Ooga Booga

The long awaited Ooga Booga spin-off has finally arrived, and it is pretty much everything a B film junkie could ask for. Killer cameos, a respectable body-count,and enough satirical racism to make Quentin Taratino blush. That being said, the film is obviously low-budget, so to all of you Roger Eberts out there, please, be gentle, take it for what it is, and just remember that it might be trash, but its blatant trash, and of course, all in good fun. Stacey Keach is great as the heaviest of cracker villains as he commands an army of neo-Nazis as he unknowingly faces off against a devilishly un-p.c. Tribal doll named Ooga Booga. Armed with a spear and possessed by a revenge hungry African American who was unjustly murdered in cold blood, this doll goes on safari, hunting down every last racist who had a hand in his death. Can you say camp heaven?

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.

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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Ooga Booga is a little doll with a spear who kills bad, racist white guys. It starts off with a kids TV show where a drunken clown named Hambo is backstage drinking while a young woman in daisy dukes and tied shirt cheers the little monsters on. They chant "Hambo" "Hambo" until we see the man sitting in a chair boozing it up and getting off while reading a Playboy magazine. When he finally appears on stage, he insults the tykes while almost molesting his nubile co-host. Unfortunately, it is the only funny moment in this film. A young black medical student is Hambo's best friend, and he is given the Ooga Booga doll as a gift. The doll comes to life when the med student is killed by a redneck cop. The victims beautiful girlfriend, Donna, teams up with the doll to seek revenge on the bad guys. The strangest part is when Karen Black pops up in a trailer playing a recluse who lives for her TV shows. Stacy Keach is cast as a corrupt judge, also dislikes black people. Ciarra Carter, as Donna, has what may be the most bizarre shower scene in the history of cinema, as the horny devil doll watches her washing up while he performs a solo sex act. Instead of this, look for "Trilogy of Terror" from 1975, where Karen Black also shared the screen with a small, violent doll.