My longtime friend Paul Ashford returns for a 3rd year of Halloween Horrors. Naturally, this means that I will devote this intro to busting his balls. Hey, that’s what friends do. 

Paul runs the Facebook page Little Rubber Monsters. I’m not going to bother including a link right now, but there are 2 links to the page featured in Paul’s entry. Seeing as that whore mentions the page TWICE in his piece, there’s really no point in my helping shove it down your throat. 

In all seriousness, Paul has been a great friend to me, and to Horror And Sons, these past years.  I couldn’t be happier for the success that LRM is having…. even if that rat bastard has twice the page likes that I do. 

I can remember the first time that I set eyes on Fish Ghoulie. It was at a small fete somewhere in the south of England. I must have been around 12-years-old. I vividly remember my dad pulling into the field in his car and me immediately spotting a stall selling videos as I peered out the back.

I walked straight over to the stall and started flicking through all the tapes. The covers of horror and fantasy films always excited me. It was there that I spotted Ghoulies. With a little green monster coming out of a toilet on the cover, I knew I had to have it! Luckily, my dad was pretty lenient with most horror stuff, and as there was no sign of sex or nudity on the cover or reverse, he bought it for me. And so started my fascination with Little Rubber Monsters…

Watching Ghoulies for the first time as a kid, I was actually a little bored, especially as the promised little monster on the cover didn’t make an appearance until quite a ways into the film. Once he did, along with the other Ghoulies, then I was hooked! Confusingly, there were actually several of the fish ghoulies in part 1, as there are clearly 3 of them involved in the pond attack scene. However, it looked like only 2 made it to the end, where they appeared in the back of the car as the credits rolled. Although Fish Ghoulie only had a relatively small role in this film, I was eager to see more of him… and that wish was granted for me in Ghoulies II.

In Ghoulies II, there was only one Fish Ghoulie. This time, he was becoming established as the leader of the Ghoulies, being the first to emerge from the toxic waste barrel, and then leading the others into the “Satan’s Den” truck for the havoc to begin. This film really made it all about the Ghoulies themselves, as they had a far more prominent role in this one.

Fish had some great scenes in part 2, including pulling the bolt from a fairground ride and sending the ride’s occupants hurtling to their deaths. Also, he had notably fulfilled his promise from the cover of the original Ghoulies and had a proper scene where he emerged from the toilet, killing “bad guy” Phillip Hardin as he sat on it. What a nasty way to go! Part 2 also features a giant Fish Ghoulie, who is summoned to kill the others, but the less said about him the better. Thankfully, he neglected to kill Fish Ghoulie who was heard happily cackling to himself, still in the aforementioned toilet as the film ended.

As a side note, W.A.S.P. had one of their tracks, “Scream Until You Like It”, featured on the soundtrack to Ghoulies II. Fish and the other Ghoulies even appear in the video, rocking out with Blackie Lawless himself!! The video is available on YouTube and is well worth a watch.

Fish Ghoulie’s final appearance (to date) came in Ghoulies 3, aka Ghoulies Go to College. Part 3 saw Fish Ghoulie and the others suddenly gain the ability to talk fluently, and somewhat grow in size from their previous two incarnations. While many were put off by this, I loved the change. It certainly fitted in with the feel of the movie, which was essentially a college frat comedy with a taste of horror thrown in. Fish was now a wise-cracking, beer guzzling, clothes wearing Ghoulie. He revelled in the role, with such memorable scenes as a kill involving a toilet plunger to the face, carrying out a panty raid in the sorority, and (of course) another kill involving a toilet, this time flushing unlucky victim Wes down the pan to his death!

As with all good things, Part 3 was the end of Fish Ghoulies on screen. However, his legacy does live on with the Ghoulies films receiving recent releases on blu-ray (still waiting for part 3 though!), and a decent amount of fan-made merch out there, if you look hard enough.

So, to sum up, these are just some of the reasons why I love Fish Ghoulie. All the way from my 12-year-old self first spotting him years ago, and right the way up to present day, where I run a Facebook fan page, which includes Fish (among many others), called Little Rubber Monsters.  He really is an endearing character for me, and will always hold a place in my memories of growing up and getting into the horror genre. No doubt I will be watching him again during the Halloween season, and I hope from reading this that some of you will too!

Thank you, and Happy Halloween!


As promised….

Paul Ashford runs the Facebook page Little Rubber Monsters, but you probably already know that if you finished the piece. LRM can also be found on Instagram.