh yeah, you see Ginger Dead Man, or, or whatever, you know, like you, you see these great covers. Evil bong. Evil bong, right? And, and, and you see that and you’re out to rent a movie and it’s just an entirely different. Culture now, and I, yeah. I just don’t know if the market for those movies still exists.

I’m sure it does, but that’s how I was exposed to those movies, seeing them on the shelves. That’s the only time that I would be exposed to it. And sometimes I would usually laugh at the covers and be like, ha ha, that’s really clever, whatever. But I wouldn’t rent it. Yeah. But even then, like that was a to, that was a total shift because for me, those were the movies that we would see.

See at 1:00 AM. Yes. On up all night or whatever. Exactly. You know? 

Todd: Exactly. 

Craig: They were, that went away and so then we just had to see them on the video shelves and these things are concurrent. I things overlap, I get it, but it’s just wild how. Times change, and I genuinely am curious whether or not there is still a market for these movies, especially in the days of streaming and everything is just so saturated.

Todd: Well, but it’s, it’s one of these cases where things evolve and history repeats itself. When video came out and suddenly the rental market became huge, they said that there was such a hunger. For product that people couldn’t make these movies fast enough. You could make the shittiest movie, especially if it was like a horror sci-fi movie.

Right. And you’d make tons of money just because they needed content. And then when Netflix first came out, I don’t know if you remember this, but I probably could have gotten my movie up on Netflix. You know what I mean? Like Netflix was hungry for content. You saw all. Kinds of just stuff going up there that they didn’t produce, but like people were just throwing at ’em, you know, trauma had a lot of stuff up on there and you know, you see Amazon Prime is choked with this stuff.

You see Tubi is choked with this stuff. Yeah. And, and so I think that streaming is kind of the new video market, but it’s probably at its saturation point by now too. But, you know, you forced me to look it up, so now I, I can tell you that pop. Puppet Master Doctor Death was produced in 2022. There is a whole series of those baby Oopsie movies.

Baby Oopsie three Burn, baby Burn Only came out three years ago. Killjoy, I think is a, is a doll movie. That was, that was last year. Demonic Toys. Jack Attack was 2023. So no, I don’t think there’s a huge market for this stuff, but Charles Band keeps making them. Yeah. So there must be, there must be something.

And I, I read a, I actually read a comment from. Charles Ban’s editor on this film, Gies, who said that this movie like kind of ruined him, is what he, that’s what he says. When this movie came out, something in Charles Ban’s mind just snapped and he just decided that this is the, my ticket is all these little puppet creatures movies.

And that from then on out, it seemed like that was just all he did, at least for a while. So an argument I suppose could be made there that. When you kind of go back and look at most of what Charles Band has been doing since this and you know what he was doing before this, which wasn’t a lot, but still it does seem like this movie made a big impact in more than one way.

Clip: Gosh. 

Todd: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I dunno. 

Craig: It’s odd. It’s odd that this is the one I know. It is and, and I know it’s not the first and there were. Movies before it, with puppets or whatever, and there were many, many after. But this one, again, I, I know I’ve seen it, but I haven’t seen it in a long time. And I prefer the second one.

And I’ve seen it many times, but I just, I forgot how weird this movie is just so weird. Yeah. Such a weird movie. 

Todd: I can tell you, when I was a kid, my dad rented this for me, and I’m pretty sure because we’ve talked about this before, my dad tried to fulfill my horror desires, but he would screen 

Craig: and every time you say that, I just think it’s the sweetest.

It’s so nice. I just, that’s. So sweet. I just think it’s the loveliest, loveliest thing. 

Todd: I’m gonna be seeing him again in like two weeks, and I do need to tell him like right up, straight up, you have no idea. The memories maybe to this day that still stay with me based on this. And one of them is, I remembered him renting this for me.

I’m sure he thought it was gonna be another Gremlin Z type movie. That’s certainly how it was marketed and we watched it and I distinctly remember being. Pretty scared. I mean, I watched the whole thing, but I remembered it being kind of terrifying. And at the end I said, so dad, what did you think? And he was like, I didn’t really care for it.

And I was kind of sad. And I was like, why dad? Why didn’t you like it? And he’s like, well, I just don’t like things that involve devil worship. I get it. And I remembered there being that stuff, but. Until I watch it this time, I did not realize how intense and brutal this devil worship is. My God. The whole first scene of this movie, God, they’re about to sacrifice a baby.

Yeah. I’m surprised you didn’t turn it off right then and there. Kudos to you dad. As far as Giess go, I feel like anybody who was a child or even a teenager at the time that this movie came out has to. At least be aware of the film because of its iconic cover. And poster. 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: Even if you never saw it, you pass by this a hundred times and it always caught your eye.

It’s the gey popping outta the toilet. 

Craig: Yeah. A little monster popping out of a toilet. Like that’s great. Like that is just brilliant marketing. It’s brilliant. And like it wasn’t even in the movie. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: I know there’s some story about how it was inspired or whatever, but it wasn’t even in the movie. And then they sh when they came up with the idea for the marketing, then they shot a scene for the movie and then they, there are three sequels to this movie.

The second one is great. The third and fourth, I haven’t even seen, I just watched clips from them, but they look terrible. Awful. 

Todd: I think the fourth one is shot by my friend Jim Winky. I love that guy, but I’m not gonna say everything he shoots is great. 

Craig: I know you do, but it looks terrible. I mean, it just looks like little people in really bad rubber suits.

Oh, 

Todd: and the 

Craig: gooey start talking like, no, I, 

Todd: well, they keep with the toilet theme for at least the first three, I think. Right in the, in the cover, 

Craig: all four of the posters for the. The rest of the series, which is great because it is like, I agree with you. Again, being in the video store and seeing that, that grabs my attention.

I wanna watch that movie. Ah, and I did, I, I rented this movie, I rented the second one. I rented so many of these movies based solely, I was probably more sophisticated than your typical video store. Patron. Ooh. And I would actually turn it over and read the back. Like I wanted to know what the story was about, but it was really the cover that grabbed you.

And this is a great cover. This looked like a, this looked so much fun like this. Look, and not only is it a little monster popping out of the toilet, but it, it looks like it’s having a good time. Like it’s like a little party monster. Yeah. 

Todd: Although. They put that shot that they had to shoot right in, they made sure it was in the trailer and their trailer got approved for showing on television to all audiences.

So it actually showed during like Saturday morning cartoon times and apparently the studio got tons of hate mail. I. There was a big stink from parents who were like, my child will, I’m trying to potty train my kid and he will not sit on the toilet. ’cause he’s afraid a monster’s gonna jump out of it because of your damn movie trailer that they keep seeing like in the middle of gummy bears or whatever.

Can you believe that? Can you believe that? That’s what people were complaining about. They’d be doing it on the internet now. They just, it was just slower back then. Oh boy. Yeah. I know. It’s so funny. We, 

Craig: we, listen, we’ve been talking for almost a half an hour and we haven’t even, like this movie is about a cult.

It’s about a cult. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: It’s about a cult, 

Todd: a devil worshiping, 

Craig: a devil worshiping cult who wear pristine white robes 

Todd: and look beautiful. 

Craig: Yeah, they look great. They’re led by. Men. Who have glowing green eyes, and I want to talk about those eyes, but the, in the opening scene, this, this guy, they’re sacrificing a baby, but the mom butts in and she’s like, no, you can’t kill my baby.

And she puts like a protective amulet on it or something, and then something pops out of her chest maybe. But you don’t really see it ’cause it’s off screen. But there’s, there’s also Gies. There’s ghoulies around, all around just watching. They’re like the audience just watching. They’re like, but, but they cover their eyes when whatever this is pops out of her chest, which we never know what it is ’cause we never come back to that.

That 

Todd: was a let down. 

Craig: Another thing that I love about this movie is that there’s just. Sometimes randomly a narrator. Yes. 

Todd: Unnecessary narrator is very present in this movie, and I’m not sure who he is talking to. I guess he’s talking to us. Yeah. There’s no framing device of telling a story, even though he has that story telling like quality.

It’s just for no good reason. The narrator’s coming in to tell us what we could already infer. 

Craig: Right? Like, like you, like we’re idiots. Just like a narrator. Yeah. Like you’re watching. A, a children’s movie or something like, it’s very strange, like he’ll just pop in. Like after the events that we just talked about, the narrator pops in, the child had been saved.

So it 

Clip: seemed, and I vowed that he would never know the evil from when he was spawned and when his father finally died a horrible death. I felt sure that the curse had passed forever. 

Craig: So weird. Alright, so then we get to the main people, Jonathan, who is apparently the, the baby, I guess. Yeah. Because the narrator tells us that after the father died, 

Todd: he left.

Craig: Yeah. Whatever. Who, okay. So Jonathan inherited this. Mansion and he and his waspy fiance, Rebecca, check into this new estate and we’re immediately introduced to Wolfgang. The caretaker. 

Todd: The silent caretaker. 

Craig: The silent caretaker. The, the like brawny. Silent caretaker. Bearded caretaker, who we are specifically introduced to.

And then he disappears 

Todd: for the, for almost. The rest of the film 

Craig: never see him again 

Todd: until the very end, 

Craig: I assume. Right. But it’s important to introduce him because he comes back at the end. But I just thought that was hilarious. 

Todd: You would think that the caretaker would be around doing a lot more, taking care of this dilapidated mansion.

Unfortunately, it’s up to the two of them to, to clean up the whole thing, which they man should do. Quite quickly. Wolfgang’s played by Jack Nance. We just finished talking about him. He was, uh, the lead in eraser head for our David Lynch. Yeah. Retrospective and he was the, the, uh, the doctor and the blob remake that we absolutely loved.

Craig: Yeah. I only learned that after watching it and, and just before getting on with you. I read that for whatever reason, like it’s so silly. We watch all of these movies and I read that he was the lead in Erase her Head and I was like. Oh, I see that now. Like I feel like, oh, I know him. Look at that guy. Look at you in this movie.

Todd: He has the same look in the as the caretaker as he does in eraser head. I feel like he’s really pretty. He 

Craig: really kind does. He is. He’s crazy eyed and big staring out. That’s great. It’s great. He’s, he was my favorite part. 

Todd: I don’t know. I feel like the green eye go, the, the green eyeballs were my favorite part of this whole movie.

Craig: All right. Can we talk, let’s just talk about this. Let’s just talk about this 

Todd: right in the beginning, the high priest of the Satanic Cult, and by the way, you are right. Everything is pristine and clean. It’s almost like a comic book. The way that this cult and this scenario and everything is presented, he’s overly dramatic.

He’s doing everything you, um, you would imagine a cartoonish satanic, uh, high priest would be doing, waving his hand around. You know, it’s like he’s shooting sparks 

Clip: in ign Ito on,

Todd: and he’s got these green. Glowing eyes that are freaky as hell. Yeah. And I thought at first I was like, oh, those must be like animated over his eyeballs. But it’s like, no, that’s, that’s, it’s a little too good for that. 

Craig: I don’t think so. Nobody’s 

Todd: got contacts in, he really does. 

Craig: Yeah. I had hoped that I would read something about how they had done that.

I did, did you? Okay. Okay. Great. Be okay. Let me, let me tell you, let me tell you what I was thinking. They’re clearly contacts because there are some parts of the movie where the contacts are misaligned. The, the part, the part that’s supposed to be the pupil is way over on the far side of the eyeball. 

Todd: Yeah.

Craig: It looks often and goofy, but I was also thinking I’ve had. An eye injury before. Did they put the dye in your eye? They put the dye, that’s it. That’s it. They put like highlighter fluid in your eye. Mm-hmm. And then they can shine like black light on it and it glows. And they can see where the injury is. So is that what happened here?

Todd: Yeah. It’s a contact lens that’s filled with that fluid. When you shine a black light on it, it glows. So they’ve got black light coming from one end and you know, the regular lighting kind of coming down. And apparently they were so heavy that that’s why they got misaligned a lot. You know, every time you blink they shift and stuff.

So 

Craig: I was impressed with that actor. I wear glasses. I’ve, I’ve tried contacts before and I just. I can do it. I can put them in and I can wear them, but I don’t like it. 

Todd: Do you wear contacts? I do. And I took me a good two solid months. Oh my God. I think it was like a two solid months for me to not feel like there was something in my eye.

I, I’ve been wearing ’em for decades now, so it’s not a thing for me anymore. But I remember there was a learning curve. 

Craig: Yeah. I gave up after a couple of months because it, they exhausted my eyes, like my eyes were tired. Yeah. And they hurt at the end of the day. They do. They dry out. Yeah. And I just wanted to clo I just wanted to close my eyes.

Todd: Yeah. So, so, yeah. And I understand how that is and apparently these contacts were impossible to see through. And so much so that Mal, the guy who plays Malcolm, the big high priest guy whose name is uh, Michael Debars, he refused to wear ’em for most of it. That’s why you don’t see him with the green contacts on in half the movie when he’s in there.

Craig: Are you talking about the dad or the son? The dad. The dad, okay. Yeah. You don’t. See him wearing them very often. That’s interesting. I, I don’t know what to say. There’s not much to the movie, like, so the son inherits it and the, the, the house and he kind of immediately like finds stuff in the basement. He gets obsessed with this occult stuff too.

It’s all just leading to him kind of getting deep into it and then inadvertently resurrecting his evil dad. But in there, there’s also your standard, I don’t wanna say slasher movie, because people don’t get picked off, but you’ve got your typical cast. Of young, hot, I guess people Yeah. You know, 20 somethings.

I, and like, I’m gonna get lost in this because I don’t care. Like nothing really happens. But I, I don’t wanna miss out on saying that. A girl named Donna is played by Mariska. Harte, 

Todd: yeah. Her first role 

Craig: I already knew going in. All I had done was I had gone to the IMDB page and looked at the cast, and the cast is so random that only 50% of them even have headshot.

On IMDB, 

Todd: right? 

Craig: But scroll down halfway through and one of these people is played by Mariska. Harte and, and, okay, so I was already, so, I was already super excited and then having even read it, I kind of forgot she was gonna be in it. And then I, uh, was. I had been watching her for 20 minutes and I’m like, oh my God, that girl is so pretty.

Like she’s the pretty girl. And then I was like, oh wait, that’s Marico Harte. It’s crazy. It is crazy. She’s young. And gorgeous. And if you know who she is going in, you will a hundred percent spot it. If you don’t know going in, you’re gonna be like, who is that? I know her. Mm. And you’re gonna eventually figure it out.

I don’t think, I mean, she doesn’t have any kind of, she’s just a pretty girl in this movie who eventually gets killed kind of off screen, like she doesn’t have a lot to do, but she looks amazing. 

Todd: All these people are props. I have to say, as the movie started off, I was really getting into it because this was almost everything I want.

In an early eighties horror movie, if you’re not looking for a slasher, you want something supernatural right off the bat. You know, first shot closeups of snarling monster faces, right? And I’m thinking, okay, you know, these puppets, they’re not gonna hide them. You know, we’re, we’re already seeing them up close and personal.

And then you get your, almost. Child sacrifice. Baby sacrifice with this do with these glowing green eyes and this satanic cult. Okay, I’m down with that too. Immediately the baby inherits the mansion and doesn’t know his. True origin as an adult, and they’re going through this creepy mansion that’s, looks like it hasn’t been touched in a while if everything’s dusty and a little cobwebby and almost comically.

So everywhere you turn, there’s some weird OC culty thing that they barely comment on, right? Like you would think that this couple would be, gee, there’s a lot of like. Statues, pentagrams and demons and books on demonology and pentagrams, and there’s a headstone out in the front they stand and stare at for a while.

That unlike most headstones, has a pentagram carved into it. He goes down in the basement, there’s like a big. Had a BFA met like over the top that he just walks on by like it’s nothing. And the whole basement, it looks like kind of like a tomb once you start clearing things away. But this is where they were having their ceremonies.

And it looks like I said, like if a comic book artist were to draw the chambers where a cult is having their ceremonies, it’s just got all, got a little bit of dust on it and he is going through it like you’d expect. And he bents down and brushes a pentagram off the floor and then opens up a box and finds the robes.

You know, I’m like, okay, cool. Like, this is not slow. You know, this is moving right along. And it’s kind of funny in its cute cheesiness, which I’m always down for, and then they, they’re sitting around having wine and the weirdest lunch ever, which is just some, some salad, a bowl of bread, and a big thing of butter.

And she says, 

Clip: I’ve been thinking about having a party. Sure, why not? It’s not like anybody can wreck the place or anything. 

Todd: And bam, the next scene is the house is filled with people having a party and you got the goofy guy with the glasses and his sidekick doing hide jinks. You have the suave, dorky guy who’s hitting on ladies.

You have all the beautiful ladies and they’re all talking and they’re dancing. And one guy does this extended horrible break dance scene, like the most awkward attempt at break dancing that you can imagine. And like 

Craig: he’s, he is break dancing and. Full joints and pills are falling out of his pockets. That was so funny to me.

That was so eighties to me. That was hilarious all around him. And then the main guy who’s hosting the party, I shit you not says. I’ve got an idea. Let’s go ritual. Like they’re trying to figure like, like should we order a pizza? Should we dance? 

Clip: What do you guys wanna do? Well, we could play hide and go seek.

Yeah. What about Trivial Pursuit? Yeah. Yeah. Why don’t we just place your raids? Yeah.

Strip poker.

Yeah.

Todd: I got an idea, let’s do a ritual, and then they’re all in. 

Craig: But then nothing happens. Like they, they go down and he like starts chanting like an asshole. Like can you imagine? Can you imagine? I was, 

Todd: I was trying to put myself at the position of these very, very patient friends who were standing in his little circle.

Thank God watching him. I’d be like, where did this come from? Tom. 

Clip: Yeah. This is when I’m 

Craig: so glad that I am in a relationship. Like there’s, Alan understands me. You know, like we would be standing there and this would be happening, and I would just have to glance at him and he would. Understand, like, we have to get outta here,

we are done. And like, he’s so nice and so sociable. Like, like he would find a nice way to get out of it. Like I would just be like, no, bye. Like. Goodbye. And 

Todd: not because you were scared, but just because you were embarrassed to be in that. Oh, embarrassed. Oh 

Craig: my God. ’cause especially like he chants like, ugh, and, and then nothing happens.

And so all of his friends are like, well, that was embarrassing. 

Todd: And he is like, shut up. He hides them multiple times. I was like, cool it, bro. I thought we were supposed to be having fun here. Like, I mean. We were gonna play strip poker and you deci, we decided to go with your ritual instead. The least you can do is like, have a good time 

Clip: species.

Shut up, God dammit. I’m sorry. 

Todd: Stay in the circle. Okay. It’s 

Craig: not done yet. 

Todd: Eventually they do leave, 

Craig: but he doesn’t dismiss the spirit. Like I feel like that’s like, he’s like, wait, I haven’t dismissed the spirit. Oh, whatever. Okay. Who cares? I don’t know. God, it does. It doesn’t matter. It’s so stupid. It all that it comes down to is that from this point, like he’s obsessed with his dad’s stuff and he’s fucking around in the basement, like it’s so 

Todd: dumb in the basement.

In the bedroom 

Craig: outside. Isn’t this just a hilarious, I just feel like it’s just a hilarious allegory for relationships. Like he bought this, he bought this new house and he’s obsessed with it, and he talks to his fiance and he’s like. Hey, babe. Um, I think I’m gonna drop outta school and work on the house.

And she’s like, she’s like, are you fucking kidding me? And he’s like, no, I’m serious. I’m gonna, I’m gonna work on the,

Todd: there’s, there’s, I just keep walking around here and there’s things I really want to do with it. Oh my God. Okay. She’s being supportive. 

Craig: Kind of, but I totally am. Like I was so on Elizabeth’s side. Oh, of course. Like he keeps doing all 

Todd: this. You drop outta school to do home repairs. Jesus like being 

Craig: a cult.

But I also like, I loved the stuff like. She w she at some point, I feel like she walked in on him doing some like satanic shit. And she’s like, are you fucking kidding me? Is this what you’re doing with your day? And he’s like, well, hold on a second. Look, I painted the entryway. And she was like, and she’s like, holy shit, that looks fantastic.

Good job.

Todd: I’ll overlook the rain, the rainstorm you created downstairs with your Satanic ritual, the thunderstorm in the basement as he is standing there in the kitchen dripping, wet, trying desperately to explain to her. It’s nothing really. Okay. I promise I won’t do it anymore. I don’t even know you j John. Is it his name?

Sometimes I thought his name was Tom. I don’t know. I don’t know. Yeah. Any, any, um, fiance who’s. Significant other. Bought a PlayStation or something like that. Really got into it. Probably even knows exactly what this 

Craig: Absolutely, and I loved it. It was hilarious. It was hilarious how angry she got at him and then how quick she was to forgive it.

Like that was hilarious. We are running short on time and I refuse to end this podcast. Before we talk about Grizzle and Greedy Gut. 

Todd: Totally outta left field. I did not see this coming.

Craig: I had entirely, entirely forgotten about Grizzle and Greedy Gut. I thought that this was a movie about little puppet monsters, and it’s not. 

Todd: No, 

Craig: not at all. Really. It’s not at all. Like 

Todd: you said, they’re just, they’re just flavoring. 

Craig: Yeah. They just hang out in the background and there’s this guy who now is like embracing his evil heritage.

I guess. He’s getting in touch with his evil side. He’s. Yes, he is. And he is like, he’s trying to summon things. It’s so embarrassing. Like he’s trying to summon things in front of his friends and he can’t even do it. Like it’s so embarrassing. Like, figure this out before you, like make a spectacle of yourself.

But eventually he’s summoning all the shit. He is able to summon some things and what he summons are these two. Very small little people in like medieval outfits. 

Todd: It’s really hard to say. I don’t 

Craig: know. It’s like leather, like, like they look like they’re going into battle. Like they’re, they’re clothes are like leather.

They’re wearing these like metal helmets and they’re these two little, little tiny, tiny, tiny people and their names are grizzle. Greedy gut, and they’re in the rest of the movie 

Todd: for reasons I don’t understand. Budgetary. 

Craig: Yeah. Hey, listen, you do need to watch this movie. Like if, like if you’re listening to this and you’re like, should I watch gies?

Overall, I would be like, nah, you can pass it. But no, you absolutely fucking have to watch this movie. For Grizzle and Greedy Go. They are hilarious. It’s hilarious. Yeah. They’re so funny. Like they are just comic relief throughout the rest of the movie, like they’re just around 

Todd: uhhuh 

Craig: and they’re just 

Todd: shaking their heads.

Consternation. At one point, they seem to be on his side against his father. I don’t know what they’re supposed to do. 

Craig: They pledge allegiance. They pledge allegiance to him. But I love that scene where they pledge allegiance to him, the son, because they do it, but they also kind of look at each other like with a wink wink, like, yeah, we’ll see, or whatever, Uhhuh.

And then later the dad’s like, ha ha, son, you’re so. Stupid. They were always on my side, right? And they’re like, yeah, we are. Whatever. But then ultimately they turn on. The dad and, and side with the sun. 

Todd: Yeah, they’re the best. Did you know that she, uh, the, the gal, Tamara De, who played Greedy Gut was one of the people in the ET costume for the et?

Craig: No, I 

Todd: did not. They are small. Their stature, even amongst little people is pretty small. Very small. And this, at this point, I was like, what is going on here? Because. Aside from the fact that he is just unnaturally getting obsessed with all of this ritual stuff, he keeps conjuring up animal, you know, these demon things.

He’s like, now you will scatter across the law and, and, and await to do my bidding and now you are under my command. And he summons these two and you will pledge allegiance to me to do my bidding. And I’m like, what is this guy’s bidding? I really don’t understand what he wants. 

Craig: No, I don’t either. Are you talking about the father or the.

Son, I’m talking about the son. Right? Agreed. No idea what he wants. He’s just doing this stuff. It’s just like he just got into it. It’s like, it’s like he found a. PS five in his basement and just got really into it. That’s it. And, 

Todd: and he’s like, I want power. And then you’re like, oh, we can give you power.

And I’m like, okay, but like for what? That’s an insufferable part of this movie is there’s no real clear indication what this guy’s doing all this shit for, except like you said, he just got really into it. I think ultimately the movie wants us to think by the end of it that this is all kind of an influence trick that somehow the power of the house and the power of his dead father.

He’s cast a shadow over the house, and once he gets there, he’s somehow reconnecting with his past and, and this is all part of a ploy to resurrect his father. So in doing all of these things, eventually his dad burst forth out of the grave in the front. And this, this is an image that I remember. From my childhood, I mean, of all the grave bursting scenes I remember from movies growing up, this is the one that was sort of like the, the standard bearer for me because that initial thing that pops out of the grave, it’s awesome.

I. And it springs out and it’s got this kind of stretched mouth and it’s crusty and it’s mostly skeletal and ah, kind of yawns as everybody else is screaming inside. And then when we cut back to it, it’s just the guy in costume with some makeup on his face. Yeah, it’s low rent. Rutger hour. It really bad.

Yeah. He comes to life. So that, that’s the thing. Now he’s come to life and he says some words about how now his son has been tricked into bringing him into life. And then when they have their final confrontation, he tells him, I wanted your youth and now I’m finally gonna get it after all these years. So not until the very end game that we.

Know what the whole end game was supposed to be in the first place. 

Craig: Well, and you know, we skipped, there is a whole cast of young people who are there in the beginning, and then they, once the son, whatever his name is, is not possessed but influenced by the magic, he brings them all back because they have to kill six people or something.

Do they? To bring the dad back. Oh, I didn’t know that. I 

Todd: don’t know, maybe. 

Craig: I don’t know. I don’t 

Todd: know. It is not, it’s never really said, is it? 

Craig: I don’t know. But they do. I mean that, that, that all happens, like all these people come back and there are weird, there’s so many weird things that we didn’t talk about.

Like he invites them back to this dinner and they all are wearing sunglasses. So the movie was supposed to be in 3D and they started shooting it in 3D. Yeah, 

Todd: well, I think Charles Band, he realized that the cost of coordinating all this with all the theaters was gonna be astronomical. Like they’d have to have special lenses.

The projectionists would have to switch between the 2D and the 3D version. And that’s all kind of a technical thing that they might not get right. And it was just a pain in the ass and expensive. So that’s when he decided to abandon it. 

Craig: Right? But there are these weird moments in the movie. I don’t know if you remember this.

I went and saw Freddy’s dead. Right. I’m pretty sure that’s what it was called. Yep. And it was 3D, but they handed you the, the 3D glasses when you walked in and they said when the character in the movie puts on the 3D glasses, put on your 3D glasses. Yep. ’cause only a part of it was 3D. Yep. I did. That’s what this movie was supposed to be too.

Like when you see the characters putting on sunglasses, put on your glasses and it will be 3D, but they abandon it. So there are all these weird, not even weird. Oh, they’re weird saying, why are they wearing sunglasses? Like all these young people are invited to their house, this mansion or whatever for dinner, and they’re all wearing sunglasses and just why?

Clip: Tell me why are we wearing these ridiculous glasses? I can barely see what I’m eating. The answer 

Craig: to the question is. They don’t wanna have to reshoot it. Reshoots cost money. Yep. Who cares? It’s a stupid movie anyway. Mm-hmm. Ultimately, I feel like it is a stupid movie. We, we’ve barely talked about the gooeys because they’re barely in it.

How do we close this out? The, the son thinks that he’s gonna be all powerful, but then he resurrects. His dad and his dad’s like, haha, jokes on you. I was just using you so I could come back and be all powerful. And then they have a, a dual, a fight 

Todd: Wizards dual in the basement. Yeah. Their powers against each other.

They’re 

Craig: shooting lightning out of their eyeballs. 

Todd: It’s. So comic book and silly, but while they’re in the basement, his friends, I think they’re by the, now, there’s six of them that are dead. Like three of them got torn up by some gies. One of them’s been, they’re all 

Craig: dead. They’ve all gotten killed in some way.

Right? In some 

Todd: way. The dad even did the classic, oh, made himself look like a, a sexy woman. And then his tongue shot out and. You know, wrapped around the neck of one his care, his friends, and strangled him. Dick. Yeah, Dick was a dick, by the way. The actor’s last name is Dick too. So that was kind of cool. But anyway, as as they’re fighting and it looks like the sun is losing, suddenly the day SX Mki nut comes in, they all spin around and there’s a guy at the top of the stairway and wouldn’t you know it.

It’s the caretaker Wolfgang, who apparently all along was just cleaning his robes and ready for a, 

Craig: where the fuck have you been? 

Todd: I know, right? 

Craig: What? What have you been 

Todd: doing? If you were supposed to like keep this from happening, you could have started a lot earlier. And they come in and they have like a classic Wizards dual.

It’s like straight out of like a Hong Kong martial arts Wooah movie where they’re just at up against each other shooting electricity out of their eyes and their fingertips. And at one point each of their hands gets around the other’s necks and it’s just a bunch of animated stuff around them as they struggle mightily against the forces of each other.

And, uh, I don’t know, he just disappears. They both just disappear. They both disappear. Yeah. And everyone’s alive again. 

Craig: Yeah, they’re, they’re just fine. Yeah. Everybody who died is fine and they all just jump in cars and leave and then, you know, it turns out that the gooeys pop up in the backseat of John’s car.

Okay. Whatever. 

Todd: Freeze frame. Har ha. Yeah. 

Craig: All of that was crazy that last. Scene between the father and the son was so weird to me because I feel like the way that it culminated was the dad said like he’s holding the other man’s head, his son. Mm-hmm. Like in his hand, and he says. Kiss me, my son. Kiss me.

What? You don’t get it? Oh God. You don’t get 

Todd: it. It’s weird. Dramatic. That was weird. Yeah. I mean, the movie’s so ridiculous because the director says that when they originally wrote the script, they were dead serious about making this a hardcore, scary movie. They wanted it to be a scary, dark. Horror film.

And so that really explains these very dark elements that are in there. But then he said, once they got the puppets from Joe Beagler, they were like, these aren’t scary at all. They’re actually kind of silly looking. I. So we need to pivot and we need to maybe insert some comedy in here and have some fun with these puppets.

So he admitted that’s why the movie’s kind of off, because in some ways it seems like it’s trying to be goofy and silly, but in other ways it feels like it’s taking itself very, very seriously. Ultimately, it’s kind of a mess, but it was a popular mess. It made a lot of money for a lot of people and was very, very popular apparently.

Not with critics, of course not. 

Craig: Big surprise, sure. But we all knew about this movie. You know, again, video store shelves. This box art is iconic. It’s everything. We all knew about it. Whether you rented the movie or not, you know it if you’re our age, I understand that. Our younger viewers, listeners, whatever, may not understand, but it was always there.

Yeah. People who are younger than us will never understand going to the video store with your parents. I. Or your family, and then you walk in the door and everybody splits off. Mm-hmm. I head immediately for the horror section. My dad usually goes there too. My mom’s looking at the new releases. My sister’s, who knows what she’s doing, she’s in la la land, who knows?

But I am in the horror section in these dingy back rooms of these small. Buildings. Yeah. I’m just looking around. It’s not the fucking internet where everything is infinite. Like it’s, it’s this little tiny room filled with box art. Gooeys was always there. Yeah. And it, it, it is just, I iconic to me, that picture of the little goly.

Coming out of the toilet. And I’m sure it’s not for other people and they have other iconic images in their mind for whatever reason and And that’s fine. But yeah, it is so cemented. I feel like for us eighties kids, that is a touchstone. Yeah. Of pop culture. 

Todd: Yeah. You could almost say, how old are you if you know what this is?

Strip off the words and say, what is this? And they’ll go, oh, that’s gies. Right? That’s how you know it sold the movie 

Craig: and maybe have never seen the movie. Yeah. Maybe you have never seen the movie. Oh yeah. But you know what it is. 

Todd: You know the, they’ll get you in the end. Do you know what that originally was supposed to be?

No Charles band when he realized we’re gonna go full on with this. We’re gonna go full distribution, everything we really need to solidify this marketing campaign. Uh, he talked to Gary Allen, who he knew Gary Allen cut the trailer for Star Wars. You know, he was the guy. Mm-hmm. Responsible for saving. It’s alive.

You remember? We did. It’s alive. And that one was. Yeah. You know, that was a failure until the marketing campaign kind of saved it and then made it a huge hit with two sequels. So he knew, this guy knew what he was talking about, and he said, I, I went over to his house to chat about this, and he said he was a bit of a pot smoker and he opens the door and smoke is just billowing out.

And he’s like, man. I got the best idea for your movie poster, and he is like, all right, Gary, what is it? And he’s like, all right, so one of your gies, they’re popping out of the toilet and the words below him say. They’ll eat your ass.

And he is like, oh yeah, you know what, Gary? Uh, that’s really interesting, but I’m pretty sure we can’t do that in our Bowery. He’s like, no, man. Think about it. Nobody’s ever seen that before. That’s hilarious. But it got, I love it. Got toned down to they’ll get you in the end, which is also really cute, but 

Craig: they’ll eat your ass.

It’s cute and that’s hilarious. It’s so funny. That would, that would fly today because it would, you could advertise on the internet. You don’t put that poster up in that dingy video place that families are coming into. You just put it up on the internet and it would totally work. Yeah. But it would, and it’s hilarious.

It would 

Todd: also instantly get lost amongst a hundred other things that are trying to be equally outrageous. Oh, you know? Yeah, sure. That’s the problem. It’s not 

Craig: edgy. 

Todd: No, no, 

Craig: it’s not edgy anymore. I still think it’s hilarious. 

Todd: I dunno if you know this, but the, um, director of this movie finally got the rights back ’cause you know, they’ve made sequels and things like that and it’s been passed through various hands and it’s taken lots of lawyers to try to untangle it.

MGM doesn’t seem to be, wanna do much more with it, although I think they had it at one point. Vest on video had it. Anyway, the original director whose concept you remember, this was him and his friend are set to film. A reboot for it and, uh, I don’t know why that’s gonna come out. That’s great. I would 

Craig: love to see a reboot of this movie.

That’s fantastic. It’s fun. It’s a super, super, super fun property. I think that somebody could do something cute and funny and scary, you know, whatever. I would be totally, totally down, uh, with the reboot of this movie. I’m just so nostalgic for all of this stuff. So great. Go for it. Love it. Yep. 

Todd: Last year they’re saying a trilogy is coming our way.

Could be cool. 

Craig: I hope that we didn’t do this movie dirty. I feel like, you know, we, we skipped over a lot of the plot because there’s really not a lot to it. 

Todd: It’s goofy. 

Craig: This is a fun movie. 

Todd: Mm-hmm. 

Craig: It’s goofy and it’s, and it’s fun. It’s fun to watch. Honestly, we gotta do gies too. It’s better, it’s more fun.

It, it takes, it takes itself so much less seriously. Like, I like this movie for what it is. I like the cult stuff. We didn’t even talk about the. Clown. Oh God, dummy. There’s like a, like a killer clown. Dummy almost straight out of Poltergeist, right? 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: But even scarier because it’s obviously either a little person, I assume a little person, yeah.

Or a child in this clown dummy costume, and it’s animated. It’s quite frightening. Mm-hmm. My point is we skipped over a lot, skipped and, and I apologize if that upsets anybody, but this movie’s more interesting to me to talk about in terms of its. Cultural relevance and its place in our history and horror history and yeah, it’s such an interesting time capsule.

It really is of movies that we, we don’t, we just don’t see movies like this anymore. We just don’t. No, I wish we did. I like them. They’re fun. 

Todd: Oh, we should do gies too. I, I, I bet, I bet you’re right, because it’s probably was more direct response to gremlins. They probably made it just fun and funnier, and it was a lot more of a.

Of a comedy than this movie, which is sort of trying to be both, right? It’s trying to be this dark, scary movie, but it can’t be because it’s too silly. But then it’s also trying to inject this humor in very awkwardly. And then it’s got all these non sequiturs, like you said, of like, why in the world are they wearing sunglasses?

And if you don’t know the reason behind it, which you wouldn’t, if you don’t have the internet and you don’t look it up, the trivia, you’d just be like, these choices are bizarre. It’s a fun movie to watch for that. 

Clip: Yeah. 

Todd: And again, I mean, it just takes you right back. It’s great. I still like it, but it’s dumb.

Craig: I just, it is dumb, but it’s fine. Like, like it, I, like every Charles band has done the demonic toys. Has that whole like satanic element, like Yeah. 

Todd: To a sillier degree. Really? Yeah. 

Craig: Yeah. In 1984, like this whole satanic thing was a thing. Yeah. And, and that’s fine, great, whatever. But I like it more for the small creature element of it.

Clip: Mm. 

Craig: I like this. I love troll. I love gremlins. I love. Dolls. Yeah. Various entries of the Puppet Master franchise. I really like. I don’t know, I, I think that you have to have a taste for it, and I do, but if you don’t, you’re just gonna think it’s stupid. And it is stupid. 

Todd: Yep. 

Craig: But it’s stupid that I can get on board with.

Yep. So I appreciate it. I appreciate the recommendation. We should have gotten to this movie a long, long time ago. 

Todd: Yeah, it’s remarkable. It’s taken us this long, 

Craig: so I’m glad that we finally got around to it. 

Todd: Thank you, Russ, for your suggestion. We absolutely love it. And thank you guys all for listening. If you wanna leave us another recommendation, please do.

You can just go to our website, you can speak to us like Rust. Did you just click talk to us at the very top@chainsawhorror.com? And like I said, uh, you don’t have to do anything special. Just talk into your computer and it’ll go right to us. And we’ll respond, but you could also send us a message anywhere we are online, you know the drill.

We’ve got social media out there. Just Google two guys in the Chainsaw podcast to find us if you want to be a member of our Patreon. And, uh, check out the behind the scenes stuff, a complete unedited. Version of this episode, which I can tell you right now, has a, a couple little juicy stories in it. 

Craig: Oh yeah.

And I’m getting ready to say some shit that I wasn’t gonna say on the episode. So if you want to hear that, 

Todd: jump in, jump in. Five bucks a month gets you that. It gets you mini sos, it gets you access to our. Book club and little reviews that rewrite and all kinds of fun stuff we do with our patrons behind the scenes.

patreon.com/chainsaw podcast. Until next time, I’m Todd. And I’m Craig with Two Guys and a Chainaw.