Hobgoblins (Rifftrax Live)

Film Year:  1988

Genre:  Comedy, Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy

Director:  Rick Sloane

Starring:  Tom Bartlett, Paige Sullivan, Steven Boggs, Kelley Palmer, Billy Frank, Tamara Clatterbuck, Duane Whitiker, Jeffrey Culver

Rifftrax Year:  2021

Riffers:  Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett

Featured Short:  "Life in a Medieval Town"

The Short

Welcome to a nonspecific Medieval Town!  You can do lots of things here like...sell a cow...make shoes...shell a cow so you can make shoes...shake a rug...  You know, all kinds of stuff!

Life in a Medieval Town is a type of "educational" film that's supposed to show kids how things worked before TV was made and you became too lazy to sell your cow and make your own shoes.  It feels to me that even the youngest of kids will not be convinced by the cosplay in this short, as it feels like everyone is garbed in whatever the fuck they pulled out of a trunk at a community playhouse.  Nobody looks particularly medieval, and everyone looks extremely silly.

The settings look nice though.  If you're going to say anything kind about this short let it be that they picked out some nice locals that look good on film.  It's too bad they couldn't use their sets with more lively set pieces.

The Movie

Comedic low budget sleaze was a hot ticket in the 80's, where you knew your movie probably wouldn't good enough to be taken seriously in whatever genre you're attempting, so you make it with so much of your tongue planted firmly in cheek that you can claim to be a "parody."  This use of the "parody" sign was usually just a mask for lack of budget, time, or, in some cases, talent.  This became the entire business model of Troma Entertainment, while some filmmakers, such as Jim Wynorski, built an entire career on it that continues to this day, where it's more of an excuse for soft core pornography than for any sort of non-naked entertainment value.

Enter Rick Sloane, a young director who got his start making films of this ilk, having films like Blood Theater, The Visitants, and Vice Academy under his belt (the latter would be his signature franchise, spawning five sequels, all directed by Sloane).  Hobgoblins came out at a time when there were a bunch of little humanoid-critter-terrorizing-people movies, such as Gremlins, Critters, Ghoulies, Munchies, Newsies, and whatever.  Sloane puts together a bunch of green puppets and makes one of his own, with his signature crass humor and low budget.

Hobgoblins is the tale of Kevin, a teenager who is taken on as a security guard at a movie studio.  The elder guard, Mr. McCreedy, hides a dark secret.  Many years ago a space ship landed in the lot, which carried several creatures from space called "Hobgoblins," that can make your fantasy come true.  They can also pervert your fantasy into killing you for their own amusement.  McCreedy trapped the Hobgoblins in a vault many years prior and Kevin accidentally unleashes them once again.  It's up to Kevin and his friends to track down the Hobgoblins and return them to the vault.

The film attempts a sort of Monkey's Paw "be careful what you wish for" narrative, but it doesn't quite get there.  The Hobgoblins like to turn people's fantasies against them, but it's rarely in a creative or interesting way.  One character fantasizes about going "all the way" with a phone sex hotline worker, to which she appears of course, then tries to kill him by pushing his car off a cliff.  I mean, I guess that's a play on deadly fantasy, but it's not a huge sell on this idea.  Then there are fantasies that are just inane, such as an army veteran who finally makes it home to his girlfriend and he fantasizes about his superior making him toss grenades in a nightclub?  Okay...sure.  There are other campy horror movies that do this in more creative ways.  Wishmaster for example, which is not a great movie, but does more with the idea than Hobgoblins does.

If Hobgoblins has anything going for it, it's that Rick Sloane keeps telling the story through an absurdist lens.  Everything looks ridiculous.  The actors all act ridiculous.  The costume design is ridiculous.  The Hobgoblin puppets are ridiculous.  Everything is exaggerated to comedic effect.  Whether or not it's "funny" is where Hobgoblins could either succeed or fail.  I think Hobgoblins had been put into the hands of stronger comedic talent, even with the exact same budget and resources, this movie could have been more amusing.  Its jokes are groaners, its delivery is poor, and it seems like its primary laugh is how over the top it is.  That's kind of amusing for a few minutes, but it gets cumbersome if you don't have anything to prop it up.

But there is some sort of "Watching cable at 3 AM" sort of appeal to the movie, where if you were thirteen in the mid-'90s and stumbled upon this dumb thing playing on USA or TNT or whatever and it's playing after some low-rent National Lampoon movie or something, then you might stick with the stupidity you're watching and guffaw "Uhhuhhuh...that van's rocking...huhhuh...they're DOING IT..."  Those who have never lived through times like that will likely be left lost by the movie.

The Live Show

It's been a few years since we last saw Rifftrax Live, and let's just say 2020 was a bullshit year for everyone.  But it's 2021 and it's all behind us...well, not really, but things are adjusted enough that Rifftrax Live came back, at any rate.  I was unable to attend the Hobgoblins show when it broadcast into theaters because I was recovering from an injury and also couldn't afford the time off work.  It was the first time since Birdemic that I missed Rifftrax Live in cinemas and I was very sad about it.  But Hobgoblins is now on VOD and I'm eager to rectify that mistake.

Before they get started, Bill is curious because he heard that the film itself was an MST fan favorite, when the audience of course cheers, he immediately responds "What the hell is wrong with you people?"  After all, this is Hobgoblins we're talking about.  I wouldn't call the film a "favorite," but in the long run of Mystery Science Theater, it certainly is one of the more memorable films they've done and it inspired a very funny commentary.  We're all here to see if lightning strikes twice.

Not entirely.  Getting back into Rifftrax Live is a more exciting prospect than revisiting Hobgoblins.

The one bonus to having Hobgoblins featured is that the film is unedited, and there is actually a pretty decent amount of footage here that was never in the MST version.  It doesn't make the movie "better" but it does give the movie more flow for its inanity.  The MST version always felt a little choppy, but considering how low budget the film was it was easy to dismiss.  It still is a little choppy, it just has more flow.  But we have new scenes providing setups for new jokes, including a slight subplot of McCreedy getting lashed by his boss, showing that he and Nick aren't the only ones on this seemingly empty lot.  The Club Scum scenes are also mostly expanded upon, with even more scummy action to make fun of.

But for the most part the entire experience is a little flat.  We've seen this movie riffed before, and it was riffed more consistently.  There are a couple of callbacks, but they're seemingly random ones.  For example, during the opening sequence fantasy, Bill breaks out into "We're on the road to nowhere!" which is a strangely low key callback to make.  I do wonder if they forgot they already made that joke or if they just couldn't think of a better one.  As we get deeper into the riff, it feels a bit empty, as scenes that set up killer lines in the MST episode go by seemingly unnoticed.

My big fear about this was that one of the most memorable scenes from the MST episode, their rendition of Kisskicker 99, was just going to fly by.  I was half-wrong, at least.  It doesn't top the MST episode, but there are some good new riffs that made me laugh.  They don't come up with multiple names for the song like they did previously ("Kid Snickers?"  " Iced Chicken?"), as they mostly just settle on "Fish Licker" and ride that.  I think this sequence is emblematic of this Rifftrax Live experience.  It's kind of funny, but I've seen a better version of this and I'd rather be watching that.

The short is a fun bit of Renaissance Fair action.  It's mostly about making fun of stupid hats and weird behavior, but it's serviceable and a fun warm-up before the feature.  But like the rest of the Live experience, it's a tad too light to make a full impact.

I think I have the same problem with Hobgoblins that I do with the Time Chasers Live show, as there is so much about that particular episode that's iconic and trying to create a new experience out of it creates an "off" feeling that makes one yearn for the previous one.  Hobgoblins doesn't fall as flat on its face as Time Chasers, as there are quite a few laugh-out-loud moments, but I'd almost certainly watch the MST episode again before revisiting this Live show.

Average