Demonic Toys (1992)

Director: Peter Manoogian

Writers: Charles Band, David S. Goyer

Composer: Richard Band

Starring: Tracy Scoggins, Bentley Mitchum, Daniel Cerny, Michael Russo, Barry Lynch, Ellen Dunning, Peter Schrum, Jeff Celentano, William Thorne, Richard Speight Jr.

More info: IMDb

Tagline: For 66 years, evil has been watching, waiting, and wanting for someone to play with its toys.

Plot: A botched bust on a pair of arms dealers inadvertantly leads to the raising of a sixty-six-year-old demon with the power to bring toys to life as his personal minions. The demon is looking for a body to inhabit so he can increase his powers, and it just so happens that one of the police officers is pregnant with the ideal host. As the murderous toys close in on their victims, the officer must not only fight for her life, but for the soul of her unborn child.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

Full Moon Entertainment knew they had something original when they released PUPPET MASTER (1989).  Killer dolls and toys?  Are you kidding me?  That's box office gold not to mention potentially creepy as shit.  Oh, wait, CHILD'S PLAY (1988) beat them to it and it was a much larger production.  But, hey, Full Moon wasn't exactly a sizable studio back then.  Theirs was the direct to VHS market where they excelled (have they ever had a theatrical release?).  The PUPPET MASTER series has at least 6 films in the series, then you've got DOLLMAN (1991) with a few films and finally (I think) it's the DEMONIC TOYS franchise with a few films in the can.  What's more is you've got crossover films between these three series.  I've been collecting them over the years and slowly getting through them.  So far the PUPPET MASTER and DOLLMAN films are the most enjoyable.

Like the PM flicks, this one's got a little bit of stop motion animation which goes a long way in my book and it's really fluid. You can thank David Allen, Yancy Calzada and Chris Endicott for that.  Fantastic work. I can really appreciate that.  But the rest of the movie?  I don't know, maybe it's that nearly all of the toys are closer to being like regular toys (as opposed to the kick ass original ones in PM) that brings it down.  I don't think it's the low budget-ness of it all because that's what you get with Full Moon films and I've endured it before with the other mentioned series.  There is a little bit of nudity (they're fake, bloated fake - BORRRR-ING) and some gore ("I only have eyes for you" - great gag) but I was left wanting something more.  Maybe it's because the killer toy action doesn't start until about the 40 minute mark, halfway into the picture.  I'm not turned off.  I'll check out the sequels and crossover films. Oh, and do you recognize the writer's name, David Goyer?  Yeah, it's that guy, the one who wrote the recent Batman trilogy and Superman flick.  How 'bout that?