Watch Spookies For Free

Memorable, crazy movie

Absolutely the worst movie.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

In a film deeply reminiscent of the myriad 1930s old dark house horror flicks – in which a group of diverse characters found themselves collected in a haunted mansion, only to die mysteriously one by one – but with the up-to-date addition of special effects and bloodshed, SPOOKIES is a surprisingly enjoyable movie that is difficult to criticise. Sure, it is a low brow film, with lots of annoying '80s style humour and overacting leads, but nevertheless the fast pacing of the movie and the plethora of weird and wonderful creations and effects is what makes it worthwhile. As part of an unfinished film was also edited into the proceedings, this is in addition a confusing watch in which the plotting is sometimes all over the place; no matter, because there are guaranteed chills and monsters just around the corner, so don't focus too much on the storyline.Production values are invariably low (with the exception of the super-quality effects work) whilst the acting leaves a lot to be desired – just the typical badly-dressed '80s crowd you always see in horror movies like this. The scripting is basic in the extreme, and, rather annoyingly, it rips off THE EVIL DEAD no end, including one female possession who looks just like a character in Raimi's film. The music is almost classic and weirdly suits the film – to much greater effect than the usual '80s pop/rock that you usually here in this sort of thing. Anyway, the best thing in this is the diverse range of monsters, ranging from squelchy muck-men in the basement to a real-life Grim Reaper, complete with sharp scythe; possessed people; an Asian spider-woman; little GREMLINS-style critters; and, at the frenetic, effective climax, a whole graveyard full of zombies. Mix in blood and lots of corpses (and, on one sour note, an exceptionally annoying demon henchman with a hook for a hand, who doesn't do a thing the whole movie except creep around) and you have the perfect ingredients for a chilled night's viewing.

I just love this film to death! It's got such a great atmosphere, and I've never known another horror movie with so many different kinds of monsters packed into the story! The theme music isn't much but is nice enough and sets the tone, the smiling skull informing the audience that this romp is purely intended in the spirit of ghoulish fun, and is by no means meant to be taken too seriously! Although, it certainly has its grim moments and there's no shortage of death. The opening demise of the rather brainless Billy is a very chilling and nasty sequence. At first it seems like the drifter's gonna try something funny with Billy until he's killed by the lame gypsy/pirate/werecat who then, after the creepiest damn birthday party I've ever seen, chases down the helpless little boy, slashes his face and buries him alive! 13 was not a lucky number for Billy... ::: I thought Felix Ward as the deliciously sinister villain was great! And not one other acting credit for him ever.. The setup is so epic and cool! Ancient, evil corpse-wizard residing in his abode of the damned, summoning up a mad menagerie of freakish demons to seek out and kill the group of unfortunates that are trapped in his funhouse of doom, orchestrating the fates of victims and a symphony of horrors like a well-played game of chess, all for the sake of resurrecting the idealised lady love who poisoned herself to escape him in the first place! The magnificently Gothic old mansion was a truly excellent setting for classic '80's terror. All the gloomy dark hallways and decrepit rooms make for one superbly nightmarish tone that's spiced-up by the beasties that are constantly appearing out of nowhere, creating a feeling of the unknown around every corner. Most of the cast were admittedly annoying and forgettable, making you wish that they'd just hurry up and die, which in this case was probably a good thing! And that doesn't even matter in a movie like this. That kind of low-budget acting just adds to the charm. The wannabe comedian with the sock puppet especially deserved to die horribly - he really does! Fabulously disgusting and detailed effects in that sequence. I did like the oh-so British "Adrienne."(such a bitch!) Her droll bad attitude was really funny in the bit where she's smoking a cigarette and bossing around her wimpy husband! The music that plays during the scene where she's fighting the snake gremlins is so strange and dramatic. And a very eerie and poignant scene is the one of her gruesome, stop-motion animation death via the electric tentacles of a wailing abomination. And then its unspeakable heart of darkness beats anew... Ha! The muckmen were so easy to kill! They were the easiest out of all the monsters to defeat. I wonder why they 'farted?' Maybe it was swamp gas escaping because they were made outta mud! Even if it's not scary, the silly noises make that part a guilty pleasure. I love the finale with the rocking music blaring as the blushing bride is chased through deep dark woods by the demonic zombie horde! Totally goes on forever, but it was the perfect, over-the-top punchline to the whole movie - creatures of the night, put your claws together!!! ::: Half the film is kind of serious, and the other silly. It's a soup of various horror concepts that somehow to me, all blend together into a joyously macabre work of dark wonder. And regardless of its faults "Spookies" delivers where it counts, maintaining a menacing and surreal tone of dread that keeps the viewer creeped-out until the bitter end. And I do so adore that bad ending! Everybody's freaking dead and buried, the snake survives and the princess is his unwilling prize for all eternity, and his black victory is complete! This picture has something of the old E.C. Grand Guignol magic about it. Cheesy at points, but overall an awesome *spooky* blast to watch! Bloody brilliant!!!

I got this movie in an Out Of Print Horror Movie Lot on Ebay. I wasn't expecting much and that's exactly what I got! The cover artwork is probably the best part of this cheese fest! I won't give away any "spoilers" but I will say that some of the effects are pretty good but the zombies look like extras from the Michael Jackson "Thriller" video shoot, you know, the ones they used to fill out the scene, the ones way in the back that weren't lit and were covered by smoke. The scares are not scary at all, they're somewhat pathetic and sad. The acting is really bad. Especially from that guy in that plastic/ leather jump suit! It was so funny to look at. But at least his girlfriend has the goods which sadly, the film never shows! This movie sucks. But I guess if you're into cheesy 80's horror movies, you'll love it! But I hate the 80's and I didn't need to be reminded of it!!!

IMDb readers are in luck: some of the production team behind one of the two films combined into the feature called SPOOKIES have been posting to the message boards for the film, and their insights into this really odd, enjoyable little flick are quite eye opening.Unless I am mistaken in reading what they have posted, SPOOKIES began in 1983/1984 as a film slated to be called TWISTED SOULS -- credited to directors Thomas Doran and Brendan Faulkner -- about a group of people who travel to a secluded mansion in the middle of nowhere for some sort of party: The place is haunted or possessed by poltergeists who saw THE EVIL DEAD (amongst other films given visual nods) and the cast is killed off in entertainingly gruesome ways by a host of early FX horror meanies -- My favorite is the statue of the Grim Reaper that comes to life, scythe and all, though most fans seem to prefer the Muck Men, who pass gas uncontrollably while trying to maul their victims. "Farting mud men" or whatever.For reasons I am still not 100% clear about the film was shelved for two years or so until 1985/1986 when a hack director named Eugenie Johnson was brought in to try and create a finished feature length film out of the well-produced but unused footage, shooting some additional scenes and editing them into the body of TWISTED SOULS in the same way that one might make a quilt on a loom: The two films are now inextricably interwoven into one 85 minute feature called SPOOKIES, which unless my notes are incorrect, was released theatrically & on home video in 1987/1988 to a certain amount of popular acclaim.Put quite simply, the scenes with the group of people in the haunted mansion with the Ouija board possessed chick are what is left of TWISTED SOULS, the remaining footage with the goofy made-up kids, the Angus Scrimm like old man, and the young goth babe in the white dress are what Ms. Johnson added to round out the runtime. The result is even more confusing than it might sound because the film abruptly changes gears & tones in mid-scene as cutaway reaction shots by the weird monster kids are edited to make them appear as extensions to scenes which they were never meant to be in. The problem is that the production design and texture of film stock used for the SPOOKIES add-in scenes are notably different than the by then 3 years older TWISTED SOULS scenes, giving the film a discontinuous & disjointed feel to it that one might mistake for clumsy editing. One minute you get a terse haunted house scene with 20 something adults panicking as they have to fight off animated killing fiends, the next minute you get stuff that looks like a nightmare sequence from "The Wonder Years". The film comes off as a cross between a horror farce like DEADTIME STORIES and a grim little effects thriller like SUPERSTITION aka THE WITCH, which may also have it's own grim sense of humor but is hardly played for laughs.The final film known as SPOOKIES doesn't make sense as a linear narrative, and yet there is still something going on here that is pretty darn interesting. The bottom line on the film is that NO UNCUT VERSION OF IT EXISTS, unless you want to use Duchamp and say that Ms. Johnson's re-defined film with the added footage counts as a finished, single discreet object. It sort of kinda does, but only until you learn the story behind what you're seeing. And once you know the story behind the production -- and how to tell the two aggregate parts from each other -- it's hard to enjoy it as a single finished piece of art anymore, which is too bad. SPOOKIES doesn't suck but yet it doesn't exactly rule, and as Beavis & Butt-Head teach us, stuff should either suck, or it rules ... By failing to achieve even that basic standard the film becomes a big, exasperating, confusing tease that looks great without managing to say a damn thing about what it is supposed to be. Here is a film that requires background reading.That the original material from TWISTED SOULS is lost to time (or legal considerations, at least) is a travesty: This could have been one of the best haunted house movies of the 1980's, and instead exists only as a sort of incomplete, disorienting mish-mash filled with genuine dreck breaking up some of the most interesting horror scenes from that particular period of time. I find the film as it exists today as a fascinating example of how the worst intentions of even the most talented people can be used against their own better judgment: I'd love to even see a 40 minute cut of what's left that excludes the SPOOKIES additions, even if the film wouldn't have an ending. What ending there was tacked on isn't much to begin with, and sometimes trimming the fat from a steak helps one get to the meat a bit quicker without having to saw through all the chewy, wasteful gristle. If Ms. Johnson was not under a contract compelling her to do the work she has no excuse, because no matter how clever her additions were they only served to muddle up & confuse what should have been a lean, mean little movie.7/10: Someone call in a butcher next time.