Gargoyle Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Once thought banished forever, winged, fire-spitting creatures are resurrected and immediately begin wreaking havoc on a port city.
Romanian village was under siege by the carnivore gargoyle long time ago, but fortunately the inhabitants engraved the monster into the tough tomb. Nowadays the tomb is wrecked by an earthquake and the evil breaks loose. Two CIA agents (Kate Orsini and Michael Pare) must solve the series of brutal murders being sent to Bucharest to investigate a kidnapping. As the agents and the townspeople look for a way to kill the monster, they also become aware of a coven of vampires who are doing their evil affairs in town.
| Michael Paré | Ty "Griff" Griffin |
| Sandra Hess | Jennifer Wells |
| Fintan McKeown | Father Nikolai Soren |
| Kate Orsini | Dr. Christina Durant |
| Tim Abell | Lex |
| William Langlois | Inspector Zev Aslan |
| Petri Roega | Father Adrian Bodesti |
| Rene Rivera | Gogol |
| Arthur Roberts | Bishop |
| Jason Rohrer | Richard Barrier |
| Mihai Bisericanu | Gregor |
| Bogdan Uritescu | Zero |
| Claudiu Trandafir | Boris |
| Cristi Groza | Ionut |
| Lewis Cojocar | Yuri |
| Jim Wynorski |
3.80 out of 10 (297 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Probably the worst movie of the year… in any aspect.
posted on 20 May 2009I will not spoil your surprise by mentioning any of the hideous plot lines, I'll just say that this movie suffers from poor animation, over acting, obvious tag lines… these are some of it's good qualities. if you are deserted on an isolated island and the only link to civilization you got is this movie throw it to the fish. I can't tell you how much I'm sorry I saw this horrifying ghastly movie. Speaking of which, this movie supposedly a horror movie cannot be classified as such for the simple fact that the only horror in the movie is the playing capabilities of some of the actors.Take care.
and yet "Gargoyle" may not be the worst film I was in that year
posted on 12 May 2009I don't think I'm spoiling anyone's experience of this film by telling you not to see it if you have anything better to do, like clean under the stove. It gets dirty under there and you've gotta clean it sometime. I think the movie suffers from a lack of sex and violence, though there is one car chase stunt that looks so dangerous it could only have been filmed in a country where life is cheaper than beer. "Gargoyle"'s heart is in the right place, but its aspirations are conservative. It is at least not pretentious. But I had a great time acting in it, playing the perennial idiot in the horror movie who says "What's down this hole?" and dies for his hubris. Plus I got to meet Michael Pare. Every film junkie should work with a B-movie staple at least once before death. And Romanians are the loveliest people I've met. Literally the loveliest. Walk down the street in Bucarest: if 7 of every 10 women aren't absolutely beautiful, you're walking down a street I didn't come across; and be consoled by the fact that at least 5 of the 10 are available for drinks.Part of the film was shot in Casa Radio, an abandoned, unfinished Classic Communist Bloc-cum-Georgian Nightmare edifice originally intended to house KGB propaganda ministries, i.e. Radio Not-so-Free Europe. The building's five stories tall and takes up a city block; best of all, while its facade radiates Big Brotheresque state solidity, it resides near the city center like a post-apocalyptic ruin in a jungle of burdock and hemp peopled by dozens of Gypsies and scores of wild dogs. Construction on Casa Radio was suspended when Caucescu and his wife were executed on TV in 1989, and still there are gaping holes that drop from the sun-baked top floor (offering surreal vistas of a modern quarter-mile stretch of concrete roof, decorated with jutting rebar and old car parts, overlooking a crumbling ancient city) all the way down to the damp, creepy sub-basement (which doubles in the film for the Gargoyle lair.) No American-style guardrails or warning signs for Bucarest. Since the demise of the Soviet Union, Casa Radio has hosted several non-union film shoots, including "Highlander III". It is attractive to producers because it's a cheap location, massive in terms of scale and available space, bizarre looking, and free of insurance headaches as it's still state property. Plus no one complains if you don't clean up after your production: anything left onsite is interpolated into the resident Gypsies' construction of their shanty town in this actual urban jungle. An assistant director was bitten bloody by a wild dog during the shoot of "Gargoyle". The apples provided by catering were pressed into service by cast and crew as projectiles in order to keep the prowling dogs at bay. I too was bitten by wild dogs in Bucarest, once in a bar (!) and once in a city park. I also survived two car wrecks in two weeks, both in taxis and neither of which was seen by the drivers involved as grounds for stopping the cars.GEEK NOTE: The Sci-Fi Network or Channel or whatever was one of the backers of this film (the smaller the budget, the more producers on set), so it's a little weird that nobody had a problem with the original title, "Gargoyles", until it was almost time to show it on the network, even though Sci-Fi already had an unrelated series of that name. The title was changed sometime relatively close to release, as I have a color-corrected copy labeled with the former title.
"Crap, crap, crap, megacrap"--J. Jonah Jameson
posted on 13 Mar 2009This is just one of the hundred million movies where the directors try to shove too much drama into a movie that's not dramatic at all. Like in the beginning, the part where the monk dude shoved the arrow into his own hand, then shot that same arrow into the gargoyle five minutes later--no sense whatsoever.The only thing worse than the plot line is the CGI, which would be greatly rivaled by a homemade flash movie. The actors look like they're doing their hardest to portray a bunch of 70's robots; the dialogue makes so little sense it's not funny.Many things just HAPPEN with no explanation as to how or why, such as a lady suddenly wandering around a zoo that had shut down hours ago. And when she sees this THING flying towards her, her first reaction is to take a picture, rather than what she does a full ten minutes later---power-walking (not even running) like her life depended on it--which, obviously, it doesn't.Overall, not recommended. Makes me wish they still did new episodes of MST3K.
Not bad of its sort
posted on 06 Jan 2009This is a cheap and cheerful monster movie - you know that going in.And given where it's pitched, it's not too bad. It is, of course, full of the usually idiotic nonsense - cops/agents who empty a magazine into a creature and, having noted that there is no effect whatsoever, decide that the best thing to do (obviously) is empty another magazine. And another. And another. Then you've got the priest who, you just know, must be batting for the other side. Then you've got...Clichés. But you were expecting them, weren't you? The two agents, straightforward X-Files clones, are both somewhat wooden, which is a shame, because most of the rest of the cast isn't bad.The effects themselves are much better than cheap and cheerful CGI often is.This movie gets a resounding "could be much worse" and if that comes across as damning with faint praise then that's unfortunate, because the film is better than that.
Half and half
posted on 27 Dec 2008Some CIA types travel to Romania to look into a kidnapping. What they find is an ancient evil reborn, in the form of a gargoyle. Not a bad plot, and the movie starts out with a sense of mystery and dread even though we know this resurrected gargoyle is the real culprit. Michael Pare is the lead, and he is as wooden as ever. The gargoyle itself is pretty effective, better than a lot of other CGI creations. The Romanian backdrops are used to decent effect, but in the end the movie proves yet another Sci-Fi Channel dog. There is a gargoyle movie from the 1960s or early '70s with Cornel Wilde that puts this baby to shame, even with far less sophisticated special effects (the gargoyle is a man in a rubber suit, for instance).
Gargoyle-Wings of Darkness
posted on 11 Dec 2008Underneath a Romanian Catholic church's graveyard lies a breeding ground of eggs containing gargoyles an evil priest is harvesting for Armegeddon as the mother creature is out flying the skies looking for victims to munch on. Michael Paré and Sandra Hess are American agents working on a case regarding a criminal who was snatched away by the mother gargoyle monster, trying to determine what had caused his death, among a string of attacks concerning the beast. Kate Orsini is an art curator helping to restore and modernize the Catholic church where creepy corrupt priest Fintan McKeown is secretly working against his clergy hoping to unleash an army of hatched gargoyles on an unsuspecting public. Petri Roega is a priest sent by the Vatican to replace McKeown and indeed knows what his plans are. Paré will hook up with Orsini after reporting to her after learning about her missing co-workers..in their search for truth regarding bizarre crime scenes and elaborate pictures of gargoyles found in a book of study on McKeown's desk(..not to mention Orsini's discovery of a missing painting hidden in the Catholic church she is working on containing a gargoyle)they will soon learn about a special crossbow and blood-blessed arrows meant to use on the mother gargoyle sweeping down and snatching human food. Tim Abell, a Wynorski regular, has a supporting role as Lex, a showman who passes himself off as a cult leader of vampirism finding a devoted following of goth-obsessed flunkies who frequent his club for kicks. Abell sees himself what the gargoyle can do when it swoops down taking out a gang of thugs who wish to take over Bucharest's streets. Another Wynorski regular Arthur Roberts has a small role as a Bishop who lives within the ruins of a castle on the outskirts of Bucharest who holds the special crossbow and gives knowledge to Paré and Orsini regarding the gargoyle on the loose.Serious creature feature from Wynorski plays it completely straight unlike his usual efforts, certainly relies heavily on computer generated monsters which look more like giant bats when cloaked in the darkness of night or within the catacombs underneath the graveyard. Wynorski does, when given a chance, direct films geared towards fans of sci-fi/horror/action, but rarely has sufficient funds to finance a feature with superior special effects. When the gargoyle charges towards the camera, that's when the computer generated effects are truly exposed. Wynorski actually focuses more on plot than usual with a cast keeping a straight face with Paré coasting on his charisma. I think fans of Sci-fi channel monster movies will find this better than most of their usual fare, but I'm not sure that's an insult or a compliment for Wynorski's movie. I love gargoyles, but even the finest CGI monster would pale in comparison to the animatronic wonders created by the ingenuity and artistic skill of the crew for the "Lover's Vow" tale in Tales from the Darkside-The Movie(1990). Like other directors who wish not to give their correct name in the directorial credit, Wynorski uses the alias of Jay Andrews. The movie doesn't really separate itself from the gluttony of monster movies that have populated Sci-fi channel over the years so don't expect any really big surprises.
The gargoyles deserve to take the earth
posted on 24 Jun 2008In this movie, the gargoyles deserve to take the earth. It feels like they're the only one taking this whole movie seriously.The premise of the film is gargoyles which are mythical creature; they fall somewhere between demons, bats, dragons but just looks like a meaner Dracula in the bat form from Van Helsing. These gargoyles then meaninglessly kill a lot of people. And, it's up to our hero to save the day and the world.The CGI is awesome and it's stuff right out of "Van helsing" with the bat/human flying creature and the countless spawns flying around. The sets are awesome. The action scenes and car chases are tight.But, the acting is really bad. The way the movie is between the action scenes is really bad. Also, the story is really bad. But, the gargoyles are really mean and they do some really cool stuff.The main action here's lethargic way of dialog makes him seem dumb; the blond girl doesn't look sexy enough or forceful enough - she just feels ordinary and without an interesting character; the girl who plays the scientist doesn't really act like one. This is really low on quality in the genre of monster movies - except for the monster itself. Not really worth watching.
A fun monster movie with beautiful sets.
posted on 25 Dec 2007This is yet another Gutter grade "B" movie, exactly the type I like.The CGI is a bit better then average for this style of campy low budget movie, and certainly watchable. The gore is minimal but effective. This movie has a real great car chase in the opening 15 min, and the Church sets are mouth dropping beautiful,Romania must be a beautiful place.Michel pare is a bit wooden in this but watchable (I always thought we would make it into the big league...oh well). The rest of the cast are watchable and capable actors, the dialog can be a bit stiff, but who cares? The story was fun and pretty fast paced.The action good, and the gargoyles, for the budget just fine.Worth a watch.
Gargoyles have waited patiently to TAKE BACK THE EARTH
posted on 27 Nov 2007Michael Pare brings a believable hero to this screamer.The special effects were awesome. Tim Abell as a anti-hero looks like Aragorn from LOTR.Lots of religious connotations,really it reeks of honesty in story-telling.NO SEX, on Sci-Fi Channel debut...Maybe on DVD or VHS.The women are very pretty and serve as unwilling victims,actually 2 leads are strong in personality.Think it was filmed in Romania,The church and graveyard...Why,did they let you borrow for important scenes ?Wynorski is probably at his most potent as a director ,this time out. I throughly enjoyed this movie,and almost wish I could give Earth back to the Gargoyles.
Special Agent Gargoyle at your service
posted on 25 Nov 2007*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*The CIA has their hands full with a high profile kidnapping. Special Agent Gargoyle comes to the rescue. Anytime there was any trouble, a shootout on a rooftop for example, the Gargoyle would swoop down in the nick of time. He was a very patriotic monster. Here to serve. And eat lots of people. Soon the CIA will hunt it down as priests and Gargoyles do battle over the fate of the entire world. Exciting eh?"Gargoyles" is a B-movie all the way. It throws in all the clichés it can. Car chases, spies, shootouts and a large computer generated Gargoyle. As these things go, "Gargoyles" wasn't too bad. It didn't make me want to kill myself. So that's a good thing. I was a little surprised that there wasn't any nudity. One of the CIA agents was a babe as was another doctor character. Agent Babe and Dr. Hot stuff. Clearly, this was the one B-movie element that was missing. The Gargoyle was flying around buck naked but it wasn't as satisfying.
Bad gargoyle no Acting!
posted on 20 Sep 2007OK now i love a good b horror flick as much as the next guy but this was just so below par. It starts off in the past where we find out the or-gin of the gargoyles and then moves to the present where they are making a comeback and attacking various people in Romania where oddly enough no one speaks Romanian. Acting = very bad for the most part. Stilted dialog and bad writing has the actor contradicting themselves almost ever five minutes. Direction= that was not so bad but could have been tightened a bit. effects= The effects were not bad and in a better movie would have worked fine.Rules of B movie watching i thought i would share to help others avoid really bad movies. (If i had listened to my own rules i would have avoided this one myself)1. Avoid any film with Michael pare in it. He just can't act and he is never in any film worth seeing. 2. Avoid films made between Russia and America. They just seem to suck at a consistent rate and don't show any signs of improving.
Really bad
posted on 04 Jul 2007Jim Wynorski usually provides us with some excellent cheese, but this time he really let me down. This movie gets a failing grade in just about every category. The lead actor, Michael Pare, gives a completely wooden and disinterested performance. The two main actresses, though nice to look at, have a minimum of personality and aren't in the film nearly as much as they needed to be. The special effects are actually okay towards the middle of the film, but laughable at the start. So are the action sequences. The gargoyles show up right on cue - as soon as someone mentions a gargoyle in conversation, here comes a gargoyle! The opening sequence is really goofy beyond belief. ***MINOR SPOILERS***A gargoyle is shot with a magic arrow, and it falls to earth, falling right INTO the earth, creating a perfectly round hole. Luckily, there's a boulder just a few feet away that's the perfect size to fill the hole, and even more luckily it's a very light boulder, and a few people have no trouble rolling it around. A couple of people disappear, and our lead actor is called in to investigate. Does he look for them? No. He takes a short stroll and then quits. If he'd actually conducted a thorough search, he would probably have discovered what happened to them. That sequence is pretty indicative of how this film is laid out. On the good side, I liked the theme music. It's pretty spooky at times. I actually think I heard something reminiscent of that Ave Satanis music from The Omen in one part. Unfortunately the spooky music isn't matched by anything spooky taking place on screen. The sets are also quite nice, one of them being an old church in Romania.But that's not nearly enough to save this stinker. It's bad, but not in the "so bad it's good" way. It would have needed at least two good sex scenes with lots of gratuitous nudity to achieve that goal.
Gargoyles? That should increase tourism!
posted on 12 Aug 2006Bleak but well-intended video horror set in Romania (there's always a sinister story to tell there) and focusing on an ancient type of Catholic demons. The Gargoyles, humanoid monsters with bat DNA, were extinct for almost 500 years but now they're breeding like bunnies again in the catacombs underneath an old Romanian cemetery. A couple of CIA-agents, who're in the country for an American kidnapping-case, go after them. There's not much originality in the script and the poor computer-engineered monster effects fail to impress as well. Still, this is a moderately entertaining B-movie with enthusiastic acting performances and some cheesy dialogue ("It's ALWAYS better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven"). There's a semi-ingenious twist near the end and the gargoyles' breeding process is a clean "Alien" rip-off. Naturally, you can't expect too much from this type of cheap film-making.
Qutie Fun, and Done with Heart
posted on 01 Jul 2006I was surprised by this work. Although told poorly, this video venture features an intriguing, well-developed story. Quite frankly, the film quality was poor; the CGI was choppy and ineffectual; the dialog ranged from campy to crappy; the performances were cute but inexperienced; and what was supposed to be witty repartee between the two CIA agents came off as glib and overdone.So why watch this? Purely for the story. It draws you in and wraps you up in its membranous gargoyle wings. It entertains. It amuses. It tries, without trying too hard, or ever taking itself too seriously, which enables you to find the humor in it without feeling the need to laugh at it, and allows you to enjoy it without feeling the compunction to add it to your "guilty pleasures" category.All in all, we had fun with it, though it is NOT a Friday/Saturday night movie. Watch it when it rains and all is dark.It rates an 8.2/10 on the B scale, which is somewhere around a 5.4/10 on the A scale, from...the Fiend :.
Not as good as porn
posted on 25 Jun 2006This movie is like porn with all of the good parts removed. It's like all of the porn stars that didn't want to fulfill their obligations banded together around this awful, trite, useless piece of gargoyle abstinence.This is a helpful movie if you're in the mood to torture a loved (or no longer loved) one. It's important that, if you choose to use this movie as a method of torture, that you put in earplugs and put on a blindfold to keep yourself from going insane.If I had a choice between this movie and The 700 Club...I'd choose Girls Gone Wild.Overall, better if you've been drinking. But only because it becomes a drinking game of epic proportions.
Don't you just love B-movies?
posted on 28 Apr 2006A GARGOYLE is unleashed from it's earthly prison & upon it's release, makes trouble for the local citizens when it swoops down to take them home for a late night snack. The only thing that's standing in it's way, is two FBI agents, whom discover that their going to need something much stronger than bullets to stop it. To make matters worse for them, the creature has laid eggs, when it was in it's underground prison & their ready to hatch. Can the good guys save the day? or will the whole earth become lunch meat to these evil creatures?. Fun B-movie from JIM WYNORSKI, going under the name JAY ANDREWS for some reason, much like he did with CURSE OF THE KOMODO & like that film, this one is also filled with CGI monsters & a sense of cheesiness thrown in for good measure. There's a few neat twists towards the climax as well, that I never saw coming & the ending also leaves a set up for a sequel. So if you're looking for a fun cheesy horror or science fiction film, then Gargoyles should do the trick...But only if you're into cheesy monster movies! *** (stars)
A Real Hoot!
posted on 14 Apr 2006I gave this film 7 stars out of a possible 10 -- not because the film is good if compared to really good films -- but it is good for this type of film--ye olde formula monster flick.You get exactly what you expect with this film. If you like these types of films then you'll enjoy Gargoyles.The characters are basically just there in order to supply some insipid dialog and keep the story rolling along. They are the typical characters found in these types of films.There's the big, old, gloomy, spooky Catholic church, two priests involved in one way or another with the gargoyle problem, some suitably gloomy, spooky tunnels underneath a monastery, and an old, old graveyard.The gargoyles are well done, neat special effects, and the right people always get snatched by the monster, but except for one scene where we see a headless body still standing with some blood on the end of it's neck and shoulders -- the rest of it is done off camera.There's really nothing in this film that I would think anyone would find disturbing. Its just a film to have fun with on a Sunday afternoon.
HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAAAAA
posted on 15 Mar 2006Now I've seen some REALLY bad horror films in my time. But Gargoyles managed to hit the top ten of stinkers from the first 5 minutes....What was going through the director's mind when filming/casting the actors(actors...hahahaha) i really wonder...it's a shame that animators actually wasted time creating the CG graphics for the creatures cause they were quite decent but totally ridiculed by the directing of the action sequences...Enough said....this film is not even worth reviewing...HIGHLY recommended as a COMEDY film...this will bring tears to your eyes...:)
Much worse than you would have expected.
posted on 03 Mar 2006As a die-hard fan of "B" sci-fi flicks, I have seen lots of pretty bad ones. This one somehow really disappointed me. It had a ring of implausibility about it that transcended the weak creature effects that looked like they were from the '50s. From the opening CIA "ambush" with everyone sitting out in the open and using Kalshnikoffs as sniper weapons and having the blonde agent (who did the only credible job of acting in the movie) whip out a pistol and shoot it out with the kidnappers through the obligatory attacks on random people in the dark (all the better to hide my bad effects, my dear!) to the trite and relatively simple dispatching of all of the hordes with a single, amazingly powerful hand grenade the movie never had a plausible scene. The female "scientist" had no personality and played a brainless bimbo. Even the villainous priest was more tiresome than he was threatening. And since when does the CIA investigate missing persons reports anywhere, let alone Romania?You are not going to connect with the characters here, nor with the story line. Perhaps you will become fond of the cartoonish gargoyles.
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Hilarious childish attempt of a SF thriller
posted on 05 Jun 2009This movie is interesting maybe for 10 year old children, between 2 Pokemon cartoons series… It's so stupid that defies a logical explanation why was it even produced.Oh, the initiative of an American-Romanian movie is welcome, as Hollywood can generate an improvement in the quality of our local productions, but NOT LIKE THIS! This joke of a movie has so many goofs in it that I've considered it as a comedy rather than a thriller after I've seen the first 5 minutes of it.For instance, the gargoyles weren't even hared of in Romania before the last 15 years, when we got access to western literature and movies; there are no Romanian legends mentioning them or anything like them. About Vlad Tepes (a.k.a. Dracula) there are many legends, but none related to vampires or gargoyles, these are all western fantasies. And I don't have room here to describe all the mistakes and errors that are all too obvious in the movie and cannot be excused, regardless of the story or artistic interpretation.The only white balls for this movie would be some nice special effects (but nothing impressive) and a few beautiful ladies that will catch the bored eyes of any male viewer…I've rated this movie with 5 points: 3 points for the movie and the other 2 for the beautiful actresses that kept me watching the whole hour and a half of this bad SF joke called "Gargoyles"…