Oh man, am I giddy over these recent Empire soundtrack reissues. These movies (TerrorVision, Ghoulies, and Troll) were staples of my mid-1980s video store diet, and while Terrorvision stands out as one of my favorite films of all time (think The Thing as done by John Waters), all of 'em are a blast that have aged rather nicely for me. 1984's Ghoulies is definitely one of the more notorious of the bunch - oh yeah, THAT toilet bowl on the tape box. THAT tagline, "...they'll get you in the end...". Classic low-budget Empire satano-grunge. The film itself is standard fodder, with a bunch of hapless student types shacking up at an abandoned mansion that the main protagonist just inherited, learning that it was the site of infamous Satanic rituals and then being bedeviled by the munchkin demons that are accidentally summoned and set loose into their midst. A simple premise with great puppet effects from John Carl Buechler, who imbues these malevolent midgets with snarling charm. Out of all of the "munchkin monster" films that came out in the wake of Gremlins, this one is closest to my heart. And the Ghoulies score also seems to be the most popular of these recent reissues, as the vinyl edition quickly appeared to go out of print at the source. Regardless, all three of these releases are incredibly powerful nostalgia-bombs for me.

Empire's in-house composer (and brother of producer / mastermind Charles) Richard Band was operating under a tight deadline during the production of the Ghoulies score, and utilized some material from previous Band productions The Alchemist and Parasite, albeit using careful editing and layering to give this its own loopy character. For this boisterous and bombastic frolic of puppet demons, basement black magic, and worst of all, the horrors of home renovation, Band brought out all of his compositional hallmarks (including his frequent homage to Bernard Herrmann), creating an hour's worth of orchestral creep. Fans of Band's work have always picked up on his deep appreciation for the classic Hitchcock film scores, and again you can pick up on vague nods to Herrmann's style throughout these twenty tracks.

The dark and dissonant piano keys and suspenseful strings of the "Prologue" piece cast a dark shadow across the space, underscored by doom-laden cello drones, swirling chimes, and eerie synthesizers, and building towards the apoplectic absurdity of the "Main Titles". That theme is going to be instantly recognizable to any fellow folks who spent an inordinate amount of time hanging out in the aisles of the "Horror" section that the local video store - it's prime Band, once again paying homage to classic Herrmann while kicking the nutty energy up by several notches with that signature tuba and backing brass section. This chaotic clamor sounds remarkably like the kind of thing that Danny Elfman would make his signature style a few years down the road. But of course, more sinister and threatening; I rank it as one of Band's most iconic pieces, and a real scene setter. From that point, the sprawling score moves the viewer and listener through a rich sonic fantasia of almost cartoonish orchestral arrangements, dire chamber strings suspended in shadow, creepy minor-key interludes, as well as some of those hair-raising experimental textures that Band often brought to his work during this period in his career: the skittering chaos of "Basement Discovery" that evokes the nightmarishness of George Crumb; dreamy electronic echoes and bursts of Penderecki-esque percussive unease; thunderous tympani-style drums, guttural tuba / trumpet sounds, and lots and lots of lush ghostly accompaniment for black magic ritual. At its wildest, the slow-burn Ghoulie-invocations give way to brass blasts and weird, almost playful Carl Stalling-like pieces of devilish mischief that spring to life all over the place, almost feeling like an old Looney Tunes cartoon on research chemicals. It's a real blast, to be honest, walking that line between "giddy" and "diabolical" that makes the best 80's horror-comedies effective....

Those histrionics are accompanied by some oddball cuts like the over-the-top gothic grandeur of "Organ Track (Dinner Scene)", and a slammin' pair of quirked-out synth-pop tunes "Dancing With A Monster" and the rather Oingo Boingoo -ish "Surrender" by cult New Wave artist Fela Johnson (this song appears on the supplementary 7" EP that comes with the vinyl edition, which has the Band soundtrack piece "Surrender" on the b-side). The combination of this is a perfect background to the activities of the film's prankish, impish little bastards; throughout all of Ghoulies, there's a tangible fairy-tale quality to the music, like some post-modern adaptation of Brother Grimm with moments of ghastliness amplified and fine-tuned, grand and sweeping. Richard Band would revisit some of the elements and textures of Ghoulies for the somewhat similar fairy-tale-gone-mad craziness of Troll, but this one retains its own wacky energy.

This is the full, uncut, complete score (note: the CD edition does include a bonus organ track not included on the vinyl), and includes new liner notes from Band. The 180 gram vinyl releases from this amazing Empire campaign are beautifully out together in gatefold packaging with custom obi-bands for each; the CDs are quite rad, as well, with their own obi cards and composer liner notes. Some of the best of the recent spate of 80's-era soundtrack output.