Demonic Toys

Big Sky Video

R4

Demonic Toys (1992) aka Dangerous Toys is another low budget cult horror from Full Moon. While it may have a very minute budget, it is amazing what can be achieved with a lot of creativity and inspiration.

The film opens with a police operation which goes horribly wrong. A married police team including a pregnant police woman and her partner have set up a gun running operation. The bust goes awry and the male partner is killed. One of the gun runners is wounded and they both run into an old toy warehouse. As his dies, his blood is spilt on the floor awakening an evil spirit which has been locked under the floor for over sixty years.

As it awakens it takes control of the toys within the warehouse and uses them to slaughter everyone who is locked inside. This includes the surviving gun-runner, the security guard, a chicken delivery man and a run-away girl. The goal of the spirit, however, is not to simply slaughter with abandon but to become reborn through the body of the policewomen since his attempt to achieve incarnation into the physical world some sixty years ago failed.

The toys are the real success of the film and have been clearly influenced by the development of the Puppet Master series. While the characters of the toys are not quite as well developed as in other Full Moon productions they are still pretty good. There is a teddy bear with very sharp teeth which eats human flesh, a very nasty clown puppet with a lolly pop, a vicious baby doll and a robot who shoots lasers. The scene where the teddy bear grows to full size is especially cool.

While the acting is average, as would be expected from a low budget film, the plot is reasonable and there are some above average set-pieces. I especially thought the dream sequences and the flashback to the demons last attempt at incarnation is impressive. Placing the story within an abandoned factory filled with boxes and old toys creates a suspenseful mood and on the whole Demonic Toys ends up as a successful and creative horror tale.

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