A couple of criminals go into a high school to politely request the janitor give them the money he owes them. In the process of ever-so gently persuading the sanitation worker to be more forthcoming with the necessary payment, said goons unleash toxic chemicals into the water supply that apparently turns everyone into flesh-eating zombies. Our heroes? Horror geeks Steve (Friedman) and Jeff (Gordon), with a little help from local metal band The Bloodsucking Ghouls (headed by Venier, who looks like a young Richard Lewis). Local TV host Franklin turns up as himself, apparently asked to make a visit to the school, whilst former co-worker of Howard Stern Jackie 'The Joke Man' Martling appears as himself, doing an obnoxious audition for a bemused Franklin. EI/POP Cinema regular Fedele (the most accomplished actor in the whole film, arguably) does an amusing riff on the bullying slob brother character Bill Paxton memorably portrayed in the underrated comedy
Weird Science.
This ultra cheap 1990, Troma-esque gory horror-comedy is frankly not very good, but I doubt that anyone working on it was aiming for 'good'. As a result, it is what it is. If you like Troma (I like some of their stuff like
Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD and
Tromeo and Juliet) then you could do a lot worse than
Ghoul School, which is at least fairly professionally done. Although his scenes are entirely unrelated to the plot (at the admission of the filmmakers, I might add), the film's best moments belong to Franklin, whose deadpan, bordering on deliberately half-arsed performance here is very funny. He pretty much lets it be known that he's not terribly interested in what he is doing (part of this would be in-character, he has to share a scene with the unfunny- probably deliberately- Martling), and gets the film's funniest line, apparently an ad-lib where he says he's not feeling well and adds; 'I'm feeling very something!'. Honest to God, I nearly had some of my drink coming out of my nose, it's a very funny (and stupid) line.
The film also has loads of low-budget gore. Whilst the gore is indeed extreme, it is never for a second realistic (some of it is green, for starters) and I found it all wonderfully disgusting and almost good-natured (in a sicko way). The highlight, if you could call it that, would be an extremely squirmy axe to the groin shot, but you also get lots of intestines and chest openings, limbs being eaten and so on. Suffice to say if you like 80s glam metal and you like fake gore, this film is for you.The acting, probably inevitably, is mostly horrendous, with most of the actors giving deliberately 'comical' performances that, as is always the case, come off looking foolish, annoying, and unfunny. O' Rawe even throws in some comical cops at the 11th hour, the number one sign you're in a dopey horror-comedy in my view. Also, are these the oldest high school students since 90210 or what? (Nice mullet and moustache, dude!). Geez, the things I do for The Film Asylum and its readers.
This DVD boasts 3 (!) audio commentaries; The first is by John Fedele and Michael Raso, and also some engineer guy called Henrick who aparantly was 4 when this film was made (so no idea why he's here then?). They explain how this was essentially Raso and Fedele's entry into the biz, and was even shot at their old school. It's fascinating just to hear how these guys made and distributed films before their EI/POP Cinema days. Meanwhile, Fedele is his usual hilarious, sarcastic self, claiming that Franklin's infamous line was because he was drunk all the time. The second commentary is by writer-director Tim O' Rawe, who is actually very self-critical throughout, constantly saying "We did the best we could" about six times, but he at least takes most of the responsibility himself . Overall it's a pretty dull, unoriginal commentary. The third and final commentary is by Michael Raso (representing his Director of Photography credit), and recorded in 2004. He gives some insight into the differing paths he, Fedele and O'Rawe were on creatively at the time (i.e. He was interested in cinematography, Fedele a writer-director and O' Rawe was the more ambitious one).
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We also get an assortment of short films (some featuring commentary by Fedele and Raso), all of which are better than the main feature, with Fedele even directing and writing one (a noirish film in which Fedele also appears, saying 'Man' more times than Dennis Hopper in his drug years). The weakest of the films,
Halloween Takeover, was an episode of a cable TV show from 1989, but is worth it for the commentary where Fedele simply stops interacting with Raso, getting sick of his stories. The best of the films is
Say No To Drugs (directed by O' Rawe and with a score by Fedele), which is actually really effectively shot and is a pretty simple, gory Grim Reaper tale, only lessened with a cheesy integration of the message. Also included is the Camp Trailer Vault (
Cannibal Campout,
Woodchipper Massacre,
Ghoul School, and
Video Violence 1 & 2), and 'Ghoul School Investor Promo' (with commentary by Fedele and Raso) which is a 1988 attempt to raise funds for the finished product. The FX are dopier here but actually more fun, and Fedele claims it is more fun than the finished product, 'The Making of Ghoul School', a DVD photo shoot (inexplicably featuring the lovely Erika Smith, who wasn't even in the damn film but managed to reach the DVD front cover and disk label), and the original 1990 opening credits, both of which are entirely useless.
