Reign of the Gargoyles (2007 TV Movie) User Reviews

Ridiculous

[Enchorde · 3/10 · 4 December 2009]

Recap: A thousand years ago, some pagans summoned Vorthorn, lord of the gargoyles, and unleashed his terror on the world. They managed to defeat him, but now a secret Nazi commando has awoken him again. Now it is up to some American flyers and British airborne rangers, trapped behind enemy lines to defeat him once again.

Comments: The only thing that saves this movie is the realization that it must have been a low budget production designed to fill time on a the Sci-Fi Channel. Because otherwise, this was seriously bad. The idea behind the story is ridiculous, evil Nazis summoning flying demons that are even more evil. Which naturally leads to that the American Bomber flyers happen to find themselves in the middle of it.

Unfortunately they don't have any good CGI to support the story, or distract the audience with some spectacular scenes. The monsters are very plastic, moving stiffly and just looking awkward. What is worse is that now and again the actors interaction with these CGI monsters are completely out of sync. Sometimes they face the completely wrong way, when a two meter monster stands behind them screaming.

Some few known faces surprisingly appeared. It was a long time ago Joe Penny and John Ashton where in the big titles. And it shows why. But it was nice, maybe the best part of the entire movie, to remember their prime days.

Otherwise, Stay clear.

3/10

Reign of Fire meets SS Doomtrooper :)

[siderite · 4/10 · 1 October 2007]

There is hardly anything left to say; the title says it all. Crappy CGI (a bit better than average for SciFi channel) meets silly cardboard characters. And cardboard wins because CGI is virtual! It's like one of those Santa Claus and a smart beautiful blonde jokes.

Anyway, with the limited, but larger than average budget they could have chosen one of the thousands of good scripts floating out there. No, they chose a story where German sadists try to kill brave Americans helped by the beautiful French resistance girl. Oh, and there are gargoyles around. Puh-lease!

Bottom line: total waste of time. Not bad enough to count. Not good enough... for anything ;)

A baffling movie

[Fatherandersonthepaladin · 3/10 · 27 April 2011]

This movie really is just baffling. It has a few good scenes, and honestly, I'm usually a sucker for any movie set in WWII, but I'll make an exception for this one.

First off, the actors have the acting ability of a cardboard standee. That just makes for a horrible movie no matter what you do. Second, there are inexplicable mistakes in the form of anachronisms that just blow it straight out of the water (example: the French Resistance girl somehow magically possessing a Mosin Nagant carbine (never available to France, or anywhere other than Finland and Russia during WWII), the Sten guns firing from a closed bolt, the SAS uniforms being completely wrong, and the MP40's with a 2mm bore diameter).

Did I mention the use of a MORTAR round to take down a plane? How about the fact that the Germans, confronted by an enemy, wait until he picks up a discarded MP40 and starts shooting at them before they attempt to do anything to stop him (and yes, they're standing there, weapons ready, staring at him the whole time)? Overall, if you need a decent laugh at the expense of some Nazis, I'd recommend this movie. Otherwise, I'd recommend avoiding it like the plague.

Nice idea but botched execution

[lorenellroy · 3 October 2007]

Given the well documented interest of the Nazi party hierarchy in the occult -Hitler and Himmler especially -it is a minor pity that so few supernaturally themed movies or science fiction movies have taken this as a starting point ."The Keep" , a pretentious rambling Michael Mann movie and the altogether better if more modest Trancers apart it remains a relatively unexplored area for genre cinema.Reign of the Gargoyles does tackle this subject and makes a decent if somewhat undercooked stab at it Nazi scientists are able to resurrect stone demons and set them loose in an attempt to sabotage Allied attacks on the Central European heartland .An American aircrew is dispatched to try to discover what is going on ,and are brought down by an attack of these winged demons .They combine with a small local partisan band to destroy the creatures ,and this involves locating a sacred spear from the grave of a long dead knight who had originally imprisoned the demons some time in the Middle Ages The problem is a lack of quality in the special effects ,which are workmanlike rather than exceptional and a cast of unknowns whose talent is such they are likely to stay that way .The script is underpowered and allows for little or no character development The location photography is good however and makes good use of the bleak ,wintry landscape to give an eerie and edgy look to the picture

A bigger effects budget and sharper scripting would have made this a better movie .As it is ,what we have is an okay picture which just fails to do justice to its premise

Nazis... forget the Nazis.

[lost-in-limbo · 4/10 · 19 August 2008]

I guess it could've have been worse. The straight-to-TV presentation 'Rein of the Gargoyles' mildly entertains, but artificially dodgy CGI effects and pompous dialogues really do shoot it down. Bad computer visuals are one thing, but that script had me giggling and groaning at the same time. Too many random inspirational speeches, than explanations about the topic at hand or that of the Nazi's involvement in the occult had me wincing. The concept behind the film (An American airborne crew involved in WW2 in Eastern Europe find out that they have more to worry about than Nazis when they encounter Gargoyles, and join forces with resistance fighters to achieve the sacred spear that vanquished these gargoyles centuries ago) has something strong to go on, but alas it's given weak treatment and slaps in a stew of war clichés. Soon the mythological side is drowned out, and the interest begins to peter out. I can't knock its spirit though, and the locations and time period was well-shaped in presenting a dreary, war-torn backdrop. Performances fair up with no-one really standing out or overplaying it. However those accents (namely the Germans) were terrible, as if they were straining too hard. Joe Penny was dependably stalwart and Wes Ramsey is fine as the go-getter. No one really takes it entirely serious (even the script), but it doesn't fall away for any cheap laughs or a lighter tone of self-consciousness. The action is slight, and small. Sadly the gargoyles cop the brunt of it. Too little screen time, same for those Nazis who brought them to life. Sometimes the vigorous activity felt like something out of a video game, as the camera bobbed up and down. Moments do work, like atmospheric imagery in a graveyard. But really it's non-effective and flaky, despite its efforts. An okay time-waster… nothing more.

Almost Exceeded All Expectations

[Theo Robertson · 5/10 · 23 February 2013]

This is one of these movies that gets frequently broadcast on the SyFy Channel . You can understand why someone might do their best to avoid watching it but as so often happens there's absolutely nothing else on so it was either REIGN OF THE GARGOYLES or having to watch a movie I'd seen several times before and had commentated on it on this site . After all I'm amongst friends at the IMDb and I can always share my opinions amongst my friends here

The general consensus on this page is that REIGN OF THE GARGOYLES is better than most of the films produced by the SyFy Channel which is admittedly faint praise but some people have qualified this by stating it's almost a good film in its own right and contains a couple of good scenes . There's certainly contains the bare bones of a good film and one wonders if a film containing some downed pilots and SAS soldiers behind enemy lines during WW2 might have been better pitched to one of the major Hollywood studios . Indeed a cross genre mixing war and monsters starring Jeremy Renner , James McAvoy and Olga Kurylenko probably wouldn't break box office records but it'd certainly make a great night out at the multiplex . This SyFy production is let down by two major things

First of all is the budget . You want flying Gargoyles , squadrons of planes and explosions . No problem for a Hollywood studio with a lot of cheque books , but a very big problem for SyFy who can only realise these sequences via ... go on guess ? I'll give you a three letter clue - CGI . The unfortunate thing because there's so many CGI sequences the budget for it is spread very thinly which means it's often worse than you see in this type of production . It also seems to bite in to other aspects such as sequences where characters fire their weapons is it's patently obvious that the actors are just shaking their props around

The second thing is the amount of errors made concerning military matters and timeliness .Early a character talks of UFOs and flying saucers terminology that wouldn't have existed in 1944 . We also see SAS troopers with British Parachute regiment insignia and berets and over-sized B-17 Flying Fortress interiors where the crew have no need for oxygen and are happy to fly 20,000 feet in dress uniforms without suffocating or succumbing to minus 20 degree temperatures

In summary REIGN OF THE GARGOYLES is a mediocre film but one recognises that with a bigger budget and a bit more thought this would have been a fairly enjoyable piece of pop corn entertainment . Perhaps if Hollywood is thinking of doing a mixed genre film featuring monsters and the war with an international cast they could watch this film seeing the obvious contrast in what works and what doesn't

Gargoyles hunt G.I.Joe

[MartianOctocretr5 · 5/10 · 8 November 2009]

Some hot shot WWII pilots are flying around, rattling off some old 40's movie dialog. Suddenly, some flying creatures with sticky feet attach themselves to the planes' wings. Then they destroy the planes and go away for a while. Then they come back and do it again. Nazis have unleashed a bunch of gargoyles, in some cult legend practice nobody ever heard of before. They want to use the monsters to conquer the world but the things just croak them too. Oh, and meanwhile, Allied and Nazi forces have battles.

This film tosses around bits and pieces of war and horror genre stuff, and loosely fits it all together. Some attempt is made to tell a creative story; there is an evil-encounters-evil motif about the modern Nazis and their ancient cultist counterparts. Acting is strong enough, but character development is minimal. Lots of violent action, but little explanation of why the gargoyles are so anti-social. CGI looks to have been done by students in a "Computer for Dummies" class. The ending is unintentionally funny. Overall; about average for SyFy channel; good fast food fluff if you're in the mood for some cheap entertainment.

Horrible

[daddykingpig · 1/10 · 20 October 2007]

If I could give this a 0 then that would be too good for a movie like this. Most of the dialoge used is wrong. More for today then 1944 or 1945. When got dumb writers you get a dumb movie. Nazis animating anything would be a major event. I knew after 10 minutes this was pure Sci-Fi channel crap. I love the Sci=Fi channel, but their movies suck. They have a big build up and then show junk. Actors were cardboard, scenes were made up. It was just horrible to endure. Take it from a WW 2 historian they got it wrong in every way possible. It was just a throw together and hope somebody watches it. One of truly the worst movies ever made.

Fun In Spite Of Itself

[FiendishDramaturgy · 5/10 · 14 November 2007]

The animation here is HORRID, and the story is lacking, but the performances are what drives this Sci-Fi Channel original. The dialog is hokey, but the delivery is about as good as it gets. These guys at least make you believe they and their situation is meaningful ... at least to them. Most of these movies are done with an almost tongue-in-cheek delivery as if the film not only does not take itself too seriously, but the actors are making FUN of it while, at the same time, drawing a check for doing it.

This dreck-fest at least showed some heart. There are a couple of places where the performances made you forget (if only momentarily) that this was a typical "B" flick.

All in all? It was enjoyable, in spite of itself, and showed some real heart. Tom Penny was an asset this time. While it is NOT fit for Friday/Saturday night viewing, it is still more fun that first imagined.

It rates a 7.2/10 on the "B" scale, which is around a 4.6/10 on the "A" Scale, from...

the Fiend :.

The Nazi's summon a horde of killer Gargoyles.

[clover-cat · 3/10 · 13 January 2008]

Interesting to read comments about this film picking holes in the correct way for a WWII SAS officer to wear their beret when there are hundreds of (below average) CGI Gargoyles running around. A bit like having a go at Star Wars because Chewbacca does not have split ends. The film is straight to DVD/Sci-Fi Schlock and there are thousands of other similar movies out there which take themselves a lot more seriously and are more in need of being deflated. The film tries hard and does quite well considering it must be low budget. A more interesting goof is the comment that the holder of the Spear of Destiny was buried like a commoner and then watching the heroes breaking into his tomb - hardly the resting place of a commoner. Nice comment earlier about NAZI interest in the supernatural and mention of the excellent THE KEEP but add to the list RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and HELLBOY.

Stock characters, wooden acting :(

[ursapater · 5/10 · 24 March 2007]

I'm afraid that like most Sci Fi original series this movie is mediocre at best. It just doesn't have any spark. I wish that I could point out some major flaw, but there really isn't any. Stock characters; evil Nazis's,nasty monsters, valiant ally soldiers and partisans. Whee! But the characters just spin their wheels. They practically have labels stamped on them. The VALIANT FLYING FORTRESS PILOT mouths a few words about how he idolizes Lindberg thereby establishing that he's a good egg and an all American joe. I'd love to see Sci Fi channel try to have subtle, nuanced characters for once. There's so much unbelievably good Sci Fi out there. Heinlein, Brin, Asimov, LeGuin, Niven, I could go on. Still, I hope that they keep trying.

Fine Science Fiction and WWII Film

[dianerpessler-46164 · 10/10 · 10 August 2015]

Powerful science fiction film from gifted director Ayton Davis, this is not the usual SyFy production. With careful attention to period detail and the creation of strong characters, Davis brings both the era and atmosphere of the Second World War to life. The special effects are extraordinary and some sequences are absolutely haunting in their imagery. The scene where an ME-109 is challenged with only a mortar is one of the most exciting ever filmed. Joe Penny gives one of his most effective performances in years as the battle hardened Gus, a man who has seen far too much combat but still answers the call of duty. The Germans are depicted as more than an enemy in this motion picture and it is made clear they regret deeply they have unleashed and uncontrollable and ultimately unholy evil.

Wes Ramsey

[Cindy91 · 7/10 · 24 March 2007]

Wow, can this dude be any cuter???? Upon viewing, it is obvious that he is quite talented; however, blessedly, he is also "gifted." There are a lot of actors out there--a LOT--and to rise above the rest enough to be noticed at all is quite an accomplishment. H has worked in television, theatre, and film, and is destined (I believe) for an admirable career. He started with "Charmed" (in my book, anyway, because I had not seen his previous work), and was impressive even before that in "Latter Days".... my gosh, the guy is so OUT THERE! However, despite (or, in addition to) his obvious talents (which, admittedly, many actors possess), THIS ACTOR is quite diversified. If you watch his acting, you will see how "into-it" he gets... he is exceedingly believable. From "The Guiding Light" to "Dark Honeymoon," not even taking into account this performance in "Reign of the Gargoyles," this guy has shown his acting prowess. Fellows like him have to fight against their looks, and I think he still has to do that, but he is definitely on his way.

My husband, a military man, was understandably hesitant to give "Gargoyles" a shot, but was pretty impressed with the final result and admittedly humbled by the experience. Give this movie a shot if you are a WW2 fan, a Wes fan, or even a symbiotic-drive dramatist. He delivers.

I wish him luck and good fortune.

Very bad but I've seen worse from the Sci-Fi Channel

[TheLittleSongbird · 3/10 · 28 December 2012]

I'll admit it and say that I dislike, even hate, most of the movies from the Sci-Fi Channel, with a couple of exceptions. If you're wondering why I keep watching them, it is mainly because there is something compulsively watchable about them in how awful they are. I also try and watch any movie of any genre and age regardless of the critical and audience consensus. I was expecting very little from Reign of the Gargoyles, and in the end I got very little. It does have a good idea, and the acting from Joe Penny, John Ashton and Wes Ramsey is alright but not great. However, that is it for any redeeming qualities. The editing is very choppy, the lighting dull and the sets too scaled-down. But on a visual front it was the special effects that fared the worst, the movements of the gargoyles are very stiff and in their design they look very crude. Considering that they do feature prominently in the movie, that is a major issue. The dialogue is as unnatural as the effects with a lot of talk but no flow, and apart from Penny, Ashton and Ramsey the rest of the acting stinks with the accents laughably fake. The story is energetically told I suppose, but much of it is unsurprising and veers into the face-palm-inducing ridiculous far too much. True, there is some conflict here but executed in a very clichéd way. The flying sequences have a great concept and not so bad in the action, but I would have enjoyed them more if the editing was better than it was. The characters are little more than walking cardboard cut-outs, in particular we learn absolutely nothing about the gargoyles. Overall, I have seen worse from the Sci-Fi Channel, but that doesn't stop Reign of the Gargoyles from being very bad. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Another loser from Sci-Fi Pictures

[Wizard-8 · 26 December 2009]

Sci-Fi Pictures has such an incredibly bad track record that I am amazed that they are still churning out movies. This effort by them does nothing to break their long streak. In fairness, I will admit that not everything was badly done. The locations were pretty convincing, and some of the sets were okay. And... uh...

...well, that's about it for what's decent here. Everything else is REALLY badly done. I won't get into details like the uniforms, which were clearly wrong to this viewer who isn't an expert on World War II details like this. I will rip into the movie's really bad CGI special effects. These poor special effects may explain why the killer gargoyles stay absent for most of the movie - hard to build terror when you don't see what is causing the terror. The characters were also pretty weak. Maybe I could excuse the East European actors for not having convincing British accents, but I could not excuse the movie for having not one memorable character. They all seemed to blend together.

Must I go on? If you have seen one Sci-Fi Pictures movie, you can guess just how awful this one will be before watching it.

Surely they could have cut in clips of Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi?

[boblipton · 2/10 · 16 November 2007]

You know the sort of thing in which they have Fred Astaire dancing with a vacuum cleaner? I mean, when you've got Nazis, World War Two Pilots and supernatural creatures and they're referring to UFOs at least three years before the term was coined.... well, it seems that someone has written a script by channeling the spirit of Raymond Shaver, then edited the text while hitting himself on the head.

There is some interesting casting. The actors playing the pilots are as young as they actually were. There is also some fine cinematography by Lorenzo Senatore, who needs to be noticed by a real film maker far, far away from the Sci Fi Channel. These strengths cannot begin to make up for the overemoting actors and insane High Concept script. Next time, guys, make sure you add in the gladiators.

What an awful movie.

[imdb-spam-23 · 1/10 · 25 March 2007]

This movie has an amateurish script with similar acting from most of the characters, both of which are enhanced by lousy directing. Only a lousy director would allow such crap to make it to the screen. For example, the protagonists (I refuse to use the word "hero") win a fire-fight against a group of Germans, killing them on sight, however, when the German leader shoots the respect US leader and holds a gun at a distance on the dying leader, they don't shoot him immediately, they wait until the German can call them a bunch of "flyboys". Elsewhere, three US soldiers recon a building, one of them doesn't have gun, so he picks up a rock, and the three have a noisy discussion about it.

The movie is riddled with horrible attempts to rally the audience. The special affects of the gargoyles are pretty good, but that is attributable to modern CG. Oddly, the young gargoyles are made of "flesh" (how?), but still explode with shot with any kind of ammo.

The story is riddled with stupid stories, the AF gunner that wants to be a pilot, the a-hole that becomes a leader and, most "impressively", can identify top-secret document within 1 second of seeing it.

Even for a bad movie, this is really bad. 88 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

Still more Sci-Fi Channel garbage that gives Sci-Fi a bad name

[themoviebuff2003 · 1/10 · 25 March 2007]

Actually, this had an interesting and little-used premise-that of the Nazis using sorcery/black magic to help them win World War 2. Yes, done in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Hellboy, but not much else, so I had slightly good hopes for it. I was wrong. The Nazis bring stone gargoyles to life, but are unable to control them, and the creatures begin to multiply and kill Germans as well as Americans and European freedom fighters. One of these days I'll get it through my head that 95% of Sci-Fi Channel's original movies are cheesy garbage, but I guess I'm not quite there yet. The cheesiest CGI I've seen in years, some of the worst direction , the worst acting, and stereotyped Nazi villains with bad accents abounded. The old TV movie GARGOYLES from the 70's was head and shoulders above this, so I'd imagine that should tell you something. What a comedown for an actor I always liked, Joe Penny (once of JAKE and the FAT MAN), who must have needed a new car or renovations to his house or something. I've already given it a one, only because I'm not allowed to give it a zero.

Who was the technical consultant

[freethrowguru · 1/10 · 28 October 2008]

What a true piece of garbage at every level. The uniforms were all messed up. Fabric billed garrison caps were used in the British Army not in the USAAC. All the trainees or gunners or what ever they were, wore infantry officer devices on their lapels not enlisted Air Corps insignia. The uniforms had epaulets that did not extend under the collar. An RAF officer was wearing the US Air Force Commendation Medal that was not yet even issued. An Army Air Corps colonel was wearing the Navy Cross. All the wings were gold not silver. I could not recognize what they were as close as I could tell they were similar to US Navy Crew wings. In addition the movie totally sucked. What a waste of money to produce this piece of junk.

Horrible to the max

[steveorr-01599 · 1/10 · 22 January 2021]

Not sure how anyone could find anything redeeming enough in this to warrant more than two stars. I found nothing.

Previous comments were correct about the stupidity of shooting a plane down with a mortar, German soldiers taking fire while not returning it and allowing a man to pick up a gun and shoot them while they just watched. My biggest bugaboo though were the gargoyles attacking flying planes while hovering. Hello. Even WWII planes had to be going at least 80?

Add in the young Han Solo type who doesn't know how to fly, yet gets a German plane into the air and he and one crew member survive about 100 of the monsters that had already taken down every squadron sent at them.

Horrible acting, stupid plot.

Par for the course

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 1 January 2022]

Another day, another cheapjack piece of trash from Sci Fi. This one's about a squad of US airmen who are downed in Nazi occupied Europe with killer gargoyles for company. Turns out that the Nazis have been researching the occult and doing all kinds of weird experiments. Sadly, this is mired in the usual cheesy FX, bad writing and awful acting, so very much par for the course.

Pretty Faces, Heroic Poses, Dramatic Lines, Stupid Story

[ETO_Buff · 3/10 · 14 February 2023]

Since it's sci-fi, the creators have a lot of latitude with the story. It's okay if watched with that in mind. It contains lots of pretty faces, heroic poses, dramatic lines, and the most incredible weapons skills. It is pretty amazing the way that a crash-landed B-17 crew handles a complete array of infantry weapons, including scoring a direct hit on an ME-109 with a single mortar round from the ground. Of course, every German Army officer has the SS Death's Head Division insignia on his hat because that's popular in WW2 films, and each German infantry soldier carries a Schmeisser sub-machine gun instead of the standard issue K-98 infantry rifle. That doesn't matter much anyway, because only the good guys can hit their targets.

Average Sci-Fi Channel Creature Feature

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 8/10 · 22 April 2015]

Downed on a mission over Germany, Air Force troops team up with a group of local villagers to find the source of killing them off a race of gargoyles brought to life by the Nazis and try to get back to base alive.

This is far better of an entry than it really should be. One of the better elements to this one is the fact that there's a lot of action within this one which should be fitting considering the storyline about this taking place in the middle of a war. Those moments, from the bombing raid on the village to the extended dogfights between the enemy planes as well as the different creatures going after the bomber are highly entertaining as well as some of the other action scenes in here. The opening release of the creatures in the compound, their ensuing raid on the village in broad daylight as well as their attack on the troops in the abandoned city provide this one with some rather fun highlights along the way with the graveyard shootout in here which really scores as a fun action scene. The mythology for the creatures is also quite fun as it becomes all connected with the myths quite nicely and provides some rather enjoyable times with the intelligence of the story here. While all these do move the film along nicely and keep it from being boring, there's the one main flaw in this one that holds it back being the lack of actual gargoyle action in here. There's relatively few attacks with the creatures and hardly any of them are exciting or even last that long when they do happen, really making them seem like an after-thought in their own movie. There's very few scenes of them in this anyway and those are dominated by rather lousy CGI for them which really make this pretty troubling at times. Along with the confusing matter of why they were initially released in the first place, these are the film's flaws.

Rated R: Graphic Language and Violence.

A bit of a mess

[borgolarici · 4/10 · 26 May 2022]

It could have been a mildly entertaining adventure movie but the visual effects are abysmal. Script and acting are tv-tier and exactly what you would expect from a movie with CGI gargoyles and nazis, i can't complain too much since this is clearly meant to be harmless fun. Sadly the the CGI and the other visual effects are so bad it makes the movie basically unwatchable.

Reign of the Gargoyles

[The_Rook · 16 October 2014]

Personally i applaud the SyFy channel for putting out B movies. I haven't enjoyed this many rainy Sunday afternoon movies since the 50s and 60s. This movie I have seen a few times and I actually like it. To bad it isn't in one of the three movie sets the SyFy channel has released on DVDs.

A group of WWIi soldiers find a secret Nazi weapon that has brought Gargoyles to life. These soldiers must figure out a way to destroy them. They use all weapons they can find and even a German Heinkel bomber to try and destroy the demon controlling the gargoyles. I hope this becomes available on DVD.