The first Ghoulies was a success off the back of Gremlins, a case of casual movie fans expecting it to be just like Joe Dante's wickedly dark horror comedy. How disappointed they must have been (I rented it in the '80s, but knew very well what I was letting myself in for).This second outing for FX man John Carl Buechler's demonic rubber hand puppets is just as underwhelming as the original—not in the slightest bit scary or funny. This time around, the toothy, malevolent creatures cause havoc at a carnival, starting off by attacking visitors to a haunted house before escaping to spread the mayhem to other rides and attractions.Unlike Gremlins, the diminutive creatures in Ghoulies II are utterly charmless, and with dreadful performances, a weak script, uninspired direction and risible effects, Ghoulies II is a major turd. I can't, however, say that I was disappointed, because I had fully expected it to be terrible.

Larry (Damon Martin) and Uncle Ned (Royal Dano) are driving a truck to an amusement park with their attraction Satan's Den. They have to stop in a repair shop and four demons sneak and hide in the truck. They arrive at the carnival and hide inside the Satan's Den. The arrogant owner of the carnival P. Hardin (J. Downing) threatens to fire the employees if their attractions are not profitable and assigns the dwarf Sir Nigel Penneyweight (Phil Fondacaro) to work with Larry and Ned in the Satan's Den. He also hits on Larry's girlfriend Nicole (Kerry Remsen). When the audience sees the demons in the Satan's Den, they believe that they are part of the attractions and the entertainment becomes a sensation. But when people are attacked by the demons, there is panic in the carnival. Now Larry, Nigel and Nicole try to use an incantation to get rid of the creatures."Ghoulies II" is a funny and cheesy franchise similar to "Critters" and other "evil toys" in the late 80's and early 90's. The plot is silly with one dimensional characters and gruesome scenes, but entertains and is cult. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): Not Available

This really is better than the first Ghoulies. Here's why: 1. None of the annoying side characters from the first film are in this one. 2. The plot flows a little better(but not great, still very disjointed) And 3. The Ghoulies them selves look much better than in the first film. they move better, have better design, and this time around stop-motion was used in a few scenes. Plus the ending with the giant Ghoulie monster is hilarious. The Ghoulies get more screen time in this one, and all together the film feels shorter which is an improvement from the first's bloated plot. The humor in Ghoulies II is also entertaining (unintentional and otherwise) and it helps keep some of the more boring plot stuff. In all Ghoulies II is a disjointed but entertaining film. recommended to fans of the first or Gremlins.

I didn't like the first "Ghoulies" movies. I thought it was really cheap, really boring, and really lame. But apparently the movie struck a nerve during its theatrical release and subsequent video-cassette release, because a few years later we got this sequel (though it was released direct to video because of the bankruptcy of Empire Pictures). I was expecting the worst for this movie, but to my surprise I thought it was somewhat of an improvement over part one. While it is painfully obvious at times that this set-in-America movie was NOT filmed in America (it was filmed in Italy), otherwise this movie looks a lot better than the first one. It looks like more money was invested, which gives us things like better sets and better creature effects (including some stop-motion animation.) Also, the protagonists in this sequel are a lot more likable than the ones in the first film. While this sequel is an improvement, there are two big problems that hold this back from cheesy fun status. First, the pacing - I though the limited plot unfolded very slowly. The second problem is that with the PG-13 rating, the movie holds back on R-rated goodies like gore and sexual material, which might have really livened things up. Still, I'll admit I've seen plenty of horror movies that are much worse than this one.