Touches You

Best movie ever!

As Good As It Gets

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

After a newly pregnant cop (Tracy Scoggins, who would later star in Babylon 5) follows the criminals who killed her partner/lover into a toy warehouse, she finds herself trapped along with said criminals, as well as security guard and random pizza boy, along with the titular demonic toys and their evil owner.Not as memorably classic as Full Moon's earlier Puppet Master films nor as plain outright fun as Trancers, Demonic Toys is pretty watchable in it's own right. Although I enjoyed it quite a bit more when I first saw it as a teen. Followed, like all Full Moon franchises, by way too many sequels Eye Candy: Kristine Rose gets topless

"Demonic Toys" didn't really entertain this viewer all that much, but it should prove to be a passable diversion for most B movie lovers. We don't see the titular characters all THAT often, but whenever they're on screen they make this reasonably amusing. They've come to life because of a demon that has been awakened from its long slumber; said demon makes life just miserable for a determined lady detective (foxy Tracy Scoggins), a surly fast food joint employee (Bentley Mitchum, son of Chris Mitchum and grandson of Robert Mitchum), a runaway (Ellen Dunning), and a lowlife criminal (Michael Russo). Director Peter Manoogian does what he can with the screenplay by David S. Goyer, giving it a comic sensibility at times and giving this production more profanity and gore than usual for a Full Moon offering. None of the acting is exactly that good, but Scoggins certainly tries her best; her character has a little more going on than the others because she's pregnant with her partners' baby; it just so happens that what the demon wants most is to be born again via her child. Mitchum is enough of a coward / complainer at times that he may indeed remind viewers of Bill Paxton in "Aliens". Of course, whether that's a good or bad thing is up to the individual viewer. Making this worthwhile are the demonic toys themselves: a laser shooting robot, a hideously ugly jack-in-the-box clown, a ferocious teddy bear, and the talking baby Oopsy Daisy, who has the best lines and basically steals the show. The damn thing even puts a genre spin on the famous last line for the title character in the gangster classic "Little Caesar". The special effects, courtesy of John Buechlers' Magical Media Industries company, are reasonably impressive. Genre fans will note the visual quoting of an image from the Stuart Gordon fantasy / horror flick "Dolls", which was produced by Charles Bands' pre-Full Moon company Empire Pictures. Other than the toys, the best component is undoubtedly the music score by Bands' brother Richard; it's quite effective. The movie isn't without atmosphere, or nudity (courtesy of luscious Kristine Rose), and has some priceless moments, but it fails to really catch fire. It just wasn't that much fun. Five out of 10.

The front cover of my DVD for Demonic Toys (Film 2000 Shock Horror Collection) states that 'special effects wizard David Allen brings Toulon's killer puppets magically to life'. In reality, Allen's FX contribution is fairly negligible and Toulon (from the Puppetmaster series) has jack all to do with this particular movie.Similarly misleading is the one (mis)quote on the sleeve from roberthood.net (no, me neither), which describes Demonic Toys as boasting 'breast-focused nudity', which it doesn't really: there's a two second shot of a topless woman—hardly what you would call Russ Meyer/Andy Sidaris territory.Despite the distributor clearly feeling the need to deceive people into buying the film, Demonic Toys isn't all that awful; in fact, as trashy low-budget B-movie horrors go, this one is actually pretty entertaining, with a reasonable amount of invention (the script written by David S. Goyer of Batman Begins and Dark City fame), some marvellously shonky puppet-style monsters, and a fair amount of gratuitous gore (including plucked eyeballs and a decapitation).It's all incredibly silly, of course, with people trapped in a toy warehouse, terrorised by a demonic jack-in-the-box, a deadly doll called Oopsie Daisy, and a giant killer teddy bear (controlled by an evil spirit who wants to be reborn as a human), but not so bad that it didn't deserve a respectable DVD release with a more representative sleeve.5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

"The world is a toilet and all the people in it are a**holes." Silly nonsense from Full Moon based on an original story by executive producer Charles Band. More toys that kill people, this time in a warehouse with a group of unfortunates who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Tracy Scoggins stars as a tough cop whose boyfriend/partner gets shot in the line of duty during a gun-smuggling shake-down that goes awry; she is pregnant with his unborn child. The two crooks responsible for his murder run for a warehouse holding Arcadia toys, while Scoggins is in hot pursuit. A dead demon fetus was buried in the ground underneath the warehouse, 66 years a demonic spirit awaiting its chance to occupy the human fetus of Scoggins' Judith Gray. Blood from the bullet wound of one of the criminals seeps into a crack in the floor of the warehouse (the cracks in the floor form a pentagram, a pretty creative visual I must say) bringing new life to the demonic spirit which possesses several toys (including a Baby Oopsy-Daisey doll, jack in the box, robot, and teddy bear), using them as weapons for destruction.Bentley Mitchum is a chicken delivery man, miserable with his job, whose life gets even worse when he's trapped in the warehouse, defending himself against killer dolls. Michael Russo is one of the punks, smart mouth and vile personality, who Scoggins chases into the warehouse, causing all kinds of mischief and trouble for our heroine. Daniel Cerny is the creepy kid whose form is used the most by the demonic spirit to antagonize Scoggins. Other characters include an obese security guard and a runaway using the warehouse as a place to rest. Jeff Celentano (Puppetmaster II) has a brief, but important, part as Scoggins' slain lover whose appearance the demon uses to torment Judith, including one ghoulish scene where he removes his eyes from their sockets."Demonic Toys" is as preposterous as the synopsis sounds, but does have some positive aspects such as a beautifully melodic score by Richard Band and super stop motion animation toy soldier sequences by the late, great David Allen and his crew. Lots of icky gore has the demonic toys chewing heartily into the faces and throats of victims, pulling away flesh with their monstrous teeth. If you ever wanted to unload bullets into toys, then the final scene where Scoggins and Mitchum blast away at the "demon's army" should produce a vicarious thrill. Scoggins acts her heart out, particularly when confronted by the demon's use of her lover's dead corpse for kicks, but maybe she goes a little bit over the top with the melodramatics. Yep, this movie has a scene where characters use ventilation ducts in an attempt to escape and get help. Most memorable death scene could be the vicious murder of the warehouse security guard who even gets stabbed in the crotch by Baby Oopsy-Daisey. Oh, speaking of Baby Oopsy-Daisey, the baby doll toy spouts out curse words and profane quips ala Chucky. The killer toys are noticeably hand puppets during close-up scenes. You even have poor Mitchum up against a man in a bear suit for good measure. Hokum of the highest order, but I have to admit those toys are rather imposing, particularly with the addition of those sharp teeth and demonic eyes.