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ACTOR
Timothy MuskatellTrent HaagaTina BirchfieldGil Espinoza
DIRECTOR
Chad Ferrin
SYNOPSICS
The Ghouls (2003) is a English movie. Chad Ferrin has directed this movie. Timothy Muskatell,Trent Haaga,Tina Birchfield,Gil Espinoza are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2003. The Ghouls (2003) is considered one of the best Horror movie in India and around the world.
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The Ghouls (2003) Trailers
The Ghouls (2003) Reviews
Bearded man smokes the ghouls out
*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT* Never before in the history of cinema has a bearded man smoked so many cigarettes. Even Silent Bob would be put to shame by how many cigarettes this guy sucks down. Every time he was on camera, (which was for most of the movie), I kept waiting for him to light up. I felt relief when he went for his lighter. First, he would suck the smoke back into his mouth and then blow it all out. Dude, let me tell you. This guy can smoke. Cigarettes and smoking is what "The Ghouls" is all about. This is what they knew how to film and they did it very well. So our smoking, bearded hero is a ghoulish cameraman who likes to take pictures of death and destruction. He cruises through downtown L.A. and stumbles across some real ghouls. Seems the homeless like to chow down on whatever idiot happens to be around. Soon our hero must face the ghouls in a bloody showdown. "The Ghouls" is a very low budget flick. It looks like something that was filmed with a bunch of friends over a couple of weekends. They found a few empty parking lots in L.A., scored some police and fire footage, smoked a lot of cigarettes and made a cheap horror flick. Most of "The Ghouls" is pretty predictable stuff although I did like the last twenty minutes. It was disturbing enough for me. Overall, there's a feeling of sincerity that runs through this flick which stops me from taking a baseball bat to it. What I'm saying is, they tried. Can't say it was a total success but any movie with intestine eating and bloody entrails can't be all bad.
Powerful and insightful... rare in a zombie film....
First and foremost, the distributors fooled me. The box implied that this was a large scale zombie movie and that there would be a handful of survivors in a ravaged city. This was simply not the case. However instead of being angry as would generally be the case, I was taken aback. This movie is no zombie fest, but it was a very dark and thought provoking movie. I was pondering it long after the very odd and fitting credits rolled. Ghouls, is about a sleazy paparazzi reporter who makes his pseudo-living by filming scenes of crime, murder, and tragedy. The gruesome sights never bother him until he finds himself on the receiving end of the horror. Ghouls come in two varieties here: the flesh-eating type and the social type. There are some powerful themes running throughout this gem, largely about the media but also some other ideas, like smoking, identity and overall moral standings in our society. I had some trouble warming up to the "hero", but I realized we aren't meant to like him. You might pity him, sympathize with him, even feel concern for him, but you never truly like him. Much better than I would have expected, but this IS a thinking movie-goer's zombie film, action isn't the real point. If you're thinking about buying this solely to see scads of the undead, look elsewhere.
Brutal at times but mostly well worth watching.
This is the best amateur effort I have watched in a very long time. It is not great, but it is very good for what it is...some stock footage of fires/crimes.. news reel stuff ..to open up on a very interesting story and a few ugly characters.This is low budget , but the stabbing scene was horrific and strong, as was the "rape" that turned out to be cannibalism. WOW. All the Characters are unappealing and the zombies , tho not the worse I have seen , are not too believable. This does not mean it was poorly acted, it is not, and I was quickly drawn into this quirky movie. It is not for everyone, movies like this never are, but if you tolerate average filming, interesting characters, and some disturbing scenes of violence and a simple but cool story line, give this a try, what is 3.00 bucks for a rental anyways? If you do not like it, turn it off. Personally, I was impressed with this low budget effort.
Effective and scary DV horror!!
THE GHOULS review It's hard to fully immerse yourself in the latest low budget trend of DV filmmaking. Unless painstaking measures are taken to mimic the cinematic conventions of film, like depth of field and the crispness of the image, one can easily lose focus on the story and be distracted by the the quality of the picture, which is more along the lines of a cop corralling a perp or a father getting kicked in the balls by his kid. However, Chad Ferrin's latest offering (I saw his first film UNSPEAKABLE at Sundance in 2000) uses the DV format not in an aesthetic gimmick (like BLAIR WITCH) but to further the dread and grit of his subject matter...for what it's worth I was appalled and enthralled...and it scared the shit out of me. THE GHOULS follows a down-on-his-luck video muckraker (Ferrin sets up the main characters moral decent in a shocking prelude that will be a true litmus test for any viewer...not giving anything away but if you can survive the opening moments, you're in for a ride) as he prowls the streets, a stringer looking for a lead to both pay the bills and support his crank habit. To be frank, our protagonist Eric (Timothy Muskatell) is a piece of s**t that Travis Bickle would scoff at; We see him drown his sorrows in drink after coercing a man to murder while he shoots the "exclusive" footage, moments before the cops burst in. Yet with the over-saturation of media bloodhounds also scanning the street looking for a good lead and a juicy shot to sell, our hero is mostly plopped in a bar booth, killing brain cells and wallowing in his inner pain. Nice horror in-joke: Cast as the TV news producer who sometimes buys Eric's footage but mostly berates our hero, Joe (DAY OF THE DEAD) Pilato is in fine form and, with Ferrin being an obvious Romero fan, gives the actor great lines and exploits Pilato's ability to make the word "fuck" seem evil again, like it was when you weren't allowed to say it in public when you were a kid. However, things change suddenly as Eric drives into the depths of Downtown L.A. one lonely Christmas eve, where he stumbles upon a gruesome, cannibalistic murder that happens right before his eyes in an alleyway, and from here the film goes full tilt boogie. Using his camera and the help of another video freelancer/"vulture" (Trent Haaga, who is by and large one of the best actors in the low-budget horror scene right now and used effectively as both comic relief and the "young sage competition" cliche), Eric returns to the scene of the crime to hopefully capture another murder, which could be the shoot of his career, but of course, like every good horror film, our hero is pulled into the darkness...and comes face to face with THE GHOULS, and himself. Honestly, I don't want to give anything else away mainly because when I was watching this, it was hard to take in, especially since the main character is so unlikable. But as the plot progresses he is faced with strange phone calls at night, bodies piling up around him as well as his own demons. Plus, the film boasts the most disturbing performance from a Down's Syndrome actor EVER. On that note, along with Pilato mentioned before, all of the performances are effective in a low-key way. There is little "acting" here, mostly reacting and silence that says so much. Haaga is great as the "sidekick" but doesn't use the usual trappings to illicit a laugh; rather he serves as a humorous light is the depths of scum that surround this film The film, shot on digital video, looks very good for it's limitations, and Ferrin knows where the camera needs to go to feel "real", and once the film gets into gear I never once got taken out of it because of the medium. However, the sound design and the sets, for example the ghoul's lair and the cavernous pipelines and sewer systems, are AMAZING, especially after finding out there were mostly created and not found locations! The sound effects, which most filmmakers either take for granted with "scare stings" or neglect all together, make this film SCARY. The makeup effects are also effective and are a notch above TROMA quality but Ferrin is not afraid of a little splatter (thank god). I wish i could say something negative to balance out this review but I was very happily surprised with this. When I heard Ferrin was doing a digital feature, I was dismayed because I tend to not have the ability to enjoy a film on video unless it has an obvious contextual reason. Yet THE GHOULS inspired me to say "fuck film" and tell a story with whatever you have available, and Ferrin scares and disturbs with great style.
Not as bad as its peers.
The basic premise of the film is pretty good; it's just the delivery that fails. As with other ultra-low budget horror films, you can spot where the money's been spent and where it's been saved. This film is only around 80 minutes long yet it often drags. This is due to the fact that there just isn't enough of a narrative to sustain the length and this means sections feel like padding before the budget kicks in towards the end with the gore and effects. Shots linger unnecessarily and many conversations and subplots are simply redundant. Many things crop up that do not serve to propel the story forward or to delve into the films themes. Character interaction is unconvincing and as ever with these films the dialogue is wooden. The budget could surely have been spread around a bit, meaning they could have hired hired a few extras for the bar scenes and set-up a better office for the news channel 'mogul' who looks like Michael Madsen's fat older brother. The underground scenes at the end are commendable for a film like this and the guy who's been skinned alive is reasonably convincing in his agony until he starts to sound more like he's got bad cramp rather than had all of skin removed and been hung up on a hook. This makes me think the Ghouls have a little more intelligence and civilisation than they let on as where they had previously torn apart their victims and eaten them on the spot, they seem to be preparing beardy's friend for consumption in a different way. Perhaps they are curing/smoking him like ham. Speaking of smoking, there was perhaps some kind of poorly-conceived comment on the tobacco industry implied through the chain-smoking in this film. People who make a living off of other people's misery/misfortune. This film dragged on too much to keep my interest and the dodgy sound once again made it hard to follow - dialogue is at times inaudible but then at the same time sound effects are excessively loud, meaning I had to keep adjusting the volume. This is the third modern ultra-low budget film I have seen and it is certainly better then the others: 'Zombie Chronicles' & 'Zombies vs Vampires'.