Spookies

Spookies
Directed by	Brendan Faulkner Thomas Doran
Produced by	Brendan Faulkner Thomas Doran Frank Farel
Written by	Thomas Doran Brendan Faulkner Frank Farel
Starring	Peter Dain Peter Iasillo Joan Ellen Delaney Soo Paek Nick Gionta Anthony J Valbiro Lisa Friede Kim Merrill Charlotte Alexandra Al Magliochetti Felix Ward Alec Nemser Maria Pechukas
Music by	James Calabrese Kenneth Higgins
Cinematography	Ken Kelsch Robert Chappel
Edited by	Eugenie Joseph
Distributed by	Sony Video Software Company
Release date	May 14, 1986 (France) January 8, 1987 (Hong Kong) January 1988 (United States)
Running time	85 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$17,785

Spookies is a 1986 American independent horror film directed by Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran. The plot follows a lost kid and a group of partying teenagers finding an abandoned mansion and becoming trapped inside as a warlock tries to sacrifice the group with the intention of using their vitality to keep his wife alive.

The film was given a limited theatrical release in 1987-1988 and a more widespread video release in the latter year, as well as being shown on cable television's USA Network multiple times between 1988 and 1991. It has achieved a cult following since its release.

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, written and produced by Frank Farel, Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran and directed by Faulkner and Doran. Principal photography for the film began at the Jay Estate in Rye, New York in late summer of 1984 and finished in October of that same year. Twisted Souls was being edited when creative and legal issues between the producers and the financial backer prevented final post production work (final editing, scoring, post-effects, etc.) from being carried out.

The original Twisted Souls footage directed by Faulkner and Doran consists of all the travelers who arrive in two cars and all the monsters and effects they encounter within the house. The monsters include: the demon ouija girl, the muck men, the spider woman, the snake demons, the hallway demon and the Grim Reaper.

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

Release

Spookies was given a limited theatrical release in the United States by Sony Video Software Company in January 1987 and grossed $17,785 at the box office. It was also released theatrically in Hong Kong.^[1]

The film was released on VHS by Sony Video but eventually went out of print. In 2003, UK company Vipco Entertainment released a Region 2 PAL DVD mastered from a VHS source as part of "Vipco's Screamtime Collection" series.^[2]

In 2017, the film was released on DVD by French company Intercontinental Film and Video under the title Les Spookie. Despite its French title, the audio language is English and the disc is sourced from a new HD interpositive 2K scan. This DVD is playable in regions 1, 2 and 5.

External links

• Spookies on IMDb

References