1986 was the year of some very strange horror movies. Chopping Mall, Wes Craven’s Deadly Friend, House, Maximum Overdrive, Night of the Creeps, Clive Barker adaptation Rawhead Rex, TerrorVision, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Troll, they all came out within the same calendar year. But, in terms of weirdness factor, it’s Spookies for the win. There are multiple reasons for this, and even if the movie had ended up being what co-directors Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Duran had intended (specifically, a movie titled Twisted Souls), it still would have been plenty weird. But the final product isn’t at all what they intended. Plenty of scenes they shot are still there, but there are also quite a few they did not.
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The story of Spookies‘ construction is an interesting one. And, because the whole thing is so odd, one might not know just how tumultuous it was by just watching it fresh. However, once you know what happened, it makes the movie’s jumpiness all the more understandable.
What Was Spookies Supposed to Be?
As mentioned, Faulkner and Doran (along with co-writer and producer Frank Farel) intended this to be a movie called Twisted Souls. It would have featured a group of teenagers and older adults (how they all came to know each other and be part of the same friend group is never remotely clear) as they come across a seemingly empty, spooky mansion. As young people are wont to do, they decide to have a party in said spooky mansion.
While in there, they happen upon a Ouija board which proceeds to bring about a variety of monsters that kill the teens (and adults) one by one. Oh, and one of the teens becomes possessed and stays that way throughout the movie.
All of that is a substantial chunk of Spookies‘ runtime, and it’s definitely the best chunk. The practical effects used to bring the small snake demons, the “muck men,” the spider woman, and the sentient Grim Reaper statue to life are all genuinely fantastic, especially for a movie with such a tiny budget.
However, the film’s financial backer, Michael Lee, founder of Vipco, a UK-based distributor specializing in B-movies, didn’t care for what he was seeing. So, he hired Eugenie Joseph to come in and basically take the movie over. Her footage and the bones of Twisted Souls were then merged to form Spookies.
What Did the New Footage Add?
First off, a lot was added via the new footage. But what the new footage removed was any semblance of continuity.
As for what was added, there were a few new monsters including an octopus monster and a skeleton witch, and these beasts are brought to much less convincing life since it wasn’t the same crew working on the practical effects.
More importantly, a wraparound story was added. Specifically, the owner of the mansion is a warlock named Kreon, and he basically exists to provide a voiceover as to why these things are happening to the group of unwanted guests. By his side is a werecat, who we meet in the opening scene when he kills a little boy.
Kreon has kept his bride preserved for seven decades, though how he does so isn’t explained. We chalk it up to warlock magic. In the third act she wakes up, rejects him, and runs from a group of zombies throughout a really long and really unexciting sequence where they essentially grab at her without actually trying to kill her.
She’s then rescued from the zombies by a man who is unrelated either to the group of now-deceased partiers or the remainder of the movie and they drive away. Then, surprise, he’s revealed to be the werecat.
Spookies bounds back and forth between Faulkner and Doran’s work and Joseph’s additions pretty consistently. We never really get two consecutive scenes of Twisted Souls, as it were. As one might expect, Faulkner and Doran weren’t pleased about this and for decades after this movie’s release they seldom held back on their true feelings regarding Michael Lee. Even still, for all its faults, of which there are many, Spookies is a goofy fun midnight movie. It’s amazing it works at all.
Stream Spookies for free with ads on Tubi.
What is your favorite movie that had a tough production and ended up being a cult favorite? Let us know in the comments.
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