In order to qualify for their inheritance, three sisters and their husbands must spend three nights of married bliss in their creepy ancestral home on Crenshaw Island, which is staffed by two old-maids and a mentally challenged (and dentally-challenged) hunchback; in time-honoured tradition, this cheesy set-up results in several gruesome murders.
Staten Island splatter-movie pioneer Andy Milligan threw this hackneyed 16mm mess together in 1968 for a budget of around $10,000 and unsurprisingly the result is amateurish in the extreme, with dreadful hand-held camera-work, lousy acting, enthusiastic but rudimentary gore on a par with the worst work of fellow gore legend H.G. Lewis, and a thoroughly unconvincing Victorian setting (it might take place around the early 1900s, but the dialogue and hairstyles suggest otherwise).
The period setting of the piece does however allow Milligan to fully indulge in his passion for dressmaking, and a lot more time and attention was clearly spent on his costumes than on either the script or effects. During the film's many drawn out scenes of dull conversation, viewers get plenty of opportunity to admire Andy's prowess with needle and thread, but unless you're a seamstress into splatter, or a tailor who digs trash, then I doubt that this particular aspect of the film will be of much interest.
In fact, save for the enjoyably bad death scenes, a spot of dead rabbit munching, and three pairs of boobies, there is virtually nothing to recommend The Ghastly Ones (unless, like me, you're determined to watch all of the official UK video nasties no matter how bad they are).
Staten Island splatter-movie pioneer Andy Milligan threw this hackneyed 16mm mess together in 1968 for a budget of around $10,000 and unsurprisingly the result is amateurish in the extreme, with dreadful hand-held camera-work, lousy acting, enthusiastic but rudimentary gore on a par with the worst work of fellow gore legend H.G. Lewis, and a thoroughly unconvincing Victorian setting (it might take place around the early 1900s, but the dialogue and hairstyles suggest otherwise).
The period setting of the piece does however allow Milligan to fully indulge in his passion for dressmaking, and a lot more time and attention was clearly spent on his costumes than on either the script or effects. During the film's many drawn out scenes of dull conversation, viewers get plenty of opportunity to admire Andy's prowess with needle and thread, but unless you're a seamstress into splatter, or a tailor who digs trash, then I doubt that this particular aspect of the film will be of much interest.
In fact, save for the enjoyably bad death scenes, a spot of dead rabbit munching, and three pairs of boobies, there is virtually nothing to recommend The Ghastly Ones (unless, like me, you're determined to watch all of the official UK video nasties no matter how bad they are).