- For the episode, see MST3K 907 - Hobgoblins.
Hobgoblins is a 1988 action/comedy/horror film that was written and directed by Rick Sloane.
Plot[]
The hobgoblins in Hobgoblins
At an old movie studio, a new security guard named Dennis investigates a deserted film vault. While inside, his fantasy of being a rock star comes to life, but he dies while performing on stage. His supervisor, Mr. McCreedy, closes the door upon discovering the body.
A young man named Kevin takes the now-vacant security guard job at the movie studio so that he can impress his girlfriend Amy. After his first shift, he drives home to Amy and two of his other friends, the sex-crazed Daphne and the awkward Kyle. Daphne's boyfriend Nick comes home after his induction into the army, and Nick and Kevin spar with rakes. After Kevin loses, Amy berates him for his weaknesses while Daphne and Nick have sex in Nick's van.
The next evening, Kevin stumbles across the vault while pursuing a burglar. He finds a small group of small, hairy alien beings — the hobgoblins. They escape, leaving Kevin stunned. Mr. McCreedy explains that the hobgoblins 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. They also kill their victims in the process when people's fantasies turn against them.
Daphne (Kelley Palmer) in Hobgoblins
The hobgoblins are attracted by the bright lights, and they go directly to Kevin's house where his friends are having a party. The hobgoblins quickly make the group's fantasies come true, with dire consequences. Kyle fantasizes about having a fling with a phone sex operator and is nearly killed. 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. Kevin kills the hobgoblin in control of Amy before she can have sex with the scruffy bouncer Roadrash. Although Amy is restored to her original personality, her experience leaves her less sexually-repressed.
"It's a bonsai Bigfoot"
Thinking that all the hobgoblins are dead, Kevin, Amy, Kyle, and Daphne return to the movie studio 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. McCreedy shoots the hobgoblin that is generating the fantasy, 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 (bandaged and on crutches, but otherwise unharmed) to have sex with Daphne, and Kyle asks to use McCreedy's phone, presumably for more phone sex.
Cast[]
- Jeffrey Culver as Mr. McCreedy
- Tom Bartlett as Kevin
- Steven Boggs as Kyle
- Billy Frank as Nick
- Kelley Palmer as Daphne
- Paige Sullivan as Amy
- Duane Whitaker as Roadrash
- Daran Norris as Club Scum MC
- Kari French as Pixie
- Tami Bakke as Fantazia
Notes[]
- Duane Whitaker (who plays Roadrash) was later cast as the pawn shop owner in the 1994 hit film Pulp Fiction. This happened after filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, who worked at a video store at the time, had seen Duane's appearance in Hobgoblins.
- The band playing at Club Scum are The Fontanelles, a relatively well-known punk rock group in the Los Angeles underground music scene at one time. The song they are performing is one of their better known releases, "Kiss Kicker '99".
- Actor Tamara Clatterbuck (Fantazia) is credited here as "Tami Bakke". She appeared in several of Rick Sloane's films, including Vice Academy (as Tinsel) and Vice Academy 6 (as Sophisticatia). She has had a long career in films and television, including a frequently recurring role on the soap opera The Young and the Restless. She had previously appeared on General Hospital.
- During the flashback where Mr. McCreedy describes how he first encountered the hobgoblins, he can be seen holding a promotional flyer for The Visitants, one of Rick Sloane's previous films.
- Steven Boggs wore his own pink shorts in the movie.
- Rick Sloane specifically wrote the role of McCreedy for Jeffrey Culver.
- This is actor Daran Norris’ first credited film role. The Club Scum M.C. was originally a smaller part, but Rick Sloane was so impressed by Norris' reading (in which Norris did a number of different voices) that Sloane wrote more scenes for the character.
- Actresses Angelyne and Sybil Danning were reportedly both considered for the role of Fantazia. Angelyne wasn't cast because she refused to memorize dialogue and only wanted to play herself. Rick Sloane had to pass on Danning because the production could not afford her.
- John Carradine was approached to play the old man who owns the movie studio, but the production could not afford his required rate.
- In 2007, Rick Sloane announced his plans to make Hobgoblins 2. The film was released on DVD by Shout! Factory on June 23, 2009. The sequel was made to look identical to the original film, and utilized 35mm film and composite effects, look-alike actors, some of the original costumes, and the same puppets. It became a RiffTrax presentation in 2023.
- Hobgoblins was one of the films selected to be part of the Hulu series 13 Nights of Elvira in 2014. Rick Sloane operated a Hobgoblin puppet in the closing segment.
- In 2020, it was announced that Hobgoblins would be one of the films used in a summer production of RiffTrax Live!. This plan was eventually delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The performance later took place on August 17, 2021.
- Prop designer and fabricator Kenneth J. Hall worked on several notable genre/horror films, including Ghoulies. He later participated in the Gizmoplex tribute event to Episode #903.
- Some Hobgoblin props appear in one of the films in Rick Sloane's Vice Academy series, which also has a scene set in Club Scum (though not the same location). This may indicate that the Hobgoblins and Vice Academy franchises inhabit a shared fictional universe.