HOBGOBLINS (1988)
Tagline: Be careful what you wish for... You just might get it!
(Horror, Comedy, SciFi) [PG-13]
Note – this movie was direct to video. I am just guessing it would have gotten a PG-13 rating if theaters had distributed it.
You're being paid to work around here, not just sit around and blast your eardrums!
In these 2 foot aliens that look like GREMLINS with their rips popping out, land from space that have the power to make your wildest dreams come true, only with a cost. The dreams will kill you. After being kept in a vacant movie studio lot for decades, a new security guard lets them out because he is dumb. The hobgoblin aliens wreak havoc all over town and if Kevin and his friends can kill the hobgoblins, they kill the dreams turned nightmare that they create.
First off this is supposed to be a comedy horror flick and I guess the hobgoblins are creepy, but this is far more of just a horribly written nightmare. In that sense it is horrifying. When GREMLINS and CRITTERS came out there was a ton of chance to piggyback off that success, and CRITTERS succeeded. In fact, we got more CRITTERS flicks than we did GREMLINS movies. Other attempts include the GHOULIES which I can’t stand, but it was also successful, and then you have bombs like the MUNCHIES out there. This thing is in the “bomb” category.
Actually filmed next to a crack house and having a woman just released from a mental hospital as your puppeteer probably wasn’t the best production environment, but that still doesn’t excuse how poorly executed this movie was. There are kids graduating from film school putting out better stuff at 10 years old. I do have to give credit to the film crew though who shot the entire film without permits for a cost of $15,000. You have to love that. On top of all this, the director claims to have written the script for HOBGOBLINS before GREMLINS came out. So it seems like everyone wanted to be the first to take credit for the “little creatures will take over the town” craze of the ’80s and ’90s.
The only actor I recognize in this thing is Jeffrey Culver. He plays the older security guard “McCreedy” who kind of mentors Kevin. Culver was also in TERMINAL FORCE. The rest of the acting is pretty terrible even for an 80’s direct-to-video flick.
The Good – there is a band in this movie that plays a full song at a sleazy bar called Club Scum. The band’s name is the Fontanelles and the song they sing in the movie is actually pretty great. The downside is that it’s almost impossible to find. Out of the little creatures' movies, the HOBGOBLINS actually had the 3rd best design.
The Bad – almost everything else. This is one of those movies that is so bad it’s almost fun to watch to poke fun at, only I have zero desire to see this again and even the mildly funny parts hit an extremely low bar.
I give this one a 2 out of 7. More proof not everything from the ’80s was as glorious as I remember when I was a kid.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF RICK SLOAN PRODUCTIONS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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