Film

Rumpelstiltskin

Name: Rumpelstiltskin
Genre: Horror
Released: 1995
Cast: Kim Johnston Ulrich, Tommy Blaze, Allyce Beasley, Max Grodénchik, Vera Lockwood

Other titles called Rumpelstiltskin: the 1987 film.

A 1995 horror-comedy that yanks Rumpelstiltskin from the fairy tale and drops him into modern Los Angeles as a demonic, trash-talking threat. It's low-budget schlock that leans into absurdity: part creature feature, part dark comedy, part genuine nastiness. For viewers who want their horror silly, practical, and unpretentious.

TMDb rating

2.6

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Warwick Davis is unhinged and hilarious as a murderous gremlin loose in LA. Same era, same absurdist tone, same commitment to making a rubber-suited creature genuinely menacing and genuinely funny.

But The practical effects and sets look cheap in ways that don't always work. It's deeply silly, which works against scares more often than for them.

Gremlins1984

The template for cute-thing-that-turns-lethal horror. Spielberg's mischievous tone—funny and scary at once—is what Rumpelstiltskin reaches for. Creature design, municipal chaos, dark comedy wrapped in '80s charm.

But More polished and mainstream than Rumpelstiltskin, so you lose that bargain-basement edge. The humour is gentler.

Troll1986

Low-budget creature horror that embraces its own ridiculousness without winking at it. A magical being in a modern apartment building, body horror, practical puppet effects, and a script that doesn't quite know what tone to land on—sound familiar?

But Slower than Rumpelstiltskin and much stranger. It's harder to know if it's working on purpose.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Rumpelstiltskin

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Pan's Labyrinth2006

Both steal from the same fairy-tale source material and dump it into reality, but del Toro treats the myth as poetry while the 1995 film treats it as an excuse for a rubber monster.

Guillermo del Toro's dark fairy tale: a young girl in 1940s Spain encounters a faun and ancient magic in the dark. It's the story Rumpelstiltskin is remixing, but told with visual genius, genuine dread, and a script that trusts the audience. Same DNA, infinite craft gulf.

But Spanish-language film with subtitles. Serious, patient, and tragic in ways that Rumpelstiltskin isn't—no winking, no jokes. If you want more trash, this is the opposite direction.

Bride of Chucky1998

Leans hard into comedy without losing the slasher edge. It's a monster movie that doesn't take itself seriously and trusts the audience to enjoy the pulp. Same willingness to be trash and mean it.

But Assumes familiarity with the Chucky films. Glossier and more confident than Rumpelstiltskin—less of that scrappy desperation.

The Gate1987

Teen horror with a practical creature design that becomes increasingly unhinged. It's earnest about the threat but can't help being funny. Low budget, high commitment, genuinely inventive with its limitations.

But The tonal whiplash is less controlled. You might spend stretches confused about what you're meant to feel.

Evil Dead II1987

Sam Raimi's masterclass in making horror comedy work without betraying either side. Ash fights a cabin and the universe itself. The tone is exactly what '90s creature horror was reaching for: mayhem as entertainment.

But It's so much better made that Rumpelstiltskin feels like a cover band. If you love Evil Dead II, Rumpelstiltskin may feel like a step backward, not sideways.

Freeway1996

Darkly comic horror-thriller that pairs a grungy modern LA setting with twisted fairy-tale logic. Reese Witherspoon in a Red Riding Hood situation that gets genuinely nasty. Same idea of warping nursery rhymes into something ugly.

But Not a creature feature—the threat is human, which some viewers find more unsettling. The violence has real weight, not the comic-book release that Rumpelstiltskin offers.

Dolls1987

Small, self-contained horror about things coming alive in an old house. Practical creature and stop-motion effects. The script knows it's a B-movie and doesn't overexplain itself. Weird and efficient.

But Very quiet and slow-burn compared to Rumpelstiltskin. Less cackling, more creeping dread.

Troll 21990

A film so committed to its own chaos that it became a cult object. No logic, no budget, total earnestness in service of pure weirdness. If you admire Rumpelstiltskin's disregard for coherence, this is the apotheosis.

But It's genuinely incoherent, not entertainingly so. Most viewers will find it tedious rather than fascinating.

The Company of Wolves1984

Both warp childhood stories into adult horror, but Jordan's approach is dreamlike and symbolic while Rumpelstiltskin is literal and mechanical.

Neil Jordan's fever-dream adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood. Surreal, sexual, nightmarish, and utterly committed to its own logic. Practical effects that look like they crawled out of a fever. Horror that doesn't care if you understand it.

But More avant-garde than scary. Weird in ways that require patience. No monsters jumping out; just slow, mounting unease and grotesque transformation.

Puppetmaster1989

Both use practical creature design and low budgets as assets rather than apologies, and both build their entire appeal around the thing that would never get made this way today.

Practical puppets that move in unsettling ways. A creature feature for $1.4 million that spawned a franchise. It doesn't explain itself, trusts the design work, and rides the tension between silly and scary with the same balance Rumpelstiltskin aims for.

But Slower, quieter, and more committed to dread than humour. If you want laughs, you'll find fewer here. The sequels got progressively more absurd, but this one is mostly tense.