Mystery Science Theater 3000: HOBGOBLINS
December 21, 2017 2:08 AM - Season 9, Episode 7 - Subscribe
Warning: HOBGOBLINS - May Cause Blindness and Death Boy, that sure is a bad movie, won't you? It sure is, you know! An old guy spends his whole life working as a security guard for an old film studio just to prevent other security guards from unleashing the evil plush toys that live in one of its vaults. He is terrible at this. The "Hobgoblins" get loose, and it's up to a straight-laced new recruit and his upsettingly horny friends to save the world, and themselves, from their hallucinatory, fantasy-granting powers. Of all the movie types we've seen on our tour through the Mystery Science Theater, among them gray 50s sci-fi, brutal biker movies, an Orwellian children's film, post-apocalyptic warrior fightan, barely-clad pepla and vibrant Soviet fantasy, comes a new category: wannabe sex farce/horror. The result is unquestionably another one of the worst movies MST ever did, and yet pretty recent for that. What can you do with those Hobgoblins? Here comes one now! Watch out, you little doodad! YouTube (1h32m) Premiered June 27, 1998. 19 episodes left.
Episode 907 HOBGOBLINS
Satellite News - Mighty Jack's Episode Review - War of the Colossal Fan Guide - Annotated MST3K - TVTropes - Subreddit.
Paul again offers his reflections in this episode's entry in the ACEG:
Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt
Rotten Tomatoes (Critics N/A, Viewers 10%) - Wikipedia - TVTropes
IMDB (1988, 2.3 stars)
"A young security guard must track down diminutive aliens who kill people even as they make their fantasies come true."
Directed and written by Rick Sloane. Starring Tom Bartlett, Paige Sullivan, Steven Boggs, and some ratty polyfill from the bottom of a broken crane game.
Notes:
Boy, that sure is a bad movie, won't you?
It sure is you know!
Say, fellows, here is a little song about that movie "Hobgoblins."
Are you kidding me?
Then let's go!
"Hobgoblins! Hobgoblins! What do you do with those Hobgoblins?
They're over here! They're over there!
Those darn Hobgoblins are everywhere!
As we sing the Hobgoblins Song! Today!"
Uh-oh, here comes one now! Watch out, you little doodad!
- - -
The director of Hobgoblins is one of those enlightened sorts who came to embrace the (rather profitable) treatment MST performed on his movie, to the extent that he made a sequel that references the MST episode in its trailer. Daddy-O notes that he even submitted the movie to Best Brains himself. I am happy that he saw that the guys meant no real harm. I am sad, however, about what the script says about the sexual politics of its writer. According to this movie being generally concerned for the physical and emotional well-being of your friends means you are grade-A BO-RING. The movie is much on the side of its juvenile characters: the sex-crazed friend who calls a 900 line during the Hobgoblin attack; the sickeningly demonstrative girlfriend and boyfriend who almost proudly retreat to their van in broad daylight and, from within, shake its suspension for all of like two minutes before emerging fully clothed; and our hero's girlfriend, who as our representative of female maturity and common sense is revealed to secretly want a big loutish oaf to do the old caveman routine to her.
Some of the fansites say this is one where the movie's badness overwhelms the riffing, but I think it makes it just weird enough to work. It's definitely one of the most quotable MST episodes.
Episode 907 HOBGOBLINS
Satellite News - Mighty Jack's Episode Review - War of the Colossal Fan Guide - Annotated MST3K - TVTropes - Subreddit.
Paul again offers his reflections in this episode's entry in the ACEG:
Oh, man. You have no idea the torture it was to watch this movie several times in the space of a week. It shoots right to the top of the list of the worst movies we've ever done. Speaking personally, the only one I hated as much was probably Overdrawn At The Memory Bank, and even that experience bred a less intense sort of hate, leaving an aftertaste not quite so malignant and foul.Movie
On the bright side, there's potential for a real peace in Northern Ireland for the first time in living memory. At least this movie did nothing to prevent that.
Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt
Rotten Tomatoes (Critics N/A, Viewers 10%) - Wikipedia - TVTropes
IMDB (1988, 2.3 stars)
"A young security guard must track down diminutive aliens who kill people even as they make their fantasies come true."
Directed and written by Rick Sloane. Starring Tom Bartlett, Paige Sullivan, Steven Boggs, and some ratty polyfill from the bottom of a broken crane game.
Notes:
Boy, that sure is a bad movie, won't you?
It sure is you know!
Say, fellows, here is a little song about that movie "Hobgoblins."
Are you kidding me?
Then let's go!
"Hobgoblins! Hobgoblins! What do you do with those Hobgoblins?
They're over here! They're over there!
Those darn Hobgoblins are everywhere!
As we sing the Hobgoblins Song! Today!"
Uh-oh, here comes one now! Watch out, you little doodad!
- - -
The director of Hobgoblins is one of those enlightened sorts who came to embrace the (rather profitable) treatment MST performed on his movie, to the extent that he made a sequel that references the MST episode in its trailer. Daddy-O notes that he even submitted the movie to Best Brains himself. I am happy that he saw that the guys meant no real harm. I am sad, however, about what the script says about the sexual politics of its writer. According to this movie being generally concerned for the physical and emotional well-being of your friends means you are grade-A BO-RING. The movie is much on the side of its juvenile characters: the sex-crazed friend who calls a 900 line during the Hobgoblin attack; the sickeningly demonstrative girlfriend and boyfriend who almost proudly retreat to their van in broad daylight and, from within, shake its suspension for all of like two minutes before emerging fully clothed; and our hero's girlfriend, who as our representative of female maturity and common sense is revealed to secretly want a big loutish oaf to do the old caveman routine to her.
Some of the fansites say this is one where the movie's badness overwhelms the riffing, but I think it makes it just weird enough to work. It's definitely one of the most quotable MST episodes.
Hobgoblins man...Hobgoblins.
I think the riffing trumps the movie, but only in small doses. Like, a viewing every other year or so is enough. And even that requires a couple of showers afterward.
It's like the script wants to address the problematic nature of people's fantasies, but it was written by someone with nanometers of emotional depth.
posted by stevis23 at 8:27 AM on December 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
I think the riffing trumps the movie, but only in small doses. Like, a viewing every other year or so is enough. And even that requires a couple of showers afterward.
It's like the script wants to address the problematic nature of people's fantasies, but it was written by someone with nanometers of emotional depth.
posted by stevis23 at 8:27 AM on December 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yeah, even for the time, the sexual politics are...not good.
I do like the differing reactions from the Mads when they see the cardboard versions of MATB.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:13 AM on December 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
I do like the differing reactions from the Mads when they see the cardboard versions of MATB.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:13 AM on December 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
This is one of the few episodes I think I have only watched once.
posted by wittgenstein at 5:46 PM on December 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by wittgenstein at 5:46 PM on December 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
It’s the 80s - do a lot of coke and vote for Ronald Reagan
Top 5 MST3K for me, can’t get enough.
posted by porn in the woods at 4:26 PM on December 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Top 5 MST3K for me, can’t get enough.
posted by porn in the woods at 4:26 PM on December 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
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posted by JHarris at 2:14 AM on December 21, 2017 [1 favorite]