An insane ninja babe (Stacie Randall) must steal a gem from an ex-Satanist cop, Jonathan Graves (Peter Liapis), in order to conjure a powerful demon. When she makes a mistake with her magic, she accidentally summons two friendly, jive-talking midget-demons who want to return to hell. Helping Jonathan to stop her is his ex-girlfriend and boss, Kate (Barbara Alyn Woods).
I don’t think I’m being picky when I say that in my killer-sock-puppet movies, I’d like to see a killer-sock-puppet. In Ghoulies I-III, there were, well, ghoulies (the killer-sock-puppets in question), but none are to be seen here. There are two midgets in Halloween masks, if you happen to be looking for midgets in Halloween masks. Strangely, they have nothing to do with the story. They pop in, and then ride around in the backs of people’s cars with no one ever noticing they are there.
Unlike the previous two sequels, this one actually has a connection to the original film with the return of Peter Liapis as Jonathan Graves. Jonathan’s personality is completely different, but take your schlock movie connections how you can get them. In Ghoulies Jonathan inherited a house from his sorcerer father and became obsessed with conjuring evil power. Now, he’s just a jerk who is unpleasant to his hot, prostitute girlfriend, psychotic around his partner, and a general idiot. It’s hard to like him, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t like the film. You won’t, but the main character isn’t the reason.
While the acting is far from stellar, it isn’t distractingly bad and I’ve seen many inferiorly shot movies. Plus the three female leads are cute and all have a bit of character development. So, there was the potential for an enjoyable, horror-comedy exploitation film. After all, it is filled with light moments and every woman who isn’t evil or a cop is a prostitute. Unfortunately, the “comedy” isn’t funny and there is no exploitation. The “R” rating must come from the concept of prostitutes as there is no skin or blood. I like my exploitation more exploitive.
A few sock-puppet demons and some gratuitous nudity, and Ghoulies IV could have been a guilty pleasure. Instead, it’s just a tease.