Spookies - the killer monsters

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Spookies - the killer monsters
Original title Spookies
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1986
length 82 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Genius Joseph (as Eugenie Joseph)
Brendan Faulkner
Thomas Doran
script Thomas Doran
Brendan Faulkner
Frank M. Farel
production Genius Joseph (as Eugenie Joseph)
Brendan Faulkner
Thomas Doran
Frank M. Farel
music James Calabrese
Kenneth Higgins
camera Ken Kelsch
Robert Chappel
cut Genie Joseph (as Eugenie Joseph)
occupation

Spookies - The Killer Monster is a low budget - horror film from 1986. Directed led genius Joseph (as Eugenie Joseph), Brendan Faulkner and Thoman Doran. It was screened at the International Festival Of Science Fiction And Fantasy Film in March 1986 and won a Delirium Award for Best Film. In May of the same year it was screened at the Cannes Film Festival . It was approved by the FSK from the age of 18, shortly afterwards the film was indexed by the Federal Testing Agency for Writings Harmful to Young People (today: Federal Testing Agency for Media Harmful to Young People ). The indexing was lifted at the end of 2012.

The cinema revenues amounted to 17,785 USD . According to Frank M. Farel, the film grossed $ 2-3 million from its release on video . The total cost of the film was $ 500,000, according to Genie Joseph.

Between 1988 and 1991 the film was shown several times in the USA Up All Night series on the American cable broadcaster USA Network .

action

Billy, a 13-year-old boy, ran away from home because his parents forgot his birthday. He meets a loiter, speaks to him briefly, and moves on. The drifter is murdered by a demon (Creon's servant).

Billy finds an old house that is next to a cemetery. Since he thinks it is deserted, he goes inside. A room is festively decorated - Billy thinks his parents are holding a surprise party for him. He opens a birthday present by suspecting a bowling ball. However, there is a living, severed head inside. Billy escapes from the house and is followed by Creon's servant, he attacks and seriously injures Billy. Creon's servant throws Billy into a freshly dug grave and buries him alive.

Meanwhile, a group of young people drives around aimlessly and finds the abandoned house. You go in and party shortly after. The house is not deserted, however: a magician named Creon lives here with his servant and young son Korda. Creon has watched over his wife for an eternity, who is in a dead like state. Creon would like to awaken you through magic, for this he needs the life energy of people. He takes possession of one of the girls from the group, conjuring with the help of a special Ouija -Brettes demons - little by the young people from the demons are killed.

Meanwhile, Creon's wife wakes up, murdered Creon less later and flees. She barely escapes a horde of zombies, runs into a man and escapes with him in his car. The man, however, is Creon's servant, who a little later reveals himself as such. Creon is not dead, he gets out of his grave laughing and the film ends.

production

When the friends Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran made a demo recording for their film project Hellspawn, they met the British film distributor Michael Lee. He was ready to finance a horror film. After the two had finished a script in 2 weeks, Lee financed the film project, which was given the working title Twisted Souls.

Filming was from mid-August 1984 to late September 1984. The location was The Jay Estate in Rye, New York . The film crew lived in the carriage house while the film was being made.

There were difficulties from the start. The film crew was understaffed and the effects took longer than expected to be implemented. One event overshadowed the shooting: The newborn baby of Ken Kelsch and his wife died of sudden infant death 1 to 2 weeks after the start of shooting . Macabre: A tombstone with a grim reaper holding a dead baby in his arms was made for the opening scene, which was removed later. The gravestone reads: "Life so Short, Eternity so Long" (German: Life is so short, eternity so long).

Michael Lee interfered again and again, be it in the shooting or the editing. The final break occurred after he had shown the first rough cut version with a running time of approx. 2 hours and 30 minutes to a representative of Golden Harvest . He rejected the film because it was too lengthy for the Chinese market. Shortly afterwards, Lee fired Thomas Doran and Brendan Faulkner among others. At this point the film was about 90 percent complete.

Then Genie Joseph was hired as a screenwriter and director. Until then, she was responsible for editing. In Genie Joseph's opinion, only about 45 minutes of the rough cut version were to be used. Around 45 minutes of new film material had to be produced to achieve a running time of around 90 minutes. The problem: All the actors and some of the other people involved in the film refused to work with her, according to genius Joseph, because the heads behind Twisted Souls (Thomas Doran and Brendan Faulkner) were fired. A new cast was put together, the script was rewritten so that scenes with the new actors could be arranged in such a way that they could be edited with the already completed scenes.

The cost was about $ 500,000 for Twisted Souls and Spookies combined, according to Joseph. The original budget was $ 250,000 for Twisted Souls. Its premiere in theaters had Spookies in the US in January 1987th

Twisted Souls / Spookies - An overview of known changes:

  • The film title Twisted Souls has been changed to Spookies. Michael Lee wanted the film title , " If the film title Goonies works, then Spookies works, " says Lee.
  • The original opening scene was completely cut out. This is about a homeless man named Jakey.
  • The Muck Mans fart in the basement. This sound effect was intended as a joke and should be removed later. Michael Lee thought it was hilarious and since he was the boss, the scene ended up in the final version.
  • The characters Creon, Isabelle, Creon's servant, Korda (Creon's and Isabelle's son), Billy, the drifter, the witch in the cave, the cemetery zombie (Robert Epstein) and the zombies have been added to the story.
  • The flying ghosts have been removed.
  • Many of the scenes that have already been cut have been recut.
  • Most of the ending has been changed.
  • The scene with the spider woman was changed.
  • The corpse holding the Ouija board had a backstory in Twisted Souls.

publication

  • Spookies was only shown in a few theaters, in the United States and Hong Kong in January 1987.
  • The film was released on video in West Germany in 1988.
  • The film was also released on Betamax and Laserdisc .
  • The film was released on DVD in 2013 under the title Evil Spookies - Die Killerdämonen in Germany.

music

Ken Higgins and James Calabrese's score was released on vinyl in 2016 .

The following tracks are on the vinyl record:

1. Kreon's Grave 2. Happy Birthday Billy 3. Opening Credit Theme 4. Princess Love Theme 5. Muck Men 6. Attack of the Lizard People 7. Catman 8. Kreon's Bride 9. Duke and Peter Come to Blows 10. Spider Lady 11 No Way Out 12. Zombie Theme

Reviews

“Interesting special effects… monster creations well done… in time-honored horror film tradition.”

"Interesting special effects ... monster creations well done ... in the time-honored horror film tradition."

- Variety (1987)

Trivia

  • According to Peter Iasillo Jr. (Rich), the financier Michael Lee was a primitive. He kept making lewd and sexist comments about the girls on the set.
  • A corporation called Twisted Souls Inc. was founded for the film .
  • The film poster was designed by the comic artist Richard Corben .
  • The direction is not listed in the credit .
  • All zombie actors are mentioned by name in the credits.
  • There is a board game from Haba called Spookies, but it has nothing to do with the movie.
  • There is an official Facebook fan page.
  • Genius Joseph shot some porn under the stage name Erica Havens.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Brian Albright: Regional Horror Films, 1958-1990: A State-by-State Guide with Interviews . McFarland & Company, ISBN 978-0-7864-7227-7 , pp. 269 .
  2. ↑ JP Harris: Time Capsule: Reviews of horror, science fiction and fantasy films and TV shows from 1987-1991 . iUniverse, 2002, ISBN 978-0-595-21336-8 , pp. 224 .
  3. ↑ Spookies - Die Killermonster for the first time on DVD. In: Schnittberichte.com. July 1, 2013, accessed May 22, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Spookies. In: Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 22, 2019 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e Max Evry: The strange saga of Spookies. In: thedissolve.com. October 15, 2014, accessed May 22, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b The Making of Spookies By Director Genie Joseph. Retrieved May 23, 2019 .
  7. ↑ The first Shoot of Twisted Souls ... Accessed May 24, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Spookies / Twisted Souls Trivia. Retrieved May 23, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Lets get to 100 likes folks! Share the page! Retrieved May 23, 2019 .
  10. ↑ The flying ghosts. Retrieved May 23, 2019 .
  11. ↑ The Official Spookies-Twisted Souls Fanpage. Retrieved May 23, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Talking Pictures - One of the very last shots done for Twisted Souls. Retrieved May 24, 2019 .
  13. ↑ The mummy of a sorcerer. Retrieved May 24, 2019 .
  14. ↑ a b Spookies - Die Killermonster (1986), Release Info. In: Internet Movie Database . Retrieved May 23, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Spookies - Betamax. In: todocoleccion. Retrieved May 23, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Spookies Rare LaserDisc. DaDon's Rare LaserDiscs, accessed May 23, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Evil Spookies - The Killer Demons. Amazon , accessed May 23, 2019 .
  18. ↑ Spookies - Colored Vinyl, LP. Retrieved May 23, 2019 .
  19. ↑ a b Max Evry: The strange saga of Spookies. In: thedissolve.com. October 15, 2014, accessed May 22, 2019 .
  20. ↑ With Twisted Souls Inc. (Sorted by Popularity Ascending). In: IMDb. Retrieved May 22, 2019 .
  21. ↑ Spookies | Haba. Retrieved May 23, 2019 .
  22. ↑ The Official Spookies / Twisted Souls Fanpage. Retrieved May 23, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Ready for some trivia? Retrieved May 23, 2019 .