They initially spend their time playing in the cemetery where Barry's father Clark works as a caretaker, unaware that it houses a ghoul.

In the ensuing struggle Clark is crushed by dirt falling from a backhoe and the ghoul melts in the sunlight due to it pursuing the fleeing woman and Barry.

[5][6] Cemetery Dance reviewed the novel in 2019, writing that "Brian Keene took me on a journey with Ghoul, and it was visceral and painful and emotional and I’ll never forget it.

Gregory Wilson was named as the film director and William M. Miller, the writer of Headspace, was brought on to adapt the novel.

[11] Filming took place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 2011 and utilized the same sound stage as True Blood and Battle: Los Angeles.

[12] The movie received reviews from Cinema Crazed and HorrorNews.net, the latter of which noted that it was "very much in the Stephen King tradition of horror tales centred around children" but that "several things conspire against it being a success: a very poor period sense, a script that apes the mechanics of a King story without the richness, and a central narrative that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.