Ooga Booga

There is nobody better at bringing the fun of horror and puppets together than Charles Band and Full Moon Horror. With greats like the Puppet Master and Demonic Toys series he they have cornered the market for this genre. Band's latest isn't so much of a puppet, but still could easily live in that same universe with Ooga Booga, but does it deliver the same fun as the films of this genre or will it be the one that should have been left in the jungle?

Ooga Booga follows an innocent African American boy who is brutally murdered by dirty cops, but his soul is magically transferred into an action figure named Ooga Booga. With on his tribal spear and old girlfriend to help he takes to the streets and trailer parks to find the men that ended his once bright future. There is no doubt Band is great at what he does. He somehow takes these silly little characters and turns them into something that should never work. Of course these films are ridiculous, but they still work great. While Ooga Booga doesn't deliver as much of the gore or horror as some of the previous films of its kind it still delivers the fun and cheese nature fans have come to love. The obvious real star is Ooga Booga himself and is made that much greater watching him deliver his tribal yell and glowing red eyes before making his kill that is so brilliantly ridiculous that it works on every level. The film also sports a couple of greats in Stacey Keach and Karen Black who chew up the screen and look like they are having a great time.

There is no doubt that the Full Moon films have a pretty specific audience and those are the same people that will love this movie. Those outsiders that somehow do not grasp the fun that these films deliver will not only get it, but most likely stay away anyway. Let's hope this is not the last time we get to see Ooga Booga, but maybe we can get some fun team ups alongside Gingerdead Man or Puppet Master.

I knew this would be awful, but, man, was it awful. The trailer was a semi-amusing wtf type of thing, and that's pretty much as much as you'll ever want to watch of this. Wade F. Wilson is a young black man who finds himself at the scene of a convenience store robbery. The cops who show up assume he did it and end up shooting him (timely!), and he comes back in the form of a Zuni fetish doll to get revenge. Of course Karen Black is involved. She's first billed, despite having like five minutes of screen time. This was one of her final roles. Stacy Keach is also in it (he was also in a Best Picture nominee last year). This is the kind of movie where you watch it just feeling sorry for everyone involved.

Saw a trailer for this online, and it looked like one of those must see "so bad, it's good" type B-Movies. Turns out it is the single worst film I ever watched in my life, and the producers should be ashamed of themselves for failing this badly to make something watchable.

It played like a middle of the road porn movie, only with most of the sexy parts cut out. The scenes dragged, as though there was no script (or the actors struggled to remember their lines), the death scenes were tame to say the least, and the laughs few and far between, the Shower scene the only real out loud moment. The weird Hambo thing at the beginning was promising, maybe if they ran with that as the killer it could have worked.

Avoid if you value your time!

Sure, this isnt Citizen Kane, but it's reasonably funny.

he Ooga Booga puppet is pretty cool.

Some if tge acting is pretty bad but come on, this is not going to be a great film. How they got Stacy Keech and Karen Black is beyond me.

Maybe they needed the money. The black girlfriend is pretty toned and does a nude scene in the shower that's is so hot you'll do what Ooga Booga does.

One big problem witht he movie is that there isnt really any great storyline and not enough Ooga Booga,

Just where would we be without Full Moon Features? The production company have given us such classic films as The Puppet Master, Trancers (I-VI, no less), Evil Bong and The Gingerbread Man. Indeed, without these wonderfully catchy and kitchy DVD options, I would have had a many Saturday afternoon staring at my navel wondering just how fascinating watching paint dry could possibly be.

The latest Full Moon production to coax its way into my DVD player is Ooga Booga – a likely cult-classic that is a take on Tom Holland's 1988 classic, Child's Play. Featuring a cast that has the twisted arms of actors Stacey Keach and Karen Black participating, Ooga Booga tells the story of Devin, an African American med student who is innocently killed only to come back in the form of a 16-inch cannibal doll named (wait for it……) Ooga Booga.

Devin's soul inside Ooga Booga doesn't allow him to talk (he can make native cannibal noises though), so Ooga Booga uses his spear to write words to communicate with his girlfriend who helps Ooga exact revenge on gangs, judges, cops and just about anyone else that did him wrong during the final hours of his human life.

The effects are laughable which, I am sure, is exactly what producer/director Charles Band was attempting to achieve. Band has produced over 250 films in his storied career, but anyone who has put money and effort into Zombies vs. Strippers and The Dead Want Women knows a thing or two about tongue-in-cheek horror films. Ooga Booga is able to blink, shake and move his arms. But there are no expected Academy Awards in the film's future for visual effects.

The violence is less than can be expected in a Sharknado. Ooga Booga can spear people in the eye but outside of that knack he is about as threatening as Andy Dick is to my relationship with my wife.

Luckily, Stacey Keach and Karen Black in one of her last roles, come out unscathed. They have terrible lines of which they are contracted to convey but with taglines that included, "Beyond Django…." And "He's 16 inches, with an attitude!", they both knew this was paycheck cashing time.

Yet, despite its bad humor, overt racism, bad effects and simplistic plot, Ooga Booga does provide some entertainment. You just can't take your eyes off the ridiculousness of the main character and the idea is so outlandish that executives at Syfy must be scratching their heads asking themselves why they didn't think of it first.

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