People are voting emotionally.

A Brilliant Conflict

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

OK so Ghoul was the first book I read by Brian Keene, and it was intriguing, terrifying, thought provoking and dark in the subject matter. This movie took this awesome piece of literary genius and wiped its ass with it. I'll save you the time, the killer isn't the Ghoul, as it was in the book, there I saved you the disappointment of sitting through this made for TV garbage. On a lighter note I had a good laugh at the acting and "cinematography". I know I sound like I'm being cruel, many people will say "hey you mean lady, its made for TV what did you expect?" and to that I will say, "how about actually sticking to the story?" Please Brian don't let them butcher another one of your novels again, this was worse than Kubricks attempt at The Shining....0/10 stars seriously of you have actually read the book do not bother with this movie.

Centers on a group of friends who risk their lives to stop who, or what, is behind a rash of disappearances in their town.This film has the best of intentions, but never seems to hit the marks it is aiming for. I have not read the source novel (maybe I should), but what we have here is a case of children who cannot act and a plot that is too convoluted.On the surface, it is about a group of kids who explore the woods and find tunnels under the cemetery that go to an abandoned mining tunnel. Legend has it that a "ghoul" lives in the mines. This in itself makes a good horror story, and by using kids you can have a bit more fun like you would with "Goonies" or "Monster Squad".Instead, there is a whole other story here about child abuse and alcoholism, and a strong hint of sexual molestation. Does it tie in to the other story? No. Not at all. And while it might be said to be character development, it is never focused on and adds nothing to the film overall. In fact, it detracts, because it seems like the people who make the film do not understand how a story arc works.If this movie was made with a new cast and a tighter script, I could actually see it being a good -- possibly great -- little picture.

This started off as a good movie. Set in the eighties I thought it would be like all the other cheesy movies, maybe kind of like Goonies but instead I got a lot of different directions this movie could go in and not one of them resolved.First they introduced child molestation and then domestic violence and alcoholism. All of these scenes were more intense and in fact scarier than any of the scenes involving "the Ghoul" which I'm still not quite sure existed.At the end of the movie the three children escape the mine shaft where the ghoul has been killing people with the help of one of the children's father that works at the cemetery. This man has been helping the ghoul by letting him have his way with whoever happens to be unfortunate enough to enter the old mine that is located under the cemetery. Does that make sense in the first please. Well anyways in a scene while drunk off his keester he yells down the mine shaft, to the ghoul, that he's not going to do it anymore that what he (the ghoul) gives him is not enough. Later the kids stumble upon a box near the shaft that has a lot of jewelry that used to belonged to the deceased buried at the cemetery. Was this his pay and if so couldn't have the child's father taken the deceased valuable possessions without the help of the ghoul which lives underground and as we find out later maybe cannot live in the sunlight so he stays underground.However none of that was as important to me as the issues surrounding the physical and sexual abuse of two of the children that were never resolved. I'm sure the directors or writers probably had some scenes in there that eluded to something or nother, a line that was said that wrapped up those aspects of the movie but it was just not enough for me to be satisfied. I gave this movie 3 stars because it did have potential but too many elements were left unresolved.

Oversimplified, this film is a bad a mash up of the classic abuse of Peter Lorre's classic "M" (1933) and Rob Reiner's "Stand by Me" (featuring Wil Wheaton).The film focuses on the small town exploration of three young boys who live in a small town where the monsters are real. Here monsters are the socially repugnant adults who use the children and weaker adults for their own devices.The presentation of the issue of child abuse is heavy handed and obvious from the beginning where we are introduced the characters all of whom fit the obvious of the young hero films.Unlike the old teenager training films from the 1950s and 1960s which showed the dangers of the alcohol, illegal drugs and dropping out of school that showed the targeted children in a sympathetic light, none of these boys are appreciable in this story.Nolan Gould plays a foul mouthed egotistical leader of a band of three boys who are all the subject of abuse. He suffers from the abuse of disinterest by his well meaning though emotionally shallow parents. His father is obviously at odds with his own overly kind father. His overweight friend is the abuse of a drunken sexually frustrated mother who uses her underage son as her own personal sex toy. He retreats into overeating as a means of self protection until he finds a friend in Gould's aggressive leadership. The third boy is physically abused by the stereotypical drunk father who at the end event has his right eye bear shut by said drunk father. But he is almost as evil as his father for he almost shoots his father in the back several times with only fear of jail preventing him from pulling the trigger. He continues to allows his father to abuse his mother rather than tell the police as the entire town people knows knows about the drunk gravedigger.You will not be able to appreciate the police who are incompetent in finding several missing children. Even in this 1980s setting they fail to get the town people to amass searches for these missing children.I will not spoil the ending about the killer -- the so called "Ghoul" -- and its reason for doing what it does. But I will say this this is NOT a horror film. And if you are expecting a horror film you are going to be HORRIBLY disappointed.This film is a social commentary and awareness film that presents its message "Protect the children. Do not let the children be abused" in a manner than will make most watchers of this horror film turn the channel and ignore the message for the simple fact this movie does NOT take itself seriously as a social commentary movie. It devolves into tricking the horror and gore consumers into waiting for events that the movie is actively trying to avoid -- namely the murder as in all horror and monster films.Targeting an audience who are expecting horror/thriller when that is specifically the topic you are trying to deny is unforgivable. At least this film should have presented characters you could identify with for their plight. At most all you will hope for is these children will get adopted by people who are more mentally aware than these idiotic stereotypical adults who are far too obvious and annoying.