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| A writer becomes suspicious of his strange neighbors in "Mr. and Mrs. Ghoul." |
NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's Warm Angora Wishes and Rubber Octopus Dreams (Arcane Shadows Press, 2024).
The story: "Mr. and Mrs. Ghoul" by Bobby "Lugosi" Zier
Synopsis: It is 1956, and aspiring screenwriter Glen Kelton lives in Hollywood with his girlfriend, Barbara. Glen is also a closeted transvestite and an alcoholic, so he's under a lot of stress. He is highly suspicious of his neighbors, a couple named the Ghouls, and suspects that Mr. Ghoul is actually the notorious mad scientist Dr. Eric Vornoff. One night, while spying on the Ghouls, Glen learns that they are conspiring with the Martians to create a race of octopus-men and take over the universe. Glen desperately wants to convey this information to the authorities, but he fears that the Ghouls will expose Glen's own personal secrets in retaliation. He doesn't know what to do.
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| Suburban paranoia: The 'Burbs. |
After listening to a special Halloween night radio broadcast by the psychic Criswell, Glen decides to take matters into his own hands. He grabs a gun and breaks into the Ghouls' house. He finds a mad science lab in the basement and even has to grapple with an octo-man, whom he shoots in the eye. Mr. Ghoul (a.k.a. Eric Vornoff) confronts him and declares Glen's bullets will have no effect on him. Then, Mrs. Ghoul flies into the room, having taken the form of a bat. She bites Glen on the neck and drains his blood.
Glen awakes the next morning, having no memory of his encounter with the Ghouls. In fact, he is now under the control of the seemingly unstoppable Vornoff.
Excerpt:
Glen knew there was more to the Ghouls than meets the eye, but he never imagined this, he began sweating profusely and his hands were shaking, in fact, they were shaking so much that he dropped his cocktail glass, and it shattered on the concrete.
Reflections: I assume most of you are familiar with Joe Dante's black comedy The 'Burbs (1989), in which a harried husband and father named Ray (Tom Hanks) becomes convinced that his eccentric new neighbors, the Klopeks, are secretly murderers. Ray and some other nosy local homeowners start spying on the Klopeks, even breaking into their house to snoop around for clues. Ultimately, they manage to blow the place to smithereens. All this would be reprehensible, except... Ray and his pals were right all along. The Klopeks really were murderers. They're arrested, and Ray is shaken but redeemed.
I'm with The 'Burbs up until the ending. Ray is basically a decent guy at heart, albeit confused and misguided. His friends, however, are portrayed as hateful and small-minded jerks, and the script ends up validating them. The ultimate message of the film is that you should be suspicious of eccentrics and outsiders because they're probably up to no good. So go ahead and spy on your neighbors, folks! Destroy their house if you have to! Perhaps author Bobby Zier was thinking of The 'Burbs when he wrote "Mr. and Mrs. Ghoul." Perhaps he wasn't. I only know that I thought about Joe Dante's movie frequently while reading this short story.
I also thought of two more films: Parents (1989), in which a young boy (Bryan Madorsky) suspects his mother and father (Sandy Dennis and Randy Quaid) are cannibals, and Society (1989), in which a teenage boy (Billy Warlock) comes to realize that many of the people around him are members of an unspeakably horrible cult. Isn't it an odd coincidence that all these paranoia-driven horror-comedies came out in the same year? And that, in all three films, the characters' worst fears turn out to be justified?