Night of the Ghouls
| Night of the Ghouls | |
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Image DVD cover
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| Directed by | Ed Wood |
| Produced by | Ed Wood |
| Written by | Ed Wood |
| Starring |
Kenne Duncan Duke Moore Tor Johnson |
| Cinematography | William C. Thompson |
| Edited by | Ed Wood |
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Release date
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Running time
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69 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Night of the Ghouls is a 1958 horror film (not released until 1984), written and directed by Ed Wood, and a sequel of sorts to the 1955 film Bride of the Monster. Tor Johnson returned to the role of Lobo, first seen in Bride, Paul Marco plays the familiar character of Kelton, while the Amazing Criswell plays himself in the frame story of the film. Another returning character is Police Captain Robbins of Homicide (although he is played Harvey B. Dunn in Bride, and by Johnny Carpenter in Night. However Dunn does appear in Night, albeit playing a different character). Although the film was shot in 1958, it was not released theatrically or on television, and was thought to be lost. It was finally released directly to video in 1984.
The basic plot involves the police investigating a supposed haunted house. The house is discovered to serve as headquarters for a confidence trickster who pretends to be able to contact the dead, and charges naive customers large amounts of money to allow them to speak to their deceased loved ones.
The movie features a prologue and a brief acting role by Criswell, who also narrated Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space. The prologue has Criswell rising from a coffin, leaving unclear if the "metaphysical" narrator is awaking from a normal sleep, or whether he is actually a corpse returning to life. The latter implication can be seen as foreshadowing the final scenes of the film.
One of the opening scenes features a montage of seemingly unrelated events, which seem to feature Wood's view of the post-war era and its social problems: juvenile delinquency, street fighting, and driving under the influence. A memorable sequence has a car driving off a cliff and crashing. The sequence ends with the bloody corpse of the drunk driver staring blankly at the camera. According to Criswell's narration, this is a rather typical end to "a drunken holiday weekend". The narrative properly begins with a teenaged couple kissing in a convertible, parked at night in what is probably a lovers' lane. When the boy gets too aggressive, the girl ends the embrace with a slap and exits the car. At this point the narrative introduces the Black Ghost which lurks in the woods near them. In short order, first the girl and then the boy are attacked by the undead creature and die. According to Criswell's narration, the two murders received press attention but were thought to be the work of a maniac.
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Wikipedia