GHOULIES IV is a straight-to-video addition to the series directed by the notorious Jim Wynorski. It doesn't seem to have any connection to the rest of the series; for example, it does away with the puppets from the previous films and replaces them with dwarves in cheesy costumes. The plot is some nonsense about an alien femme fatale, a crime-fighting cop, and the various characters mixed up in an intergalactic story. It's cheap and cheerful, saddled with lame gags that use old cartoon sound effects and the like, and some very wooden performances.

And the campaign of awfulness continues to drag us into the depths of horrid franchise entries...somewhere rattling around in that heap is The Howling VII and Silent Night, Deadly Night II. At least I can finally be done with the Ghoulies and put the memory of watching these subsequent titles into an unreachable sector of my brain.Much like Ghoulies III, it was unbearable to sit through - a testament to my dedication in bringing you various reviews that the horror genre has to offer...that, and there's some sort of sick accomplishment in knowing I completed the series.The plot in this one is so far gone and so dumb I'm not even going to discuss it. It doesn't share any similarities with the previous films; a welcome statement when further examining the shallowness of most horror franchises. Whoever was responsible for writing the screenplay and finalizing the decision (my guess would be Jim Wynorski, the director) on what the Ghoulies should look like needs to be dragged behind a barn and put down like a horse with a broken leg. Apparently the exclusion of puppets and the introduction of midgets, dressed in what I can best describe as "dollar-store halloween outfits," seemed like an outstanding idea for the production team...it's sad they didn't have the audience in mind. From beginning to end, you'll be shaking your head repeatedly. There are no redeeming qualities - NONE. This is one of those titles that ends up being so bad that it fails to reach out to even the most die-hard of fans...it will never obtain cult-status. The one thing that can be said about Ghoulies IV is that some of the actors tried playing their parts convincingly - but do they need a gold star for their efforts? The Ghoulies is not and will not ever be a horror franchise that most Americans can discuss at a barbecue - Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street have that privilege (notice at no point did I say that this was a good thing). Even after all of the terrible films I've sat through, I can't wrap my head around the concept of continuing a series that failed miserably after the second entry. The only conclusion I've come up with is that someone was having a contest to design a project that far exceeds the awfulness of it's precursor.

Okay, so I have a little thing for director Jim Wynorsky. Or at least I used to have, because it's been a while since I've seen a film of his. Wynorski must be one of my favorite bad-movie-makers ever. It's as simple as that. And "Ghoulies IV" really is one of the biggest stinkers of his I've ever seen. The only screen time the notorious Ghoulies have in this 4th installment is actually taken from footage out of the first movie. That's one thing you can say about Wynorski: He rips off whatever he can, even right down to his own movies (this not being the case for "Ghoulies IV", though - you have to see "976-Evil II" and "Storm Trooper" to understand this). But in this film we do have: Two extremely annoying and totally unfunny troll-midgets, a bunch of cheap & silly animated effects, a mysterious demon-summoning red diamond, bad acting, a retarded storyline that leads to nowhere, a drugstore shoot-out totally unrelated to the plot, yap yap yap and so on and so on... And best thing of all: Stacie Randall running around in a tight black latex suit with her boobies half exposed (all the time!). Great fun, but I have this slightest feeling that no-one is going to agree with me on that.

Ghoulies IV starts in a museum storage facility where PVC & leather clad blonde Alexandra (Stacie Randall) is looking for a ancient jewel, after offing various guards she summon the demon Faust who she worships & wants to have sex with, unfortunately she lost the jewel so he's not very happy & orders her to get the last remaining one... Which belongs to Jonathan Graves (returning from the original Ghoulies (1985) Peter Liapis) who is experienced in demonic possession & stuff like that after the events of the original Ghoulies. Alexandra sets about finding the jewel so she can bring Faust to Earth permanently from the 'other side' to, well I don't know actually. Erm, that's about it really...Directed by Jim Wynorski whose very name name sends shivers down my spine when it's attached to a film I'm about to waste 90 minutes of my life on Goulies IV is as I expected complete, total & utter crap from start to finish & it's as simple & straight forward as that. The ,ahem, 'script' , cough, by Mark Sevi has virtually nothing in common with the other Ghoulies film except in it's title & that they managed to convince Liapis to reprise his role which also has the added bonus of big able to use footage from the original even though it has no relevance whatsoever. The story is almost none existent, the whole film is a real chore to watch, it's incredibly boring & moronic, it's slow, it's predictable, it's squeaky clean as far as blood or gore goes & it has two comic relief goblins whom I assume are supposed to fill the Ghoulies quota even though they look nothing like they did in the previous films & are in fact just embarrassing to watch, in fact I think they were practising to be ventriloquist's during most of the film as when they speak their mouth's don't move... You know I don't want to talk or think about Ghoulies IV anymore so please believe me when I say this is one huge piece of crap of Elephant sized proportions, don't waste either your time or money.Dirctor Wynorski turns in a throughly rotten film on just about every level, the special effects are terrible as is the whole film. Apparently Ghoulies IV is meant to be some sort of horror comedy but it misses both targets by the proverbial mile & it is neither funny nor scary. The best thing about this film is actress Randall in her PVC & leather outfit running around trying to find the jewel & that's hardly worth sitting through this rubbish to see. There's a half decent runaway car scene with a few crashes but it looks like it was edited in from a completely different film & given Wynorski's track record I'm sure it was. Forget about any gore as there isn't any.Technically Ghoulies IV sucks, it's obvious it had & low budget but that simply isn't an excuse for it to be this bad, is it? Liapis is back in the cast although he probably wishes he'd stayed away, PVC clad babe Randall is easily the best thing about this film which says a lot.Ghoulies IV is crap, there's nothing else to say really. I honestly can't see anyone who enjoy films getting anything out of this, I just can't. I can't believe that I'm going to recommend the original Ghoulies over anything but it's going to happen now because even though that's crap as well it's a hell of a lot better than Ghoulies IV, one to avoid folks & you can thank me later. The things I sit through so you don't have to, honestly...