Night of the Ghouls (1959)

Director:

Edward D. Wood Jr.

Writer:

Edward D. Wood Jr. (written by)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

Phony spiritualist raises the dead.

Plot Keywords:

Cult Favorite | Sequel | Based On Novel

Cast

Kenne Duncan	...	Dr. Acula
Duke Moore	...	Police Lieutenant Daniel Bradford (as 'Duke' Moore)
Tor Johnson	...	Lobo
Valda Hansen	...	The White Ghost
Johnny Carpenter	...	Police Captain Robbins (as John Carpenter)
Paul Marco	...	Patrolman Kelton
Don Nagel	...	Crandel
Bud Osborne	...	Darmoor
Jeannie Stevens	...	The Black Ghost
Harvey B. Dunn	...	Henry
Margaret Mason	...	Martha
Clay Stone	...	Young Man
Marcelle Hemphill	...	Mrs. Wingate Yates Foster
Tom Mason	...	Foster Ghost
James La Maida	...	Hall

Also Known As:

Dr. Acula (USA) (original script title)
Revenge of the Dead

Runtime:

69 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Spain:T | USA:Approved (Certificate # 19275) | UK:PG | USA:Unrated | Italy:T | Finland:K-18 (2004)

Trivia:

When Wade Williams acquired the rights to Edward D. Wood Jr.'s Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) in 1982, Wood's widow, Kathy, told him of this never-released film that was being held by a post-production house because the lab fees hadn't been paid. Williams paid the fees and acquired this film as well.

Quotes:

Leader of the Dead: Good evening, Dr. Acula. We have been expecting you.
Karl: Who are you?
Leader of the Dead: You ask who we are, yet it was you who called for our return.
Karl: This is impossible! I hired actors to play the dead. You're not my actors!
Leader of the Dead: Your powers were even stronger than you yourself realized. You have brought us back from the grave. Once every 13 years, when called by a strong medium such as you, we are given a brief 12 hours of freedom from our deep pit of darkness. Those few hours are almost gone. We must return to the grave. You will accompany us there.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Svengoolie: Night of the Ghouls" (1996)

Legendary, for the wrong reasons perhaps but still legendary.

How can you not like a picture that opens with a man (Criswell)sitting up in a coffin and warning that the story you are about to see may make you faint. Then the credits come on and you see the director is Edward D. Wood Jr. Yes, you may indeed faint . . .but from laughing too hard. This sequel to BRIDE OF THE MONSTER is fun on many levels. It offers unrelated footage from the unfinished movie HELLBORN (some of which later turned up in THE SINISTER URGE) which narrator Criswell tries to tie into the plot: there is also footage of Duke Moore that was shot for a 1/2 hour TV show that is woven in also. What was called "the old Willows house on Lake Marsh" is now "the house on Willow's Lake" and everyone remembers it used to be lived in by "the mad scientist who made monsters". The giant octopus is long gone but Lobo (Tor Johnson) has somehow survived and is now employed by Dr. Acula (Kenne Duncan) a phony medium. Lobo is supposed to be the "monster" in the plot but one look at him makes you think otherwise. Dressed in rags, badly burned, half blind, groaning like he is in constant pain, Lobo inspires more pity than fear. In one scene Lt. Bradford (Moore) does not even seem to notice Lobo when he is standing right next to him! Well this is still a fun movie. The ineptness of an Ed Wood movie is compensated by the sincerity that he put into every production. Ed really believed he was contributing to the movie genre and making his mark. He sure did! Not quite in the way he expected, but look how many people are still watching his movies to-day!