DEMONIC TOYS

MOVIE REVIEW

My Books and Movies!

E.C. McMullen Jr.
RUMOR

RUMOR: People are dying to know the truth

PERPETUAL
BULLET

"'Some People' ... may be the standout story in the book."
- John Grant, Infinityplus

E.C. McMullen Jr.
WILLOW BLUE

"'Willow Blue' will burrow under your skin and stay there long after you've put the book down."
- Jeffrey Reddick, Creator of
FINAL DESTINATION

IN OTHER BOOKS
E.C. McMullen Jr.'s
short story
CEDO LOOKED LIKE PEOPLE
in the anthology
FEAR THE REAPER

"This Ray Bradbury-esque is one of the most memorable and one of the more original stories I've read in a long time."
- Steve Isaak,
Goodreads

HORROR 201:
The Silver Scream

Filmmaker's Guidebook
featuring
RAY BRADBURY,
JOHN CARPENTER,
WES CRAVEN,
TOM HOLLAND,
E.C. McMULLEN Jr.,
GEORGE A. ROMERO,
and many more.

Extensively quoted in

PHANTASM
EXHUMED
The Unauthorized Companion

SATAN'S 3-RING
CIRCUS OF HELL

Forward by
GAHAN WILSON &
FEO AMANTE.
With Comic Art by
ALEX PARDEE,
WILLIAM STOUT,
STEVE BISSETTE,
FRANK DIETZ,
JIM SMITH,
FRANK FORTE,
ERIC PIGORS,
MIKE SOSNOWSKI,
OMAHA PEREZ,
DAVID HARTMAN,
STEVEN MANNION,
JACOB HAIR,
and more!

And In
CINEMA
E.C. McMullen Jr.
Head Production Designer

MINE GAMES
(Starring:
JOSEPH CROSS,
BRIANA EVIGAN,
ALEX MERAZ,
ETHAN PECK)

Dept. head
Special Effects Make-Up
(SFX MUA)

A SIERRA NEVADA
GUNFIGHT
(MICHAEL MADSEN & JOHN SAVAGE).

Production Designer

UNIVERSAL DEAD
(DOUG JONES,
D.B. SWEENEY,
GARY GRAHAM)

Art Director

THE CRUSADER
(COLIN CUNNINGHAM,
GARY GRAHAM)

		Review by E.C. McMullen Jr.
DEMONIC TOYS - 1992 USA Release: March 12, 1992 Empire Pictures / Taryn Productions Inc. Ratings: Finland: K-18 / Australia: M / UK: 18 / USA: R

Quirky is the best way to describe DEMONIC TOYS. Quirky is as quirky does and it can work well in comedy, but here it goes nowhere.

A woman has a dream where two young boys in a roomful of clocks play a card game. They both claim to win and then both declare war. It really makes no sense and the boyfriend of the woman tells her so. Then the couple, sitting in their car and waiting for someone, get in a light argument about their relationship. Then it turns out that the woman is pregnant. Then everything is wonderful. Then the person they're waiting for shows up and there is a gunfight.

And this could have all been done really well, but it isn't. The action is nearly static; the bad guys are giggle-y idiots, the cops go into a sting bust alone, without wearing vests, and without letting their department know. To make matters worse, when one is shot the other doesn't call for backup; doesn't call for an ambulance; doesn't do anything to help her partner, who is also her boyfriend, who is also the father of her child. Instead, while said boyfriend bleeds to death in the parking lot, the woman, Judith Gray (Tracy Scoggins: WATCHERS II, PLAY MURDER FOR ME, DEAD ON, DOLLMAN VS. DEMONIC TOYS, A CRACK IN THE FLOOR, ASYLUM OF THE DAMNED, THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, MR. HELL), goes running after two men into a storage warehouse.

This all happens in the first 10 minutes, so there is an awful lot of unbelievable nonsense thrown at us in a pretty short time.

One of the two bad guys, who Judith shot, crawls to a certain area of the floor bathed in spotlight and bleeds, causing Merry Mishaps to occur.

The next thing we see is a morbidly obese security guard (Peter Schrum: TERMINATOR 2) reading a magazine. It's his warehouse that all the action is taking place in, and he is wholley immune to the situation - he didn't even hear the prolonged gunfight outside. This is an early 1990s movie so as any Horror fan knows, this guy is going to get it. He's also a loser, and a foul mouthed eating machine, so he is REALLY going to get it.

Big Time!

His food is served from a friend of his, Mark Wayne (Bently Mitchum: SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK, THE BORROWER, DEADLY EXPOSURE, FIRESTORM, BLOOD MONEY, HELL MOUNTAIN, NIGHT OF TERROR, SHARK ATTACK, NICE GUYS FINISH DEAD) who is also a local chicken delivery guy.

Meanwhile, Judith has caught one of the bad guys, Lincoln (Mark Russo: THE TOXIC AVENGER, JACOB'S LADDER, BODY SNATCHERS, THE BONE COLLECTOR), and finds herself locked inside a room - even though the locking door handle is clearly on the inside.

It keeps going on like this as foul mouthed dolls come to life, thanks to an issue that is never made clear until a smarmy kid (Daniel Cerny: CHILDREN OF THE CORN III), goes into way overlong monologues to explain everything that really doesn't need that much explaining.

Judith and the boys

There is an overwhelming load of silliness here as one ridiculous situation is trumped by the next; more than ample enough room for fun. Yet the fun never really materializes.

TRIVIA

Great doll design by one of the best in the business - who also went uncredited* - the late great John Carl Buechler -
FROM BEYOND, RE-ANIMATOR, DOLLS, FRIDAY THE 13th Part VII: NEW BLOOD, A NIGHTMARE ON ELMSTREET 4, HALLOWEEN 4, FREDDY'S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE, BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR, THE FEAR, HATCHET, and many more.

*John was also left uncredited for his animatronic effects in INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE.

Who to blame?

Well, the movie was based on an idea by Producer Charles Band (LASERBLAST, TOURIST TRAP, TRANCERS, CRAWLSPACE, FROM BEYOND, DOLLS, PUPPET MASTER, SUBSPECIES, CASTLE FREAK), who is one of the kings of fun horror trash, having produced over 200 films in his lifetime. It's not like Charles hasn't produced crap - he has. But he is also one of the very few people out there who, like Roger Corman and Lloyd Kauffman, gives fledgling directors and writers a chance. The script was by David S. Goyer, who went on to write THE PUPPET MASTERS (Robert Heinlein's story, not Band's), DARK CITY, BLADE, and BATMAN BEGINS to name a few. He too has had his misfires, but overall the man knows how to write. Which leaves director Peter Manoogian (ELIMINATORS, ARENA, SEED PEOPLE), who, through a career spanning three decades, has never figured out how to direct a flick.

In a nutshell, all the good that could come from DEMONIC TOYS: creepy dolls coming to life, blood and gore, nudity, is all overwhelmed by a film that can't decide if it wants to be funny or scary and winds up being neither.

2 Shriek Girls.