Hobgoblins
Tags: cult

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with a security guard named Dennis investigating a deserted film vault at an old movie studio. While inside, his fantasy of being a rock star comes to life, but he dies while performing on stage. His boss, Mr. McCreedy (Jeffrey Culver), closes the door upon discovering the body.
A young man named Kevin (Tom Bartlett) takes the vacant job so that he can impress his girlfriend Amy (Paige Sullivan). After his first shift, he drives home to Amy, finding that his two friends, the sex-crazed Daphne (Kelley Palmer) and the dorky Kyle (Steven Boggs), waiting for him, and Daphne's Army boyfriend Nick (Billy Frank) arrives. Nick and Kevin spar with rakes in a long, protracted, repetitive scene. After Kevin loses horribly, Amy berates him for his weaknesses while Daphne and Nick have sex in Nick's van in the background of the scene.
While in pursuit of a burglar the next evening, Kevin stumbles across the vault, which contains a small group of hairy, demonic little aliens — the hobgoblins. They escape, leaving Kevin stunned. His boss, the elderly Mr. McCreedy, explains that the hobgoblins crash landed on the studio lot decades earlier, and he has been closely guarding them ever since. The hobgoblins have the hypnotic power to make a person's wildest fantasies come true; however, they also kill their victims in the process when people's fantasies turn against them.
The hobgoblins go straight to Kevin's house, where his friends are partying, as they are attracted by the bright lights. The hobgoblins quickly make their fantasies come true, but with dire consequences. The quiet, prudish Amy's fantasy leads her to the sleazy nightclub Club Scum. Kevin and the others follow her there. It turns out that Amy's deepest fantasy is to lose her sexual inhibitions and be a stripper.
The nightclub erupts into chaos while Kevin and his friends try to kill the rampaging hobgoblins. Nick is given a fantasy in which he leads a commando raid. In the melee, Nick is set on fire by a hand grenade thrown by his commanding officer and is apparently killed (again, his fantasy goes to extremes and turns against him), though he returns later in the movie, bandaged and on crutches, but otherwise unharmed. Kevin kills the hobgoblin in control of Amy before she can have sex with the scruffy bouncer Roadrash (Duane Whitaker). Although Amy is restored to her original personality, her experience leaves her less sexually repressed than she was before.
Thinking that all the hobgoblins are dead, Kevin, Amy, Kyle, and Daphne return to the lot to report back to Mr. McCreedy. Kevin is confronted by the burglar from earlier that night and beats him in a fight, finally proving his bravery to Amy. Kevin's victory is short lived as the burglar (yet another phantom created by the hobgoblins) pulls a gun from an ankle holster and aims it at Kevin. Just as the burglar is about to fire, McCreedy shoots the alien, thus saving Kevin's life. The remaining hobgoblins run back into the vault, which McCreedy has filled with explosives. The hobgoblins are then blown to pieces. Amy promises to have sex with Kevin, Nick returns to have sex with Daphne, and Kyle, odd man out, asks to use McCreedy's phone, presumably for more phone sex.

Review: No matter how you look at this movie, it is just awful.If you view it as a horror, then it is an unscary movie with the monsters being hand puppets.If you look at it as a comedy, then you will notice most of the humor falls flat and is just lame.If it is a romance you will wonder why a guy would stay with such a B**ch!If you look at it as an action you can't really pull for the whiny hero.As you can see this movie just fails to deliver anything remotely entertaining.
The acting (and I am using this term loosely) is atrocious, the Hobgoblins are some of the worst puppets you will ever see, and the garden tool fight has to be seen to be believed.
Before watching this movie I thought Manos: Hands of Fate was the worse piece of crap I ever saw, but at least Manos moves so slowly you might fall asleep, thereby rescuing your eyes from the pain it will suffer.
The greatest tragedy of this movie is that the old man that keeps the Hobgoblins "locked" up makes it to the final scene.
A creature that makes fantasies with disastrous results, rather than the cliché Worst Nightmare and the overdone Twisted Wish, is a truly fascinating film idea.Thought: The reason why hobgoblins need to be killed before day is that they are attracted to bright lights.
During the day, bright lights don't show up well, so they could go anywhere.Count the Hobgoblins: Four hobgoblins drive out of the film studio, and yet at least nine of the pernicious plush-toys are killed throughout the course of the movie.Discussion Question: If you had a frigid, demanding, unappreciative girlfriend, would you enter garden-tool-combat with a military chunkhead?
Unfortunately Hobgoblins lacks some of the key ingredients of Gremlins, notably the likable characters, plot, credibility and effects, and Gremlins was quite funny in places whereas Hobgoblins just isn't.In fiction good writers try hard to make you like the main character, that's how fiction has worked ever since some Greek guy put a mask on and pretended to be someone else.
His friends include a rake-fighting military tough guy, some weedy gay guy in red shorts and a girl so sexual that the mere sound of her boyfriends car horn causes her to lift her skirt up in anticipation.The film has one good idea, basically these hobgoblins can bring your every fantasy to life.
HOBGOBLINS is without a doubt the worst movie I have ever seen in my entire life.The story is stupid, so I won't go into much detail.
A loser named Kevin (Tom Bartlett) is trying to make his annoying and non-supportive girlfriend proud of him, so he takes a job as a security guard and unleashes a band of stupid-looking puppets called Hobgoblins, who kill people by giving them what they really want.
The hobgoblins themselves are the most fake looking puppets I have ever seen.Unless in MST3K, this movie should be avoided at all costs.
Meddling kids track down gremlin-like creatures from movie lot before they kill people by projecting their fantasies.
But no, "Hobgoblins" it is and it is bad - bad like your grandparents' wallpaper, bad as pink flamingos on your lawn, bad like underwear that says "Home of the Whopper"...and I think we'll stop there.Well, Mike and the robots fight valiantly but try as they might, they can do only so much with "Hobgoblins" before they realize that, yes, the director DOES need kicked in the shin.Real, real hard.One star for "Hobgoblins", seven stars for the MST3K version..
I can watch a piece of crap like "The Bloodwaters of Dr. Z" (aka "Zaat") over and over and over with hardly any ill effects (I like it in fact- btw, it will be on TCM later this month- October, 2009) but "Hobgoblins" is a whole 'nother ballgame.The worst part of it all may be that it's now about 12 hours after the movie ended, I had a good night's sleep, some coffee and some dry toast, my medications, and yet the ersatz "New Wave" dance music that Amy, Red Shorts, and Laraine Newman were frolicking to in the living room is STILL RUNNING THROUGH MY HEAD.
To explain just how bad this movie is, I need to tell a story of the second time I saw it with a group of people, in the spring of 2000.
They implored me to just give them a few minutes to recover, to which I responded, "Oh, well I know it's bad, but I guess I may be a little desensitized since..." Now these people were close friends with whom I had shared much, like confessing attractions to various cartoon characters as 3:00 AM, and my most bizarre substitute for toilet paper I've ever resorted to story.
Wow, I just finally managed, after several attempts, to finish watching this god awful movie, only to learn that Rick Sloane and his production team have completed a straight-to-video sequel this year.Of all movies reviewed by MST3K--and they truly dig from the bottom of the barrel, screening the reputationally bad 'Manos,' 'Werewolf,' 'The Incredibly Strange,' and the lesser know disasters like 'Laserblast,' 'Zombie Nightmare,' and 'Time Chasers,'--this certainly has to be the absolute biggest pile of garbage they'd ever shown (which makes it perfect for riffing).
Very simple, the movie is about a bunch of Munchies-like gremlins on the loose, exploiting people's desires for fame, fortune, prowess, and of course, sex in ways that end up with people getting killed.
But this is the kind of movie where the acting is so ridiculous (a test of machismo, for example, is illustrated by two guys who battle in the front yard with garden tools), the writing is so forced (such as the oft-described scene of a gremlin hanging on the arm of one girl who would notice it, if only she turned her head a quarter to the left...
A group of extremely unlikable A-holes are tormented by lame puppets that some elderly douche bag night-watchman has kept locked away in a film vault for twenty years for no reason whatsoever.Many people know this film merely from MST3K's spot-on ribbing of the flick.
From the one of the most awful 'fight' scenes I've ever witnessed to the stuffed toy 'aliens' that suffer from a lack of motion (I had a My Pet Monster that was scarier) right up to the atrocious acting (I had a My Pet Monster that was more charismatic) However, that being said Rick Sloan's "Vice Academy" films are somehow, and trust me I have no earthly idea how, much worse.
In this film, a night security guard watching some random warehouse doesn't listen to the senior guard and accidentally releases some poor looking, cat-like, puppet hobgoblins.
Well, because this is one of the worst movies that has ever been produced, right up there with other stinkers such as Manos: The Hands of Fate, The Wild World of Batwoman and Red Zone Cuba.A few things that make this movie bad, the Hobgoblins themselves, wish, like one of them mention, its just a plush toy, another thing, the characters, ugh, just ugh.
One of thems a slut, another one, a rigid girl friend, the third, a nerd obessed with phone sex, and a sex crazed military guy whose the boyfriend to the slut.The next and most horrible thing about this movie, the Club Scum scene where the military guy, after getting a load of hand gernades from his Sargent (who the hell just hands out hand gernades in the first place?) starts just chunking them over his shoulder blowing them up.These are just a few of the most horrible things about this movie, beware unless watching the MST3K version..
An old man, his sidekick and a group of friends must take on these monsters, when they're not too busy listening to Wang Chung.This film isn't really good, unless you enjoy laughing at bad cinema and possibly getting drunk while doing so.
Hobgoblins has one flat-liner of a story, some hilariously awful 'special effects', stupid attempts at juvenile humor, a painfully bad cast, and not a bit of talent in sight.
However, as bad as it was, I don't believe that this was the worst film that MST has ever featured, or the worst movie of all time period.
In my opinion, "Manos: the Hands of Fate" holds the title for worst film ever, with "Attack of the the Eye Creatures"(that's really the way the title goes!) coming in second.
But the most hilariously bad part of the film are the hobgoblins which are nothing more than cheap puppets--not much more realistic than ones kids might get from Toys R Us!
And I just found out that there apparently is a sequel to this abysmal movie; but again, I have no interest in watching that, not after having seen enough of part one to see what it was.I can't find any reason for why anyone should take the time to sit down and watch "Hobgoblins", much less actually invest any money or time in doing so..
Hobgoblins currently sits as the 30th worst movie ever made on IMDb and lets be clear it's terrible.........pee poor stuff that makes the average cheesy 80's movie look artistic.In a cross between Critters, Gremlins & an ounce of Wishmaster this creature feature doesn't deserve its place on that list and I'm baffled why it's there.
Movies on that list are usually there because of an actor/actress (Paris Hilton) because it's got a gimmick or an angle that upsets people or non-existent production values.Hobgoblins isn't worth your time but one of the worst films ever made?
At first a held certain reservations against watching a film with what appears to be a no-brainer title for a film about the very same beasts, but sometimes the direct option is the best.Starring Tom Bartlett as Kevin, a young and brave assistant security guard, and Jeffrey Culver as McCreedy, the wizened old security guard who has seen too much, "HOBGOBLINS" takes us on a horrifying journey to the realm of the darker aspects of human consciousness made flesh.
The whiny hero to his non-supportive girlfriend to the nerdy pervert to the over-sexed floozy that is called Daphne;each actor is annoying in their own way.Even the creatures weren't even scary or even cute,like the ones in Gremlins,but it doesn't matter..If you're curious about seeing this,please,please see the Mst3k version and that's it,OK??
This film rips me back to the very late 1980's/early 1990's, when Letterman used to be the end of NBC's broadcasting every night, and the only thing worth watching after 12 midnight was USA's UP...All Night, starring Gilbert Gottfried and later the blonde trampy ho whose name I can't recall, introing really dreadful movies that a 12-year-old like me used to later esspy the video boxes of, in their town's local Food Happy Mart.I recently bought this as part of MST's DVD Vol 8, but I keep watching it, because *something* about it keeps triggering a repressed memory in me.
This flick hardly even tries to hide the fact that it's a ripoff of Joe Dante's infinitely superior "Gremlins", and combined with the inane plot, cheesy dialogue, inexperienced actors, bad special effects, and lame music, it's no wonder that "Mystery Science Theater 3000" sunk their claws into this one for Experiment 907.So, these little puppets that have the ability to grant you your fondest wish and then kill you escape from their vault at a movie studio and wreak havoc on the populace (hey, maybe this is where "Animaniacs" came from...or maybe not).
Their chosen victims are Kevin (a total puss who still knows how to fire a gun blindly into the air to scare off burglars), Amy (Kevin's ice cube of a girlfriend who remains unimpressed with everything he does), Daphne (a slut outlined in spandex who refuses to watch any movie without a XXX rating), Nick (the jerky military brat trained in garden tool warfare), and Kyle (the lovable pervert hopelessly addicted to phone sex).
After a rousing performance of the punk rock hit "Pig Sticker", Amy takes the stage, only to have her big night decimated by Nick's delusional war fantasy involving comically weak hand grenades and people that turn their own tables over in order to save the explosions some work...and then some other stuff happens, but by this time I had wandered off in desperation for human contact.This is one of those cases where you know the director made this movie for the sole purpose of putting in nude scenes.
This film is about some Hobgoblins let loose from a factory - (Hobgoblins locked in a vault in a film warehouse!) - and then they wreak havoc through town, by making peoples fantasies come true, but they turn them bad in some way.
She mistakes this furry little Hobgoblin for her best friend, Amy, remarking "Amy, would you quit breathing all over me!" This was the most laughably bad line, but the film contains millions more...
As the sticker states, at the beginning of the MST3K version of this movie, "HOBGOBLINS: May cause blindness or death." Yes!
OK, I only saw this movie as a "Mystery Science Theater" episode, and it's wonderful in it's badness, but I don't know if it would be easy to watch in it's duration without the MST3K running commentary.
These creatures, which are the "hobgoblins" that the title refers to, look like the rejects for a "Critters" film.
The first time i saw this movie was the great tv show MST3K,and i love the part when Cro says "the movie was so bad even the car wanted to get out of it"(after the car was falling off the cliff)I do not remember the names of the horrible actors in this movie,but one guy i think hade a granade in his hands but it blew up in his pants.And at the end of the movie(SPOIL) he comes back ALIVE and not that hurt.
"Hobgoblins" is about as bad as they come, but unlike other stuffed-animals-on-rampages movies ("Pod People", etc.), its tongue is planted firmly in cheek.
You all know about this movie: the disgustingly stupid and unfunny sex jokes, the huge door system with no locks, the puppets (and puppeteer arms), the club scum groupies tipping their own table, "the rake scene" (don't even make that puzzled look.
Cheep effects, bad acting, unfunny, UN-scary, and disgusting.Don't even watch this movie if you see it on MST3K!!
However, watch it on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and it becomes one of the best!There's more MST3K material in this one movie than an Alan Smithee film festival, and Mike & co don't miss a chance to rip it to shreds.
If you want every single thing that makes a bad movie bad, look no further than Hobgoblins.
"Wait it gets better" The director obviously couldn't figure out how to make these little creatures actually move/run/walk and film at the same time so how you know they get from here to there.
But making fun of this movie is like pooping on poop, it should not be attempted.HOBGOBLINS (1988) Review: ½/10.
Now, it is up to Kevin to kill the creatures before they can do serious harm to his (utterly idiotic) friends or anyone else...From the moment you first see the Hobgoblins, you know that this flick is nothing more than a cheap rip-off of 80s hits like "Gremlins" or "Critters", and to be fair, this could have worked and provided us with mindless low-budget fun.
Take for example the scene in the house where the main characters first encounter the hobgoblins: They don't even try to pretend that they are actually being attacked, instead simply hold the puppets while delivering their lines dead pan.It took me some time to work out how to classify this uniquely unenjoyable experience but in the end I came to the conclusion that it isn't actually a movie.
I think the people that made this movie have done a very great job making it look like an original 1950s horror classic like "The Blob!" Who can remember that drive-in classic about what else but...a blob!
"Hobgoblins" is, without a doubt in my mind, the worst movie ever made (yes, it is worse than "Manos").
Plenty of badly-acted, ridiculous-looking fighting with monsters that could get killed with nothing more than a feather tap on the head runs through the whole mess.MST3K did this movie, but not even the wit of Mike, Crow and Servo could save this piece of trash.
Only if you watch this movie alone can you fully understand the horror that is "Hobgoblins."  Worst.
This so-called film makes all the "Chuckie" movies look like Oscar-winning masterpieces..
Well back to the actors, which from the get go seem to be just a bunch of friends who thought they would get a little amount of money together and try to make a movie that would be a great horror film.
Hobgoblins was Sloane's second work as a director and maybe one of the worst films of all time.
Really bad, but funny, with the worst puppets in a movie--ever.
There's nothing wrong with the truly bad film that makes for a good time.
(and I'm an MST3K fan so I've seen a lot of bad movies) The story is the worst in recent memory, the directing is AWFUL, the special effects look like sock puppets made by a first-grader, and the acting would have been better had the entire cast been replaced by golden retrievers!The film is about a security guard who accidentally releases  one of the illigitimate sons of the gremlins (called hobgoblins in this movie) which proceed to head for his 80s-driven friends and kill them with their fantasies.
That's right, this movie did not come from hell (though it feels like it), but from stupid people "film makers".