Customer Reviews

Hobgoblins 2

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After watching the original Hobgoblins movie you never would have guessed there would have been a sequel, but 20 years later there is. In a very interesting turn of events Rick Sloane decided it was time to hit the coinstar, cash in his giant jug filled with change, and make a sequel to his mess of a film from 1988. Rick's original idea was to make the sequel 2 years after the release of the first one but must have got thrown out the window when no company would fund the idea. So now that 20 years has passed a new generation will be able to see the same exact hobgoblin hand puppets from the 80's.

Hobgoblins 2 takes place where the first film left off after oldman security guard McCreedy blew up the studio where the hobgoblins were. Man how can that guy still be alive? He was in his 90's when the first one came out. Anyway, McCreedy is now in a psychiatric hospital and is visited by Kevin and his friends who are now college students. He warns the kids that the hobgoblins can still return if there name is said three times like the bloody Mary myth. So naturally someone says it and our hand puppets are back on the loose. Kevin and his friends must now face their fears and draw the hobgoblins to them to put and end to this terrible film from going past a sequel.

It' kind of hard to review Hobgoblins 2 since it knows how bad it is already. The whole premise was pretty much a remake of the first by the way it poked fun at many aspects of the original. In fact the same script they used in the original was used for this one. So 20 years later and you don't even write a new script shows you the intention of the film. It's in 35 mm film, the same exact puppets were used, and they kept the same characters in their hilarious outfits and all just to make it look like it was still the 80's. To be honest I thought it was pretty cool that they made this one as more of a gag then anything else, so that's why I gave it 2 stars. I won't recommend this one unless you're really looking for something terrible.

This movie is only for the stouthearted. Presumably to get to "Hobgoblins 2," you have already seen Rick Sloane's original "Hobgoblins" about hand puppets from outer space. Be forewarned that where the original is very bad, but entertaining from a camp vantage point, this sequel is much more trying to watch.

"Hobgoblins" disappeared into deserved obscurity almost instantly after it's release, and it took Sloane twenty years to make this sequel. No doubt his efforts were buoyed by the success of the original as a feature on "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Personally, it's one of my very favorite episodes of MST3K, but watching it in its original form takes a stronger constitution. This takes more willpower still, as this one deliberately apes the original shamelessly to get cheap laughs from the characters we all know from the original, although played by a completely different cast, as the originals were far too old to play college students at this point.

The plot picks up from where the original left off (sort of,) and involves Mr. McCreedy (this time played by Roland Esquivel, who is no Jeffrey Culver) being locked in an insane asylum for his dealings with the hobgoblins. Over the 89 minute running time, McCreedy again guides Kevin (Josh Mills, who is also inferior to the original film's Tom Bartlett) and company to defeat the murderous puppets in their nefarious web of evil. I did enjoy the scene where Amy (Sabrina Bolin) confessed her fear of puppets, but found Daphne (Jordana Berliner) to be even more annoying (if such a thing is possible) than Kelley Palmer was in the original. If you have seen the original, there's no doubt in my mind that you just raised your eyebrows in surprise and concern.

The movie gets a bonus star for filming on 35mm versus video in an attempt to authentically mirror the original, but the gags fall flat and in general the film tries too hard to be a funny parody. The film does feature a commentary, a "making of" feature, deleted scenes, and a still photo gallery, which are nice extras given the low budget of this film.

In a nutshell, the film's plot is of no consequence, once again an (even more) unlikable cast battles hand puppets, spouts terrible dialogue, and engages in every kind of cheap gag imaginable. It's worth seeing once if you were amused by the original, but be forewarned that just because it's more of the same doesn't mean that it's as good as "Hobgoblins."

SHORT FORM REVIEW:
If you liked the MST3K send up of the original Hobgoblins, or just have a taste for epically awful movies, rent this and laugh at the carnage. Otherwise, like the poor female reviewer who rented this to watch with their child, stay far, far away from this most sublimely awful of films. Note: One star denotes that despite being awesomely bad, Hobgoblins 2 is a complete train wreck.

LONG FORM REVIEW (SPOILERS!):
Background
As an ardent (or obsessed, take your pick) fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, their send-up of D-level horror romp Hobgoblins struck me as one of their most brutal outings. The MST3K cast, while usually liberal with derision for their source material, went ballistic during Hobgoblins. The film caused Mike and the `Bots to leave the theater - leaving a foamcore silhouette in their stead. They then almost completely abandoned one of their live action segments, their typical antics again replaced by a foamcore poster accompanied by a lifeless song about Hobgoblins. Finally, as the credits rolled, Tom Servo demanded that Crow play director Rick Sloane. Crow (as Sloane) agreed that he enjoyed smoking crack cocaine and that his brain had at some point had been replaced by rat droppings. Even by MST3K standards, their pained reaction was telling: Hobgoblins was, by all accounts, unwatchable.

Hobgoblins writer, director and producer(!) Rick Sloane clearly took the punishment MST3K heaped on his creation to heart. Without MST3K, no one outside of the original cast and crew would know what the hell Hobgoblins was, and with MST3K, his work was revealed as one long, uninspired slab of dreck not meant for general consumption. How Mr. Sloane reconciled these two opposing forces is not clear, yet Hobgoblins 2 was made. Apparently, crap source movie + well-documented and accurate mockery + near total lack of talent = sequel. I can't fault Sloane for trying to cash in on a sequel to what amounts to a successful film, and he must have cashed in on Hobgoblins 2, because the budget appears to be six figures at most, and that's assuming anyone in the cast and crew was actually paid.

Hobgoblins, Considered
I have seen critics dismiss the hobgoblins as a Gremlins knock off, but this comparison is not apt. The furry little greenish imps actually share more in common with Freddy Krueger, as their contribution to horror is hypnotic dream-states, terrifying (or tricking) their victims into life-and-death situations where death is the intended outcome. An interesting idea, to be sure, but one not executed well. In fact, the hobgoblins of Hobgoblins attempted to kill you by mesmerizing you with your personal fantasy, but the hobgoblins of Hobgoblins 2 attempt to kill you by taunting you with your worst fears. Why Sloane changed from fantasy to fear is anyone's guess, but the former works much, much better, especially for a film this desperate to be camp.

Hobgoblins 2 falls past the camp appellation and goes straight to crap. It is slowly paced, poorly written, terribly acted, not funny, not scary, not interesting, and more than a little confusing. Confusion set in for me within five minutes of the start, as the "2" in Hobgoblins 2 would tend to indicate a sequel. Amazingly, Hobgoblins 2 appears to be for all intents and purposes and honest-to-jeebus reboot of the Hobgoblins "franchise", making it Hobgoblins: The New Beginning or something to that effect.

For example, here is the plot of the first movie (SPOLIERS!):
Whiny loser Kevin gets a job as a nightwatchman at an abandoned movie studio (?), where the crotchety but lovable Mr. McCreedy takes him under his wing. Unfortunately, McCreedy neglects to tell Kevin about the hobgoblins, malevolent aliens of some sort that he has helpfully kept (mostly) locked away in a vault for decades. Naturally, Kevin lets them out. The hobgoblins proceed to wreak havoc on Kevin, his prudish loser girlfriend Amy, his dorky metrosexual friend Kyle, and awful oversexed couple Nick and Daphne. After a series of vaguely connected events, the hobgoblins are defeated when McCreedy blows them to kingdom come using explosives. In the process, he burns down the abandoned studio, but at least the hobgoblin menace is no more. Everyone lives happily ever after.

Here is the plot of the second installment (SPOLIERS!):
Mr. McCreedy is interred at a mental institution for burning down the abandoned movie studio. Whiny loser Kevin, his prudish loser girlfriend Amy, his dorky horndog friend Kyle, and awful oversexed couple Nick and Daphne are college students enrolled in what amounts to the worst psychology course ever conceived, where students simply jaunt over to the nearest mental institution and do nothing but marvel at how crazy everyone seems. They meet McCreedy for the first time (!?!) while visiting their professor, who appears to teach no lessons other than "watch me abuse the mentally ill". Naturally, McCreedy warns our plucky protagonists of the unseen menace of hobgoblins, indicating that McGreedy's destruction of the film studio was utterly pointless, or never happened at all. Kevin's appearance inspires the hobgoblins the return (for reasons unknown) and they wreak havoc on Kevin and his unlikeable companions. McCreedy escapes the mental institution, explains to the intrepid fivesome how to defeat the hobgoblins, and defeat them they do. In the process Kevin's house burns down, but at least the hobgoblin menace is no more. Everyone lives happily ever after.

The second film essentially uses the first film for inspiration and then conveniently forgets that it exists. Call me cah-raaazy, but Hobgoblins 2 would have made every bit as much sense if Kevin et al. remember McCreedy but refused to believe his warnings that the hobgoblins were still afoot, or did believe him and were trying to get him out while warning the hospital (and community) at large that hobgoblins were real and a deadly threat.

Sloane instead chooses to remake his masterpiece with a significantly worse script, and unbelievably, a worse starring cast. While the five young protagonists are near one-for-one swaps with their predecessors (with the chap playing Kevin being the most serious downgrade and the guy playing Kyle the only notable upgrade), the guy replacing McGreedy has the acting ability of a member of Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job! cast, as in, none whatsoever. The best actor in the film is a mental patient who cuts some of his fingers off and then suffers a frontal lobotomy with remarkable good humor; sadly, he only appears in three or four scenes.

As in the first one, the main cast defines, and ruins, the film. It's one and a half hours of stone-faced Kevin getting henpecked by Amy, (the ultimate embodiment of the miserable shrew) interspersed with Daphne and Rick being pointlessly cruel to one another, mixed with Kyle simpering at the badly delivered attempts at comedy. Occasionally the hobgoblins show up, whereupon the main characters roll around on the ground with them in the old "help, I'm being attacked by a muppet" routine. The rest of the time, the movie plods along without direction or urgency, despite the welcome addition of incidental music and some really average lighting effects that show Sloane learned a thing or two about filmmaking since his Hobgoblins days. For fan service, bizarrely, easter-eggish references to the first film crop up now and again: Kyle has a Hobgoblins poster in his damned bedroom, and when he listens to his 80's style walkman headphones, some of the Damned-esque tunes that failed to rock in the first film fail to rock in the second one. It's all vaguely familiar and eerily transfixing, but never good, and that's a shame for what amounts to a full reboot of an older idea.

In Conclusion
I have a theory that Sloane knows exactly what he's doing, and is our modern-day Coleman Francis (MST3K did all three Francis films, which all shared stunningly flat acting, light planes, manhunts, and a general obsession held by most of the characters with coffee), in that he wants Kevin to show no emotion to make him more obtuse, that McCreedy should read his lines in a slurry daze because he really is crazy, that Nick should laugh at the end of every comment he is involved in because that's what Nick does, and that Daphne was hired because her hideous visage will linger in your mind long after the film is over with.

Maybe Sloane is crazy - crazy like a fox. He's got us, the pop-culture consuming mass of idiots, right where he wants us, set up like fools for when when he remakes Hobgoblins 2 in twenty years and calls it Hobgoblins 3. Maybe #3 will be a sequel to the first film, making it the real Hobgoblins 2, or a sequel to the second, making it Hobgoblins: The New Beginning, Part 2. Rick Sloane, we patiently await your next masterwork.

Where do I begin?

Hobgoblins is one of my favorite "cheesy" movies, and of hearing about a part 2...I was more than joyed!

But that joy didn't last.

The movie is a sequel/remake, and although the characters are the same, they are drastically different.

To be honest, the movie has it's moments...but it seems like it tried to hard.

The DVD has a short documentary in which director Rick Sloane explains the process of making the sequel.
Very insightful, and honest!
Sloane explains how he had to fire the first crew, and how an uncoperative extra had to be replaced!

All in all the film doesn't live up to the original, but as I stated earlier, it has it's moments.

The middle of the film is when it picks up, but by the end it had lost it's steam again.

The most memorable character would probubly be "NICK"
very comical, and entertaining!

Definetely worth checking out, not as cool and campy as the original....but still fun!

My daughter didn't care for this movie.And I didn't care for it either it was boring.