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Credit: Director
Special Effects: Designed and created "Ghoulies" as
well as all creature and make-up effects
Hilarious follow up to what seemed to be a dead end series of gremlin-like rip offs. Miles ahead of the previous movies, the film plays like a three dimensional cartoon, with wild over the top sight gags featuring Buechler's wacked out creations: The Ghoulies; goofy little animatronic puppet creations from the netherworld. Kevin McCarthy is great as Professor Ragnar, the evil college Dean of Humanities who attempts to use the Ghoulies to destroy the on-campus Frat Houses. Buechler's sure directing style and comic timing make this a very funny movie, filled with surprises.
Stories from the Director: After
I directed "Friday 7"
and it was a huge hit, my agent secured a two picture deal at Vestron Pictures.
The first part of the deal was to get me to direct a sequel to the series
that I helped to create ("Ghoulies"). The second part of the deal
would allow me to direct an original movie based on my own script. This
picture was to be called "Hellspawn" and would be the first in
a series of action adventure supernatural thrillers. For me, this would
be the James Bond of the supernatural. I was passionate about doing this
series, and still am -- But first I was contractually obliged to make the
"Ghoulies" film. I thought the best way to approach this would
be to make it an all out comedy with horrific over-tones. 
The
original pictures were in my opinion unintentionally funny, and I did not
want to go down that road again. I made the picture on time and on budget
as usual, but unfortunately, Vestron Pictures ran into financial problems,
and the second picture was not going to get made. Not only that, but it
was questionable as to whether the "Ghoulies" film would even
get released.
Vestron Pictures virtually shut down. Larry Kassanoff, the executive
producer, loved the film and attempted to get the film released theatrically
by Tarus Entertainment, but couldn't raise the necessary funds for print
and advertising. Consequently the movie got shelved and sat for a long time
-- as did many other pictures that Vestron produced, including Stan Winston's
"Upworld" aka "Gnorm the Gnome." Ultimately the film
did sneak out as a limited video release, 
but it has not
to this day even been seen on American Cable, much less American TV. It
has however been seen widely overseas, particularly in England where it
has garnered favorable reviews. People seem to like the film a lot, and
a lot of people think that it's the best film in the series. Still I wish
we could've structured the deal so that I could've made "Hellspawn"
first. That is the movie that I wanted to follow "Friday
7" with. If I could have made that picture, I know that it would
still be around today, and it would've spawned quite a few sequels in it's
own right.