Demonic Toys

As a fan of Full Moon pictures, this movie could have been a little better. Although it is a fun movie to watch. The characters are so cheesy this movie can't possibly be dissapointing. The toys look ridiculous but are funny none the less. I like the line uttered my Oopsie dasiy baby when kicked in the face. "Bummer!" If you like cheesy movies, then get this movie, cuz it can't get any more cheesier.

I am a big fan of tacky sounding horror films and thus when I saw this on DVD on the cheap I thought I had to buy it, so I did.

The plot is simple two cops are trying to catch two criminals outside of a toy warehouse. The plan doesn't go as they expected and one of the cops is killed, the two criminals get inside the warehouse although one is injured. The policewoman (Scoggins) follows them in. She catches one but the other manages to get away from her but he stumbles across a Satanic symbol which he manages to 'awaken'. Then you get the kid (Cerny) and a bunch of possessed toys. Oh and a security guard, a delivery boy and a teen runaway in a factory of evil toys.

Strangely for this type of film the acting isn't all that bad I thought Scoggins was pretty good as Judith Gray. The kid of course being a demon disguised as a weirdly bright-eyed boy isn't scaring anyone any time soon. The effects are a little out-dated as the film is over 10 years old now. The film in all is actually quite entertaining you have a bad-ass foul mouthed doll called Baby oopsie-daisy, the weirdest looking bad guy and the phrase 'do the nasty' uttered several times by said weird looking bad guy.

If you want a top-quality award-deserving horror film of course, you could guess by the title, this isn't for you but if you just want a little entertainment and probably a good few laughs then this is for you.

My personal rating 8/10.

Low budget, but enjoyable Charles Band Full Moon production about a pregnant policewoman, Tracy Scoggins (I'd totally forgotten about her and remembered how I had a crush on her as Cat Grant on "Lois & Clark"), and a scrappy delivery boy, Bentley Mitchum (grandson of Robert Mitchum) are trapped in a haunted toy warehouse where, you guessed it, reside possessed murderous toys. This is one in a long string of Charles Band productions to feature small things terrorizing larger things (i.e. Puppet Master, Dollman, Gingerdead Man, Evil Bong, Shrunken Heads, etc.) and it's a formula that works surprisingly well. Despite the cheapness of the production (the film basically takes place entirely on one set), the creepy little toys doing terrible things is entertaining, Scoggins is attractive in the lead, and there's novelty value in the casting of Robert Mitchum's grandson in the type of bad boy role his grandfather was well known for. I really wish there had been more stop-motion animation in the film, though that would have cost more money, but what little stop-motion animation the film does have is excellent! "Demonic Toys" was an early script by David S. Goyer, who'd later go on to write some major Hollywood comic book adaptations including The Dark Knight films, the Blade series, and "Dark City." Although Goyer has his name on a number of quality films, his best films always had a strong director or were co-writen by other, so I've never been quite sure how much credit to give Goyer for his better films. For his films where he's received sole writing credit or were not helmed by strong directors, those films were often weaker (i.e. "Man of Steel" or Blade I and III) if not outright awful ("The Crow: City of Angels"). Much like his weaker bug budget films, this one suffers from a lack of character development, an over reliance on plot contrivances, and few original ideas. Still, producer Charles Band has reliably delivered entertaining low budget genre pictures since the late 1970s and has a track record that continues to hold strong to this day. I also won't fault the director too much, since it was directed by Peter Manoogian, who directed another one of my favorite Charles Band productions, the ridiculous, but enjoyable "Eliminators." Also worth noting is that the musical score by theunderrated composer Richard Band (brother of Charles) delivers another reliably good synthesizer heavy score.Band's pictures may not appeal to a wide audience and may not appeal even to all horror fans, but if you're a fan of Band and Full Moon Entertainment, this one is well worth watching, even if it's isn't exactly a classic on the level of "Trancers," "Re-Animator," or even "Subspecies."

Full Moon entertainment was one of the main sources of new horror films during the early 90s. With low budgets and very creative minds, they put out some of the best horror movies of that decade, always walking in the fine line between horror & tongue-in-cheek comedy. Among those movies was "Demonic Toys", a very funny movie dealing with a demon possessing a group of toys.

Judith Gray (Tracy Scoggins) is a cop who, after a failed undercover operation where she lost her partner (& lover), gets trapped inside a warehouse while chasing for the criminals she was supposed to catch. One of the criminals gets hurt and his blood awakes an ancient demon. In the form of a kid (Daniel Cerny), the Demon will use his powers to transform the toys into killing machines, in order to posses & become Judith's unborn child. To survive, Judith will have to join forces with the people who by coincidence or fate, was in the warehouse at the same moment.

"Demonic Toys" is not a serious horror film, it is packed with a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor that makes a very entertaining movie. The plot is an interesting one, and while it could had worked as a serious film, it is quite good as this silly comedy. This is one of those movies where all the negative parts just increase the camp factor and become watchable.

The acting is good for a movie of this characteristics. Tracy Scoggins may not be a good actress, but she is a beautiful lady and gets the support of the underrated Bentley Mitchum, as a young delivery boy in a role reminiscent of Bruce Campbell's Ash of the "Evil Dead" series. Also, Daniel Cerny gives a remarkably good performance as the incarnation of the demon. He is definitely one of the most underrated child actors ever. The rest of the cast has good moments, but nothing really special.

The SFX are average for the most part of the film, but it also has well-done gore and specially a brilliant stop-motion animation in the end. While the dialogs are at times corny, the silliness makes the film better, as the toys are funny instead of scary. The "baby" is very good as comic relief and I would compare it to the humor of the recent sequels of "Child's Play".

Obviously, the film has big flaws, and most are caused by the low-budget. The lack of diverse locations make the film look always the same, and some of the SFX look really cheap. However, most of the times this just adds to the cheesy fun the film delivers.

This is definitely not a very good movie, but it is good material for a video night with friends. 6/10

"Demonic Toys" is a curious mixture of gore and cheesiness - in about equal measures. In fact, this film epitomizes cheesiness: stupid plot, uneven effects, mostly terrible acting (save for leading lady Tracy Scoggins, who is too awesome-looking for her acting to matter anyway), and dialogue laced with lame puns ("You messed up my make-up"!). But the gore is pretty extreme and over-the-top (the dolls rip off huge chunks of flesh from the faces of their victims). It's a bad film, but tolerable IF you're in the right mood.....(*1/2)