Demonic Toys

Year: 1992
Director: Peter Manoogian
Writer: David S. Goyer
Genre: Horror: Evil Toys

I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into with Demonic Toys. I figured Full Moon already had an "evil doll/toy/puppet" film series with Puppet Master, but they must have felt they were needing more. In fact, this movie came out right between Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge and Puppet Master 4. I'm guessing they could tell that franchise was beginning to slip (although they would still go on to make many more versions) and wanted a fresh new start. I know they eventually had a mix of the two toy worlds with Puppet Master VS Demonic Toys but beyond that I don't know if this one really became a series.

Okay, so let's talk about the movie. It starts off with a man and woman in a car in a dark alleyway discussing their relationship. Shortly, we discover that the two are police officers and their reason to be in such a creepy place is because a sting operation is about to go down. As things proceed, many people are wounded - one crook in particular who slowly bleeds out after crawling into a toy factory. At this point I figured the movie was going to be a huge rip off of Chucky, but that doesn't happen.

Instead, the toys feed off his blood and are able to animate. There are a great handful of toys. A few of them are "characters" but many others are simply there for show which end up dying off in quick bursts. What's most interesting to me is why Full Moon seems to always need one supremely annoying toy which makes horrid and loud noises. In Puppet Master world it was the leech lady and here it's this damned jack in the box.

The movie isn't very deep but it is better than it has any right to be. Still, people seem to die off a little too easily and overall the story dips into shades of A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (which means it is a little silly). Anyway, it's okay if you're really in need of an evil toy flick.