Goblin

Another SyFy movie... And you never know what you are going to get with these; it is either really bad or actually quite good. SyFy have been known to surprise us viewers from time to time.

Unfortunately, "Goblin" wasn't a nice surprise. That being said, it is not one of the worst SyFy movies though. The storyline was a bit interesting, about a town being cursed for some wrong-doings of the past. But the part with the goblin? Well, that didn't really work well with me.

The goblin itself resembled more a ring wraith from "Lords of the Ring" than a goblin. Now, I know what goblins usually look like in role-playing games, so that is what I am using for comparison. But the whole thing with the creature being draped in a large hooded robe and even walking like a ring wraith, nah! I just didn't buy that. I was waiting for Mr. Frodo to come out and wrestle the goblin. But it just didn't happen, unfortunately. The goblin looked really badly animated and it there was never a doubt of this being cheap CGI in my mind. The goblin looked like something from a 80's movie, it was an eyesore.

As for the acting in "Goblin", well then the actors and actresses were actually doing a well enough job with their roles and what they had to work with. Of course, there is no award-winning performances to be found here, but on the plus side, it is better than what have been seen in other SyFy movies previously.

The movie is labeled as a fantasy, horror and sci-fi. Well I can understand the fantasy part well enough, but the horror and sci-fi? Not so much. The movie wasn't scary, not in the least.

The good part of "Goblin" was that there was a good constant flow to the story, and you never really were left to be bored. Plus there were some nice moments in the story along the way as well. But these were hardly enough to lift the movie up from being under average. Having seen the movie now, I can say that it is not a movie that I will be making a second trip back to watch.

Sometimes it's best to review a film before it completely slips from your memory. This is one such time. I can't really think of anything really bad about 2010's 'Goblin,' but then I can't think of anything particularly positive to say about it. I guess that's why it's probably the definition of mediocre.

Long ago, blah, blah, blah, supernatural shenanigans, blah, blah, blah, now we have a monster running round the woods killing people. And we have our horror movie.

Only the 'horror' element doesn't really start until around the halfway mark. The first forty-five minutes are all taken up with 'character growth,' only the characters aren't that special. In fact, the lead actress plays quite an unlikable teenage girl who you'll find it hard to root for. The others are your typical horror movie stereotypes. If you've ever seen another similar film you'll know exactly who will live and who will die. All dialogue within the first fifteen minutes is basically exposition and the addition of an old local man who delivers a warning to the main cast adds to the cliches.

At least the second half picks up a bit when the goblin itself makes more appearances. There's not much in the way of gore, but the creature is actually quite nicely designed, so props there, I guess. But the film just seems to feel far longer than its ninety minute runtime. Granted I was watching it on a streaming service, but every time I paused it and saw how far through I was I expected to be half to three quarters of the way through, only to find that either twenty or thirty minutes had passed.

Weirdly, my main gripe came about halfway through when I realised that, despite it being set on Halloween, most scenes took place during the day. Granted, the climax was filmed at night, but I don't think I've ever seen a film set around this time that's supposed to be scary and have it filmed on a nice warm afternoon.

Maybe I'm being too harsh. Like I say, it's not a bad film - there's just so many that do far better with equal or less of a budget. Watch it if there's nothing else, but don't expect anything too memorable.

It's a huge pet-peeve of mine when people who worked on a movie, rate it and review it on IMDb... And, I'm pretty confident whoever wrote the glowing review on this site worked on the movie because no one in their right mind would ever try to make the claim that ""Goblin" takes the material totally serious with zero camp or goofiness.".

I'll bet my life that this script was written in a weekend and put into production for no other reason than because there is a TV network with standards so low, it will buy movies like this. It's a collection of horror clichés and idiotic dialogue. The plot isn't any better. There must be hundreds of intelligent, fully-developed, exciting screenplays laying around in studios throughout N. America not getting made and yet, we get Goblin.. woopity-doo! This movie may honestly be good for a laugh but not much more.

First of all I am not claiming this movie to be a masterpiece by far, but for a scyfy flick it stands above a lot of the 'syfy' originals I have seen in the past and if you take it for what it is, its really not that bad of a movie. I got a chance to watch it late last night on a snowy New England evening and it was able to keep my attention all the way through. It had decent acting, decent gore, and a decent scenery for a TV movie. I think scyfy has come along way from the some of the older flicks they put out. Of course this movie doesn't really add anything new to the genre, but cmon we can't expect too much from the scyfy network. ScyFy is good for giving small little movies to quench the thirst of die-hards while we wait for the next gem sci fi or Horror movie to come along. If you expect a hidden gem to come in the form of a ScyFy original movie you better pack your lunch. My point is its a TV movie so try to view it as such.

Anyway, moving right along like I said its not likely that we will see Gil Bellows or any of the other actors at the grammy awards any time soon for this, but if you happen to come upon it on the Sci fi channel and don't mind their movies too much you might want to give it a watch.

Keep in mind, I give this a 6 and am rating it as a T.V. movie. If I paid to go see it a theater or bought it new for $14 I would rate it differently.

I really wanted to like this film, and I did sit through all of it to give it the benefit of the doubt. But it just doesn't measure up.

For a while I thought maybe it was best viewed as a horror-comedy, but it doesn't have enough comedy, and all of it seems to be actually unintentional, rather than sort of ironic.

The cast is cute, so that's a plus. In particular, Brett Dier seems to be going for a young Ryan Phillippe look, which he carries off well. Unfortunately, Ryan at that age had an agent/manager who cared which films he appeared in, and Brett doesn't.

For a horror-slasher type film, I think we're long past caring whether the writing makes any sense. It's the directing and special effects that torpedo this film. The monster looks and acts ridiculous, and could have been animated using 1990s technology. And if the "loud-noise-plus-sudden-close-up-repeat-twice" technique wasn't already cliché, it certainly was by the time this film was over.

Why do British Columbia and Canada whore themselves out for these pathetic films? They are surely capable of quality work. Is film make-work welfare that important instead? When will people realize that if you're eager to put your name to garbage, you shouldn't expect anybody to ask you to make something worth making. Think long-term, guys.