Review of Goblin

Goblin (2010 TV Movie)
3/10
More Sy-Fy Channel creature feature crap.
24 April 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Goblin starts on October 31 in 1831 as the residents of Hollowglen are gathered around a raging fire, the townspeople are scared of a deformed newborn baby & toss it into the fire to keep the town clean & pure. However the baby's mother is understandably upset & since she is also a Witch decides to put a terrible curse on Hollowglen, every Holloween from this night forward a demonic Goblin from hell will rise take any baby that it can find. Jump forward to the present day as Neil (Gil Bellows) & Kate Perkins (Camile Sulivan) reach Hollowglen after a long drive, with them are Neil's seventeen year old daughter Nikki (Tracy Spiridakos), her best friend Cammy (Erin Boyes) & their young baby son Nathan. In town to complete a real estate deal the Perkin clan find the locals rather strange & somewhat hostile, eventually the family learn of the curse & also find out that the baby stealing Goblin of legend is very real...

This Canadian production was directed by Jeffery Scott Lando & is yet another Sy-Fy Channel original creature feature that in truth has nothing original about it, as expected Goblin is just a string of clichés & bad CGI computer effects padded out to an hour & a half. Most of the plot elements from Goblin have been seen many times before, the ancient curse, the Halloween date, the supernatural monster, an unsuspecting family caught up in it, the small creepy backwoods town, the crazy old drunk man no-one listens to but is right, annoying teens who are there just to get killed off & the final magical implement that is used to destroy the monster. You can tick the clichés off, Goblin is uninspired & throughly predictable. The first half of the film concentrates on the squabbling between the Perkins family while I do admit it does pick up in the second half it's still not very good. For a start why were that couple trying to make a deal with the killer Goblin? Do Goblins understand English? Did they not think it might just kill both of them & take the baby anyway? The final plan to kill the Goblin wasn't that well thought out & sounded like Nikki just had to stand there as bait while no-one decided what to do once the Goblin showed up. Also why did the Goblin go after & kill the teens in the woods? Wasn't it's purpose to take babies? None of them had babies or were hiding babies or had anything to do with babies so why randomly kill them?

Although Goblin is meant to be set during Halloween everyone is wearing summer clothing, also much of Goblin takes place during broad daylight which does nothing to build the tension or suspense. While the Goblin is definitely a monster the makers decided to place a cloak over him for most of the film so there are scenes of this cloaked figured chasing teens around the woods that feel more like a slasher than a creature feature but the cloak does come off eventually & while the special effects vary from poor to average the Goblin looks alright for the most part. There's a bit of gore which is really the only thing stopping me from rating Gobin a one, a guy's head is crushed, a girl is seen ripped in half with her guts strewn everywhere & there's some blood splatter & spurts.

Probably shot on the usual low budget Goblin looks alright, much of the film takes place inside the same cabin & stretch of woods though. Filmed in British Columbia in Canada. The acting is about the same for this type of film, nothing special & no-ones going to win any awards.

Goblin is yet another routine creature feature from the Sy-Fy Channel that isn't as bad as some of the crap it makes but in the grand scheme of things you can do without seeing it. If you can get through the first half then you might find the second half better but overall it's a difficult film to recommend.
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