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WHEN GOOD GHOULS GO BAD

If you're in the 8 to 14 range, and male, it is nothing to be ashamed of if you like WHEN GOOD GHOULS GO BAD. After all, this movie is targeted for those demographics. When you hear Uncle Fred (Christopher Lloyd) wondering why people think he's weird just because he likes to play Nintendo, skateboard and go Go-Kart racing, you don' t have to think yourself inferior for saying to yourself or the friend/friends sitting next to you, "Uncle Fred is the coolest adult ever, I wish my granddad was Uncle Fred instead of a raging alcoholic." You're supposed to say/think that (your age group has been surveyed). When you experience Walker Falls, Minnesota, a town that doesn't celebrate Halloween, and you realize that it's all white kids and the minority group you belong to isn't represented, well... uh... Next topic.

Walker Falls, Minnesota is a normal town, unless you're an aberrant freak, and then you will be tortured by bullies and maybe even killed. Newcomer Danny Walker is the hero, so death will not become him, but a few savage beatings will. Danny's moved to Walker Falls after his parents' divorce and finds himself disliked by the locals as much as he's like by his super-rad Granddad, Uncle Joe. Uncle Joe cares for Danny as Danny's father becomes more and more distant while trying to revitalize the Walker family's famous chocolate factory.

Years ago, a strange kid named Curtis Danko, with a talent for looking and dressing like Tim Burton, came to Walker Falls and frightened the children with his disturbing paintings of scenes from PLANET OF THE APES. The children didn't much care for this sinister, Lovecraftian figure with a taste for old sci-fi films. The town held a contest: whoever could sculpt the best statue would have it placed in the town square. Danko became obsessed with his sculpture, working on it at night in secrecy. Then one day, he was found dead in the huge walk-in kiln (that is standard in all junior high home economics courses), burnt to a crisp. The kid who found him was blinded for three days by Danko's sculpture, conveniently in the kiln with him, and found a note written in the dirt stating that if the town ever had a Halloween again there would be grave consequences. The sculpture was covered up and placed along with Danko's remains in a sepulcher.

Years later, the town avoids Halloween like a plague and has made its celebration sort of illegal. The worst consequence of this is that Walker Chocolates has gone out of businessapparently Walker Falls is the only place in the world that buys chocolate. Now Danny's dad is trying to get the factory going again and wants to get Halloween going again. Vandals of the supernatural sort start decorating the town in Halloween decorationsI wonder how they bought themand one badly balanced pumpkin pile leads to Uncle Joe's untimely death. Grief follows until Uncle Joe somehow comes back from the dead, still up to his wacky tricks. Unfortunately, Uncle Joe is not the only one back from the deadso are several ghouls in badly fitting, secondhand store Halloween masks.

What will happen?

Poe, Lovecraft, Stoker, Irving, King, R.L. Stine... uh... um... hey, relax buddy, take a load off.

R.L Stine may not be the greatest horror writer ever (did I write "may"?), but the kids love'm and while the adult population may find his work at best harmless fun, his name sells more copies than a Penthouse featuring Vanessa Williams. Taking a title that's a spin on Fox TV's ever-popular animal atrocity serieshey, that bear attacking a lady was pretty damn funny... sort ofWHEN GOOD GHOULS GO BAD is a movie that knows its market and sells, sells, sells itself to them. The result is an entertainment that seems like, well, a contemporary masterwork by auteur Joe Dante. You've got the dork kid who teams up with the cute girl (they fall in love of course) to solve a grave problem. The grave problem is seemingly the result of a collection of grotesque figures, but it's really caused by the more uptight crew-cut, straight and narrow figures. In essence, it's the smelly hippies vs. young Republicans battle. While the budget wouldn't allow a SMALL SOLDIERS IITHANK GODit still was enough to allow a story that could only be called Dante-esque, or bleh.

There are no real scares in WHEN GOOD GHOULS GO BAD, but does their need to be? There is the grim acknowledgement of the gruesome death of a child, which is unnerving, and there is a zombie attack that is diffused of all fright possibilities early on. For kids, living vicariously through the characters, this should be a fun little diversion. For adults, it's a been-there, done-that, got-to-remember-to-punch-Joe-Dante-in-the-face experience.

Director/co-writer Patrick Read Johnson has a touch of visual flair and he does manage to keep things moving. There is a slight air that something frightening might happen, but nobody will care when it doesn't. Maybe in his next made for TV movie Johnson will grow as an artistafter all, this is much, much better then his debut, SPACED INVADERS.

Christopher Lloyd continues his career stagnation in the direct-to-video market. What the hell happened to this guy? I think there needs to be a BACK TO THE FUTURE IV, just to remind people he's still alive.

The DVD release of WHEN GOOD GHOULS GO BAD is pretty decent. The film and its transfer are virtually spotless. There does seem to be a few scenes that are a bit heavy on orangemaybe they thought this was a GODFATHER sequel? But that doesn't make sense: Coppola couldn't do anything this good nowadays. The sound is available in 5.1 Dolby Surround and Dolby 2.0 Surround, and you'd never notice. This movie could have been released sub-mono (is that "ono"?) and it would probably sound the same. Still, the sound is clear and steady, with no fadeoutsalthough you might fade out from time to time during the picture.

There is a featurette on WHEN GOOD GHOULS GO BAD, sort of a making-of/promo piece. Don't watch this if you'd like to be surprised by the movie, because it gives a bit away.

Kids, don't be discouraged by this flippant review. You'll probably have a grand old time with rock'n Uncle Joe and his crazy shenanigans, particularly after his corpse reanimates. Fathers and mothers, you may want to fix something around the house when your kids watch this.