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Spooks Run Wild More at IMDbPro »

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24 reviews in total

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16 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
65 minutes of totally cool fun!, 2 September 2004

Author: henri-donadille from France

"Spooks Run Wild" is the best of Bela's films that he made at Monogram Studios during the forties ("Voodoo Man" and "The Ape Man" follow as second and third). It is also the BEST of all of the East Side Kids' comedies. Lugosi scares the kids as they visit him in his creepy old hillside mansion while a crazed killer is terrorizing the town below. Extremely atmospheric film offers comedy, thrills, mystery, surprises and more! See it if you can! There are many different DVD's of this film available out there. I've found that prints vary in quality from different distributors. Try and catch V.C.I.'s copy. They have a great print of it and it's on a DVD double feature with "Ghosts on the Loose".

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11 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Spooks Run Wild, 24 May 2005

Author: roxyroxy

I really enjoyed this vintage comedy/mystery starring Bela Lugosi and the East Side Kids (both not far from the beginnings of there careers at Monogram Studios). I've watched all of the East Side kid films and this one is my favorite. The boys take shelter in a gloomy mansion owned by Lugosi when they are forced through circumstance to spend the night at his creepy home. To further complicate matters for the already scared boys, a mad killer is lurking somewhere in the vicinity. Is it Lugosi? The boys spend the evening roaming through the house which has an abundance of floors, spooky corridors, bedrooms full of cobwebs and secret passage ways. Meanwhile, a pretty nurse is searching for them in the woods assuming that they are lost. Will her and her fiancée reach the boys in time or will the killer strike again? Entertaining comedy/mystery with a rough and ready climax. Exciting and spooky film (in a harmless sort of way) that should be well enjoyed by fans of Lugosi and the East Side Kids.

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9 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
The East Side Kids meet Bela Lugosi, 23 July 2001
Author: cinema_universe from NYC & Cherry Grove

Just a few quick points. - This was one of the nine little gems that Lugosi made for Monogram (one of the better ones), and it's one of two he made with the East Side Kids. It's important to note that they WERE still kids (teenagers) when this film was made.-- They became "The Bowery Boys" when they grew up (It's mentioned in another comment that this film stars The Bowery Boys-- that's a BIG mistake!). The East Side Kids acted differently than, and looked different from, The Bowery Boys. -- The Bowery Boys films had more of a "Three Stooges" look and feel to them, and had none of the adolescent angst than can sometimes be seen in The East Side Kids films. And let's not forget that both groups grew out of the original Warner Brothers group: "The Dead End Kids."

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Has Its Pluses, But Probably Could Have Been Better, 30 January 2006
Author: Snow Leopard from Ohio

Although this East Side Kids feature has its pluses and some good sequences, it probably could have been better. Having Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, and the rest of the gang being paired with Bela Lugosi is an intriguing thought, and it certainly seems as if it could have been the basis for a really entertaining movie. Perhaps the biggest letdown is simply that Lugosi never gets a lot to do, so that he does not really get the chance to become a part of things.

The setup is kind of convoluted, and it takes a fair amount of time to get to the main action, which has the gang roaming around in an old abandoned mansion where Lugosi's character has just taken up residence. Long stretches of the movie are carried simply by the interplay among Muggs and the rest of the group as they explore, stumble around, and get lost in various situations, all the while wisecracking, ad-libbing, and playing with the props.

As always, most of these antics are quite entertaining, but here the actual story is too negligible to sustain its end of things. A more carefully written story, and most importantly a better, less thankless role for Lugosi, could have made much better use of this unusual combination of talent.

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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
My Favorite East Side Kids Movie, 23 August 2006

Author: wdbasinger (wdbasinger@hotmail.com) from Beltsville, Maryland

Being a fan of old "B" moves from the 1930s and 1940s, this is a real gem from one of the so-called Poverty Row studios, in this case, Monogram Studios. Some of these so-called Poverty Row films have a charm all their own. I am a fan of both Bela Lugosi on one hand and The East Side Kids on the other. The East Side Kids started off as a group called the Dead End Kids from Warner Studios and I prefer their films that they made for Monogram. Other good movies of the series are "Ghosts on the Loose" (also with Bela Lugosi as well as a young actress named Ava Gardner), "Bowery Blitzkrieg", and "Mr. Wise Guy".

Anyway, "Spooks Run Wild" is the best of the lot with fine old fashioned atmosphere (great cemetery scenes and a creepy old house), great wisecracks, and hold-on-to-your-seat suspense with a misanthropic villain called the "Monster Killer".

Great film for Holloween.

Dan Basinger

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
First meeting of the East Side Kids and Bela Lugosi is a creaky antique thats fun in the right frame of mind, 28 January 2006

Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

Bela Lugosi and the East Side Kids (aka the Dead End Kids aka The Bowery Boys) made two films together. This is the first and best. Its a low budget creaky mystery that some how works despite its short comings.

The plot has the Kids forcibly removed from the streets for two weeks in the country at a summer camp. Not wanting to be watched over they sneak out the first night only to be shot at by a local care taker. They end up taking refuge in an old mansion inhabited where Bela Lugosi is staying. At the same time a "monster killer" is prowling the surrounding area. Confusion, murder and "comedy" ensues.

By no means a great film, and probably only an okay one, this is a movie that needs to be watched at about two in the morning when you're half asleep. Its the stereotypical haunted house film turned side ways,yet again, by Leo Gorcey and his pals. Sure the comedy is beyond low and the plot is predictable, but somehow Bela, in a decent role, lifts this up to be more than just a bunch of 30 year old teenagers running amok. Actually the fact there there is a real plot helps a great deal (The later Bela/ East Side Kids pairing Ghosts on the Loose suffers greatly from essentially being two barely connected halves). Its not great by anyone's definition, but it is fun in a silly way.

If you're in the mood for a haunted house comedy the likes of which they don't make any more (thank God) you can give it a try. While far from great it does have Bela hamming it up which is usually good for an hour entertainment.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
"Hey, this looks like the place where the plot begins to thicken.", 28 September 2006

Author: classicsoncall from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

For a while I thought "Spooks Run Wild" and "Ghosts on the Loose" were the same film, both featuring The East Side Kids teaming up with Bela Lugosi. This, the earlier of the two movies is heavier on the haunted house atmospherics which the East Siders use to fire off their gags and one liners. Lugosi comes complete with his Count Dracula outfit and midget sidekick Angelo Rossitto; the long view of his mountaintop retreat is reminiscent of the sinister house in "Psycho".

What's kind of neat about the story as it progresses is that the boys all take turns teaming up with each other as they search for their injured buddy Peewee (David Gorcey) in the huge Billings Estate. Peewee seems to be in a trance after being treated by Nardo (Lugosi), so his pals connect Nardo to the 'monster killer' they heard about on the radio on the way to camp. In between the sound and sight gags, Scruno (Sunshine Sammy Morrison) has some fun with the stereotyped scaredy cat role he's given as the black member of the East Siders - "I'm so scared I'm turnin' white now"; and later - "A white spider, that must have been the ghost of the black widow!" It all comes across as pretty harmless, but done today, the political correctness police would be all over it.

There's a line Lugosi speaks in the film that reminded me of his performance in 1931's "Dracula". In that earlier film, a wolf howls in the distance and Dracula says to Renfield - "Listen to them... children of the night, what music they make." Under similar circumstances in "Spooks", while walking through the Hillside Cemetery, he remarks - "City of the dead. Do they too hear the howling of the fighting dogs?" I wonder if that line was intended as a tribute to the horror classic.

From the outset, I had the idea that the old switcheroo would take Lugosi off the hook as the monster killer; indeed it turned out to be the spooky Dr. Von Grosch (Dennis Moore) who almost claimed Linda Mason (Dorothy Short) from the camp as his latest victim. Lugosi's convincing along the way though, even getting to use a version of that famous stare down from "Dracula" and "White Zombie".

The diminutive Rossitto appeared with Lugosi a couple more times in pictures, in 1942's "The Corpse Vanishes", and 1947's "Scared to Death". He doesn't have a lot to do in any of the stories, in fact he doesn't even speak in this one, but his presence adds just a slight dash of bizarreness to the proceedings.

At just over an hour in length, "Spooks Run Wild" is a fun diversion, but don't expect a tight script or much in the way of story development. It's all in the gags, one liners and Leo Gorcey's malapropisms. If you're putting together your list of films for Halloween fright night, this would be a good one to start off with.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
pleasant entry in suitably entertaining series, 24 June 2001
Author: Matt Moses from Brooklyn, NY

Bowery Boys meet Bela Lugosi for the first (of two) collaborative efforts. In this standard entry in the comedy horror genre (in which the stereotypically evil character proves to be a good guy), the Boys – this time including Leo Gorcey and brother David, Huntz Hall and good old `Sunshine' Sammy (Ernest) Morrison – are shipped off to summer camp for the needy. On the way, they hear radio reports of a serial murder in the area, by which the boys pretend not to be affected. The camp escorts, played in an excessively understated manner by Dave O'Brien and Dorothy Short, are. When the Boys (who seem to be the only attendees of the camp) try to sneak into town for a collective hot date, they attempt a shortcut through the cemetery only to find a riled up graveyard attendant who grants the younger Gorcey a leg full of buckshot. They seek help at the ominous house on the hill, currently housing Lugosi and his dwarf assistant Angelo Rossitto. The Boys are scared shirtless (although they try to play it cool) as they wander through the haunted house, get lost and find secret passages etc etc etc. Somehow O'Brien emerges as the hero after he saves our mostly absent heroine and everything's okay, presumably for the rest of the disadvantaged summer. Veteran director Phil Rosen could claim scores of credits to his name, although this low-budget entry in a long-running series leaves little room for any cinematic flair he may have picked up over the years. Gorcey and Hall put in standard yet enjoyable performances, but Morrison, cast in a typically racist role but doing a good job of it, steals the show.

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Good Flick!, 6 February 2005

Author: HemiVic from United States

I have always been a fan of the East Side Kids and Bowery Boys movies. "Spooks Run Wild" is a very good movie which has the boys getting into some funny mischief! The Boys go off to a summer camp and soon discover that there is a spooky old haunted house nearby. "Mugs" meets a pretty blonde in town and decides to sneak out of the camp to pay her a visit. Well, the rest of the East Side Kids decide to follow "Mugs" and all of them wind up in an old graveyard. "Peewee" gets shot by a man guarding the graveyard and the boys bring the injured lad to guess what? ....the spooky old house which is occupied by Bela Lugosi and his midget assistant. Our kindly host, Bela, tends to "Peewee's" injury and provides lodging for the rest of the boys. The boys hear a news report of a mad killer that has been seen heading to the area of the old house! Strange things happen throughout the night with a surprise ending! I liked "Spooks Run Wild" and thought it was quite entertaining! The quality of the VHS version is fair because the lighting in the movie was quite awful! Regardless, it was very enjoyable to watch!

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Harmless humor and atmospheric settings make this a good family Halloween movie., 1 June 2001

Author: (bmlittle@net-magic.net) from Fernandina Beach, Florida

In my opinion, one of the better Bowery Boys movies. As with other of their films, the comedy is simple and transparent. The boys play the roles of "spooked" kids very well, and the role played by Bela Lugosi adds much to the storyline. The settings are eerie enough to make the movie a good Halloween movie for both adults and kids. While it isn't spectacular, it is good entertainment if not taken too seriously. If you like old haunted house movies, it's worth a look.

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