Night of The Ghouls - Production

Production

The film's setting is the rebuilt house on Willows Lake that burned down in Bride of the Monster. There are frequent references to the mad scientist (Lugosi) and Lobo (Tor Johnson), the latter of whom returns, his face now half-destroyed from the fire.

Wood, his face hidden by a dark veil, doubles for the female ghoul in several shots. Also, a publicity photo of Wood is seen on a wanted poster on the wall of the police station.

A fight scene from the unfinished Hellborn was edited in the film; additional scenes from that project appeared in Wood's The Sinister Urge.

Most of Lieutenant Bradford's exploration of Dr. Acula's house was lifted from Wood's short film Final Curtain and given a voice-over by Criswell to integrate it into the current story.

The finale, with the ghouls reduced to skeletons and Criswell's epilogue, were used again in Wood'sOrgy of the Dead.

This film is the third part of what Wood aficionados refer to as "The Kelton Trilogy", a trio of films featuring Paul Marco as "Officer Kelton", a whining, reluctant policeman. The other two films are Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 from Outer Space. Although claimed to be a follow up to Bride of the Monster, Night of the Ghouls featured only two characters from that film (Kelton and Lobo), and, in a retcon, it is claimed that Lt. Bradford had worked on the earlier case when he in fact appeared nowhere in Bride. His exploration of Dr. Acula's house was borrowed from Wood's short film Final Curtain and given a voice-over to integrate it into the current story. As a result, there was no room for Harvey B. Dunn, who played Captain Tom Robbins in Bride, to reprise his earlier role. Instead, he was given a small supporting role as a frightened motorist who encounters one of the "ghouls".

Wood turned to his stock cast for the picture. Tom Mason, who Wood used to replace Bela Lugosi in Plan 9 From Outer Space, is credited as "Thomas R. Mason"; this was his only other feature film appearance. Kenne Duncan had previously worked for Wood in a TV on trick shooting and in Wood's 1953 TV pilot Crossroad Avenger.

The character of Dr. Acula also appeared in an unrealized Wood film project of the same name. The role was originally intended for Bela Lugosi. "Dr. Acula" has been a frequently used pseudonym of Forrest J Ackerman since the 1940s.