Spookies

Spookies is a 1986 American independent horror film directed by Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran, with additional footage directed by Eugenie Joseph. It stars Felix Ward, Dan Scott, Alec Nemser, and Maria Pechukas, and follows a lost young boy and a group of partying teenagers who find an abandoned mansion and become trapped inside as a warlock tries to sacrifice the group with the intention of using their vitality to keep his wife alive.

Spookies
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBrendan Faulkner
Thomas Doran
Eugenie Joseph
Produced byBrendan Faulkner
Thomas Doran
Frank Farel
Eugenie Joseph
Written byThomas Doran
Brendan Faulkner
Frank Farel
Ann Burgund (additional material)
StarringFelix Ward
Dan Scott
Alec Nemser
Maria Pechukas
Music byJames Calabrese
Kenneth Higgins
CinematographyKen Kelsch
Robert Chappel
Edited byEugenie Joseph
Distributed bySony Video Software Company
Release date
  • May 14, 1986 (1986-05-14) (France)
  • January 8, 1987 (1987-01-08) (Hong Kong)
  • January 22, 1988 (1988-01-22) (U.S.)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$17,785

The film was given a limited theatrical release in 1987, with a more widespread video release in the latter year, and also aired on cable television's USA Network multiple times between 1988 and 1991. Despite its limited release, modest box office haul and scarce availability, it has achieved a cult following since its release.

Plot

A 13-year-old boy named Billy runs from home as his parents forget his birthday. Making his way through thick woods, he encounters a drifter who is violently slashed to death after Billy leaves. Billy stumbles on an old mansion where a room is decorated for birthday celebrations. Thinking it is a surprise by his parents, he opens a present to discover a laughing severed head. Running away, he is attacked by the drifter's killer, a werecat with a hook on one hand, and subsequently buried alive.

Meanwhile, a group of teenagers and some older adults come across the mansion intending to have a party, believing the mansion to be abandoned. However, a warlock named Kreon resides there, keeping watch over his bride who he has kept preserved for over 70 years using an unrevealed method, but it is known that he needs human victims in order to do it. He possesses one of teenagers in the group to use a Ouija board and summons a variety of monsters to pick off the group one by one. These include muck-men, small reptilian demons, giant spiders, an arachnid woman, an octopus-like creature with electric tentacles, a skeletal witch, a Grim Reaper statue, a vampiric boy in a monk's habit, and a large group of zombies.

Eventually, the entire group is killed by the monsters and Kreon hopes to preserve his bride for longer, but she escapes by killing him and trying to outrun the zombie horde around the mansion. The bride eventually is saved by a man who drives her away in his car. Kreon regenerates out of a tomb as it is revealed the man in the car is actually the werecat. The camera pans on Kreon's laughing face and the credits roll.

Cast
  • Felix Ward as Kreon
  • Maria Pechukas as Isabelle
  • Dan Scott as Kreon's Servant
  • Alec Nemser as Billy
  • A.J. Lowenthal as Korda / Son of Kreon & Isabelle
  • Pat Wesley Bryan as Drifter
  • Peter Dain as Peter
  • Nick Gionta as Duke
  • Lisa Friede as Carol
  • Joan Ellen Delaney as Linda
  • Peter Iasillo Jr. as Rich
  • Kim Merrill as Meegan
  • Charlotte Alexandra as Adrienne (as Charlotte Seeley)
  • Anthony Valbiro as Dave
  • Soo Paek as The Spider Woman
  • Al Magliochetti as Lewis Wilson
  • James M. Glenn as The Grim Reaper

Production

Spookies started out as a feature film entitled Twisted Souls, written and produced by Frank Farel, Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran and directed by Faulkner and Doran. Principal photography for the film began at the Jay Estate in Rye, New York in late summer of 1984 and finished in October of that same year. Twisted Souls was being edited when creative and legal issues between the producers and the financial backer prevented final post production work (final editing, scoring, post-effects, etc.) from being carried out.

The original Twisted Souls footage directed by Faulkner and Doran consists of all the travelers who arrive in two cars and all the monsters and effects they encounter within the house. The monsters include: the demon Ouija girl, the muck men, the spider woman, the snake demons, the hallway demon and the Grim Reaper.

In 1985, the financial backer of Twisted Souls hired Eugenie Joseph to direct more footage, which was pieced together with the finished footage from Twisted Souls to create Spookies. The added scenes, written by Ann Burgund (under the name Joseph Burgund), feature an entirely different cast and include all the footage of the boy looking for his birthday party, the man in the tree, the cat-man, the old magician, the girl in the coffin, zombies, the witch in the basement/cave and the little blue boy.

The creature effects were created by Gabe Bartalos, Arnold Gargulio, Jennifer Aspinall, John Dods, and others helping in various capacities.

Reception

Box office

Spookies was given a limited theatrical release in the United States by Sony Video Software Company in January 1987 and grossed $17,785 at the box office. It was also released theatrically in Hong Kong.[1]

Critical response

A contemporary review in Variety referred to Spookies as "a silly horror picture which contains some interesting special makeup effects, along with very amateurish ones".[2] In his book The Gorehound's Guide to Splatter Films of the 1980s, Scott Aaron Stine gave the film a negative review, criticizing the "inept actors", "hackneyed script", and "hideous make-up effects".[3]

In a retrospective review of the film, Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting called it "nonsensical", but referred to Gabriel Bartalos's special effects work on the film as "impressive", writing: "there aren't a lot of horror films so daring as to cram as many weird rubber-suited monsters into one movie".[4] Jay Bauman of Red Letter Media called the film a "boring Evil Dead".[5] However, fellow member Rich Evans commended the "creative, different monsters" featured in the film, and fellow member Jack Packard similarly praised said creatures as "shockingly interesting".[5]

Awards

In 1986, the film received the Delirium Award at the 15th Annual International Science Fiction & Film Fantasy Festival.[3][6]

Home media

The film was released on VHS in the U.S. by Sony Video but eventually went out of print. Spookies was also released on VHS in the UK by Palace Video, alongside Evil Dead 2, featuring artwork by Graham Humphries.

In 2003, UK company Vipco Entertainment released a Region 2 PAL DVD mastered from a VHS source as part of "Vipco's Screamtime Collection" series.

In 2017, the film was released on DVD by French company Intercontinental Film and Video under the title Les Spookie. Despite its French title, the audio language is English and the disc claims to be sourced from a new HD interpositive 2K scan. This DVD is playable in regions 1, 2 and 5.

On Thanksgiving 2019, the Vinegar Syndrome label announced they were releasing Spookies on Blu-ray and DVD, marking the first time that Spookies has been released in the Blu-ray format.[7] This two-disc release includes a 4K restoration of the film, along with two feature-length documentaries on the film and the Vipco label, and a number of other special features.[8][9] It received a standard edition release,[10] as well as two variant limited edition releases with slipcovers—one featuring artwork by Earl Kessler, and the other featuring art by Gary Pullin.[11][12] The Vinegar Syndrome website also offered a limited edition LP record of the film's soundtrack on colored vinyl.[13]

Legacy

On September 19, 2015, the Hudson Horror Show festival held a 35 mm screening of Spookies (as a double feature with the 1978 film The Toolbox Murders) at the Alamo Drafthouse in Yonkers, New York, featuring appearances by stars Peter Iasillo Jr. and Anthony Valbiro in person.[14]

References
  1. "Spookies - Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 29, 2011.
  2. Variety's Film Reviews 1985-1986. Variety. R.R. Bowker. 1988. ISBN 978-0835227995.
  3. Stine, Scott Aaron (2003). The Gorehound's Guide to Splatter Films of the 1980s. McFarland & Company. p. 300. ISBN 978-0786415328.
  4. Navarro, Meagan (May 4, 2018). "[It Came From the '80s] The Mad Monster Party of 'Spookies'". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
  5. Bauman, Jay (Editor) (March 23, 2019). Best of the Worst: Spookies, Action USA, and Alien Private Eye. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Red Letter Media. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
  6. "Spookies". Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
  7. Squires, John (November 29, 2019). "Vinegar Syndrome's Black Friday Sales Are Live, Including Surprise Blu-ray Debut of 1986's 'Spookies'!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  8. ""Spookies" 2-Blu-ray Special Edition Part of Vinegar Syndrome's Black Friday Announcement". Rue Morgue. November 29, 2019. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
  9. Evry, Max (November 29, 2019). "Cult 80's Horror Film Spookies Arrives on Blu-ray!". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
  10. "Spookies (Standard Edition) – Vinegar Syndrome". Vinegar Syndrome. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  11. "Spookies (Limited Edition Slipcover #1) – Vinegar Syndrome". Vinegar Syndrome. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  12. "Spookies (Limited Edition Slipcover #2) – Vinegar Syndrome". Vinegar Syndrome. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  13. "Spookies - Vinyl Soundtrack LP – Vinegar Syndrome". Vinegar Syndrome. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
  14. "Hudson Horror Show: The Toolbox Murders and Spookies". Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
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