The Curious Case of the Ghoulies Renaissance: Why Toilet-Demon-Adjacent Horror Is Back
Roughly 39 years ago, the image of a slimy, green homunculus pulling itself up from a toilet seat upset sensitive children across the world. And to this day, Ghoulies is still best known for its iconic poster. The horror film’s stroke-of-genius advertising campaign decided to dress one of its titular monsters up like a toddler in overalls, forever associating toilet training with sharp, pointy teeth.
Released in the first month of 1985, the movie was largely dismissed as a rip-off of the previous year’s Gremlins, or even a precursor to the following year’s more popular Critters. However, its performance in theaters exceeded expectations, reaping $35 million at the box office against a comparatively modest $5 million budget. Three sequels followed, with the latter two going direct to video. Following the release of Ghoulies 4 in 1994, the franchise has since remained dormant. It seemed the public’s appetite for further Ghoulies content had been met… until now?
In just the last year, we’ve seen the release of Ghoulies plush dolls, life-size puppets, clothing, Halloween masks, soundtrack releases, and 4K remasters of the first two films on Blu-ray. It was also announced last March that a new trilogy of Ghoulies movies is in development from original director Luca Bercovici and screenwriter Jefery Levy. Moreover, Psycho Goreman director Steven Kostanki recently cited the third film in the series, Ghoulies Go to College, as a touchstone for his latest project, Frankie Freako.
This sudden windfall of small demon appreciation begs the question: have we entered a Ghoulies renaissance? And if so, what is it about these little shits that feels so timely in the dark heart of summer 2024?
Upon revisiting the series, viewers may be disappointed to discover the film’s monsters are merely toilet-adjacent. The original film includes just a brief glimpse of its poster “Ghoulie” erupting from a latrine in a scene long-speculated to have been shot in post. Ghoulies II course-corrected, somewhat, by having its human antagonist bitten on the rear during a climactic bathroom break. In the third film, the titular monsters are summoned from hell by way of a college dormitory’s commode.
The fact is, “Ghoulies” are neither sewer ghouls with collapsible skeletons capable of crawling through your flush pipe for home invasion (that’s rats) nor displaced water elementals disgusted by modern indoor plumbing—they’re demons. As such, the series’ focus is really on attracting occult forces for personal interest. Taking that into consideration, the series’ renewed popularity begins to make more sense as interest in the occult has spiked in recent years.
Without judging the quality of the four Ghoulies movies, the franchise is at least agreeably odd. The first focused on Jonathan Graves, a young man with an inherited interest in the supernatural who invites his friends (future Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay among them) to his late father’s estate for a summoning ritual gone awry. The sequel saw the original film’s demons still on Earth as they inveigled themselves into a carnival’s haunted house (fans of the Muppets will be delighted to note the story does good by Jim Henson’s famous mission statement, “it all ends in one of two ways: either someone gets eaten or something blows up”). The third film concerned an angry humanities professor (Kevin McCarthy) summoning a trio of demons who behave exactly like the Three Stooges in order to avert prank week at his college campus. (Notably, Richard Kind voices its Curly analogue: a feline-esque “cat ghoulie” with cloven feet, just a year before he lent his voice to the Tom & Jerry movie. How did that happen?)
The fourth film then saw the return of Jonathan Graves, now a police detective, as he hunted an occult dominatrix on a murder spree. If nothing else, Ghoulies 4 yielded the best tagline the franchise ever produced: “Mothers 0. Ghoulies 4.”
Still, the public perception of the franchise remains: Ghoulies = toilets, which this newly announced trilogy— if it ever sees the light of day— will be forced to reckon with. Luckily, it’s very easy to marry toilets with the occult for one simple reason: bathrooms are among the most haunted places on Earth.
Whether you’ve decided to invoke the ghost of Bloody Mary or are on the receiving end of an unsolicited visit from Aka Manto, modern folklore is absolutely teeming with bathroom specters. This is likely because bathrooms are liminal spaces—rooms with both free-flowing and standing water—which any occultist worth their salt knows is a perfect place to conjure something. The addition of a mirror also makes scrying, divination, and communing with the dead a breeze.
Another tie with the occult separating Ghoulies from other representatives of the miniature monster genre is that its demons are varied—and therefore, additionally merchandisable. There’s one that looks a bit like a fish, another a rat, also a cat, a bat, and a toad—not to mention the mysterious “clown ghoulie” who only appears in one scene, or the controversial no-longer-puppets of Ghoulies 4. In this way, “Ghoulies” begin to bear more than a few similarities with household spirits—protectors of a single address—whose depictions vary from both culture-to-culture and home-to-home. If you’re looking for an iron-clad entry point to realize the failed promise of a toilet-thing running amok in your safe space, you could do worse than a cadre of angry domestic deities.
All of which brings us back to our original question: why Ghoulies? And why now?
While people absolutely love both nostalgia and little monsters, the demonic nature of the characters offers a “cooler” alternative to the invasive species of Gremlins or alien prisoners of Critters. Being demons, the Ghoulies are extra metal. Not to mention, those who look to the past to escape their disappointing present must feel like there’s still unfinished business with the franchise. If you grew up with deep feelings for that poster, and then finally saw the movie as an adult? They do say betrayal begins with trust.
As we’re standing on the precipice of food shortages, climate change, and a potential third world war, you’d think the least one could ask for is that a little green ghoul finally crawl from a toilet bowl and eat a small child the way you always imagined one would—nay, the way you were promised! And it’s going to take a whole trilogy of these stupid things to finally make amends.
