The Podcast Macabre 2023 Horror Challenge 
7/52
15. From 2003
Tubi

11 years before NIGHTCRAWLER, THE GHOULS tells the story of a scuzzy video journalist who prowls the city streets at night, capturing the bloodiest and most lurid scenes to sell to news stations. The grime and sleaze is even more over the top though; an early scene shows him standing next to a guy butchering his wife, filming the whole thing like he's making a snuff film. The cops show up (one of them played by a young James Gunn) and just tell him to scram. That's the tone we're working with here.

THE GHOULS was produced on a micro budget, but it works! The gritty camera work, the grime, the shithead characters, the gore, it works. There are a few drawbacks that kept me from giving this a higher rating. There are scenes that drag on too long and don't add to the plot. Some of the shots are just too long-- there are shots of people walking through the sewers that just drag on too much. The final showdown with the flesh eating ghouls is a letdown, and there's a credits scene that's just there for shock value but doesn't really add much else.

Special shoutout to DAY OF THE DEAD'S Joe Pilato, who crushes it as a sleazy news producer. It was a missed opportunity not having him yell "Choke on 'em!"