NIGHT OF THE GHOULS(REVENGE OF THE DEAD)

(director/writer: Ed Wood Jr.; cinematographer: William Thompson; editor: Ed Wood Jr; cast: Kenne Duncan (Dr. Acula), Tor Johnson (Lobo), Duke’ Moore (Police Lieutenant Daniel Bradford), Valda Hansen (The White Ghost), John Carpenter (Police Captain Robbins), Criswell (Himself), Jeannie Stevens (The Black Ghost ), Paul Marco (PatrolmanKelton); Runtime: 69; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Ed Wood Jr; Image Entertainment (Rhino Home Video); 1959)

“Awfully directed by the ironically feted cult film-maker Ed Wood Jr.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Awfully directed by the ironically feted cult film-maker Ed Wood Jr.(“Orgy of the Dead”/”Plan 9 From Outer Space”/”The Sinister Urge”). It’s just another one of his low-budget bad films that is enjoyable because it’s unintentionally funny and has all his signature bad filming moments. It’s the long lost sequel to “Bride of the Monster”. The pic was unreleased for 25 years because Wood couldn’t pay the lab bills.

The psychic Criswell emerges from a coffin to narrate the film’s horror tale.

In East LA, the fake medium Dr Acula (Kenne Duncan), his pretty assistant (Valda Hansen) and the big brute Lobo (Tor Johnson, ex-wrestler) work together in a con game seance scheme collecting fees from a naive paying patron wanting to make contact with his dead relatives. They unwittingly raise the dead in a haunted farm house. There are consequences for the fakes to pay for their misstep, as the disturbed corpses exact revenge on those who messed with their sleep.

Abbott and Costello pics of this ilk try hard to get laughs from such superficial material and often do not succeed despite good film-making techniques, while this incompetent film might have lovers of bad films rolling on the floor with laughter over such terrible acting.

REVIEWED ON 9/24/2015 GRADE: B-