Spookies

Plot

A 13-year-old boy named Billy runs from home as his parents forget his birthday. Making his way through thick woods, he encounters a drifter who is violently slashed to death after Billy leaves. Billy stumbles on an old mansion where a room is decorated for birthday celebrations. Thinking it is a surprise by his parents, he opens a present to discover a severed head. Running away, he is attacked by the drifter's killer, a werecat with a hook on one hand, and subsequently buried alive.

Meanwhile, a group of teenagers and some older adults come across the mansion intending to have a party, believing the mansion to be abandoned. However, a warlock named Kreon resides there, keeping watch over his bride who he has kept preserved for over 70 years using an unrevealed method, but it is known that he needs human victims in order to do it. He possesses one of teenagers in the group to use a Ouija board and summons a variety of monsters to pick off the group one by one. These include muck-men, small reptilian demons, giant spiders, an arachnid woman, an octopus-like creature with electric tentacles, a skeletal witch, a Grim Reaper statue, a vampiric boy in a monk's habit, and a large group of zombies.

Eventually, the entire group is killed by the monsters and Kreon hopes to preserve his bride for longer, but she escapes by killing him and trying to outrun the zombie horde around the mansion. The bride eventually is saved by a man who drives her away in his car. Kreon regenerates out of a coffin as it is revealed the man in the car is actually the werecat. The camera pans on Kreon's laughing face and the credits roll.

Production

Spookies started out as a feature film entitled Twisted Souls. The film started shooting in late summer of 1984 and finished principal photography in October of that same year. It was directed by Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran, and produced by Frank Farel, Brendan Faulkner, and Thomas Doran. The film "Twisted Souls" was being edited when creative and legal issues between the producers and the financial backer prevented final post production work from being carried out (final editing, scoring, post-effects, etc.).

The original Twisted Souls footage directed by Faulkner and Doran consists of all the teenagers who arrive in the two cars and all the related monsters: Demon/Ouija Girl; Muck Men; Spider Woman; Snake Demons; Hallway Demon; Grim Reaper; and all related effects. The screenplay was written by Frank Farel, Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran.

In 1985 the financial backer of Twisted Souls hired Eugenie Joseph to direct more footage which was pieced together with the footage from Twisted Souls, creating Spookies. The added footage by Joseph, with an entirely different cast, includes all the footage of the boy looking for his birthday party; man in tree; Cat-man; old, withered magician; girl in coffin; zombies; witch in basement/cave; and the little blue boy.

Cast and crew

The creature effects were created by Gabe Bartalos, Arnold Gargulio, Jennifer Aspinall, John Dods, and others helping in various capacities.

Release

The film was given a limited theatrical release in the United States by Sony Video Software Company in January 1987. It grossed $17,785 at the box office. It was also released theatrically in Hong Kong.

The film was released on VHS by Sony Video, but has since gone out of print. Vipco Entertainment (UK) released a Region 2 DVD mastered from the VHS source. As of now, there are currently no plans for a DVD or Blu-Ray release.