Customer Reviews

Demonic Toys 2

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have a theory about this one. I think that the movie, like many of Full Moon's releases focused around the possessed doll Divoletto and the spirit of an ancient witch. Somehow it just wasn't jelling and Bill Butler and Charles Band sat around trying to figure out how to fix it. And the solution was to insert two of the already popular Demonic Toys into the already completed film.

No one ever seems to interacts with the Baby Oopsie or Jack Attack unless they are matted in or CGI replicas and there are some awkward quick cuts that seem to serve the purpose of hiding the fact that the victims are not anywhere near the killer toys. It is never explained who put these two monsters back together or why anyone would want to bring them to Italy, but that is apparently what happened here.

As I said before, the actors seem to have been shot separately and only on two occasions interact with the two original DT characters and then it is only to the off-screen voice of Baby Oopsie (A wonderful performance by the always charming and sweet Jane Weidlin.) They mostly seem to just stand around and watch what the humans are doing, which involves a seance and the spirit of the evil former owner of the castle (presumably Band's) this takes place in. Jack Attack, a cackling wrinkled fanged Jack in the Box just stands around and does almost nothing. Often his laughter is out of sinc with the puppets rather limited movement. The character of Dr. Lorca from the other FM movie Hideous! (Which is pretty good) appears here and is based on the Dr. Lorca character from Mad Doctor of Blood Island & Beast of Blood. He has brought his bitchy wife, her lover, their stepson and a pretty female dwarf who is a spiritualist.
Not a lot comes of all of this.

A lot of what is going on is not especially original or interesting. Haunted castle,
seances, a medium who becomes possessed and hisses a lot, making her extremely hard to understand. Hum drum at best and the new character of Devoletto, a 16th century doll with a gargoyle face portrayed by a stiff hand puppet doesn't seem to be doing much either. (It is unfortunate that David Allen is no longer with us, but can't they find someone who can do stop motion animation? Why not try it yourself Charles? It's really not so hard. You just need patience.)

In some parts the talking Baby doll acts as a sort of off camera narrator. Punching up the boring story with some jokes. And Weidlin is a charmer even if her character is revolting; and, for some reason, Baby Oopsie just doesn't cut it this time. The character is usually disgusting and foul mouthed, but is just not quite disgusting enough this time. I would recommend checking out Weidlin's other acting rolls. They are usually small cameos, such as her memorable parts in CLUE, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Leslie Jordon, however, is the man. He is fantastic and funny as a goofy
professor. He's a little gay guy with a southern accent who plays little gay guys with
southern accents as no other little gay guy with a southern accent ever could.
He is outstanding and is miles above the kids in the cast. I just couldn't stop chuckling at his constant, but well meaning and likable, complaining. He cracks a little joke here and there and I suspect that much of his dialogue has been improvised.
He is just that good.

Anyway, I stick by my initial statement. They shot a mediocre movie and then added the two older characters to punch it up. The same way Al Adamson and Sam Sherman added Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster to a boring unfinished mad scientist movie to turn it into Dracula vs. Frankenstein.

The first sequel, Dollman vs. Demonic Toys, which is in fact a sequel to three Full Moon movies, has been harshly criticized for its short running time and overuse of stock footage from the three previous pictures, but that film is a lot more fun than this. Supposedly Demonic Toys ignores the events of the Dollman sequel, but there is
nothing that seems to contradict the previous continuity.

Then there is the notorious Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys, which Band did not produce.
I think that PM vs. DT is actually more fun than Demonic Toys 2, even if it does not
follow the already flimsy continuity of the PuppetMaster series.

I like fullmoon movies. I own Demonic Toys 1, which is very nice for anyone who like to see little toys killing people. I just saw Demonic Toys 2 and I found it enjoyable. I still think that the first one was better. Is funny at the same time the baby doll has funny lines when she speaks. If you own the first one already; you may want to wait a little before buying the DVD so is more cheap.

Having been a Full Moon fan for years(Starting with Subspecies and Puppetmaster), I thought I'd never see any more films on any of their properties. In the last ten years, I've seen less and less of their films in video stores. You can imagine how happy I was to see this movie in my local Redbox. After giving it a watch, I ended up hunting it down and purchasing it.

In Demonic Toys 2, Dr. Lorca from the movie: HIDEOUS! is back and continuing to collect strange oddities. Along with the help of Caitlin and her boyfriend, David, they collect the mysterious pieces of the last DEMONIC TOYS. They continue their search at a mysterious castle in Italy where there have been rumors of a mysterious, ancient puppet alive and walking around, which is under the control of a mysterious demon. That demon takes on the human form of a little woman named Lilith. The puppet brings the Demonic Toys back to life and, as we've seen in previous Demonic Toys movies, chaos and murder begin again.

I'll admit, this movie may not pack quite a punch as the previous movies has but it is still a fun movie. It's a worthwhile sequel to the series. In the end, that's all that really matters anyway. Full Moon's pictures has always been fun. I hadn't seen one movie of theirs that ever took itself too seriously. They are meant to be that way. It is headed up by B-movie veteran Charles Band, you know. Seeing this movie gives me hope that I'll see another Subspecies movie from Director Ted Nicholau. With this movie, we know that Full Moon isn't dead...that the company is still alive and kickin'. Give this movie a look, you just might like it. I did.

A.k.a. Demonic Toys Revenge a.k.a. Demonic Toys Personal Demons a.k.a. Demonic Toys 4 with actors called by Amazon and others as "various" meaning that outside of a few TV spots they have for their filmography credits such titles as "Balloon and the Beast", "Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver", "Horses Eat Each Other", "Freak of the Week". In other words the acting is minimal enough to get the film into the studio for editing.

Props consists of a few, and I really mean few, scenes where several doll puppets, one of whom moves it's mouth (ventriloquist style), one swivels it's head and one it's upper body all assisted by an unseen puppeteer. The remainder of the props consists of the usual fake blood in suspiciously small quantities (cost saving, perhaps) and one castle like building with lots of empty hallways.

Storyline is of a not so nice person seeking to expand his collection of dolls. So it's obvious that he and his not so nice girlfriend and not so nice helper are the one's doomed to be bitten by one doll or knifed by another (99% of which occurs off scene to save money on effects). The nice members of the group get to escape - phew, what a relief!

Demonic Toys 2 starts off funny and cool, a worthwhile sequel to 1993's cult hit Demonic Toys. All of that is because of Leslie Jordan. Leslie Jordan is basically playing himself in everything he's in these days. In everything I've seen him in since his recurring role on Will & Grace, he has played an aging gay queen who delivers snappy one liners. However, once Leslie's character departs, Demonic Toys 2 becomes rather dull. That's proof that Jordan is an entertaining actor who can make even bad movies worth watching. If you are a Leslie Jordan fan, you have to see this, even though it's just okay.

Charles Band. His name appears in the credits for more movies than car insurance posters appear on the sides of buses. He's one of my favorite director-writer-producers in the horror business, and 18 years after the original "Demonic Toys", he's here with the legitimate sequel, "Demonic Toys 2: Personal Demons". Although "Dollman vs. Demonic Toys" is technically a sequel, it's also really moreso a "superfilm" like Freddy Vs. Jason or any of the versions of Dracula Vs. Frankenstein. So for all intents and purposes, let's say this is the actual, definitive part-two for "Demonic Toys". How does it fare? Read on to find out.

Well, like many Full Moon movies, this film looks like it was shot 10 years before it actually was, due to how everything appears on the camera. The fact that it looks a little aged is actually charming in a way. Now onto the characters. I gotta admit, a lot of these characters were really stereotypical and the sort of actions and dialogue they did were pretty predictable, particularly Lauraline. For crying out loud, how much more by-the-numbers of a two-faced, stuck-up, rich sourpuss could she be? You know the kind, the sort of girl that plays the rival in teen flicks.

The setting and events also aren't that original, either. The creepy old castle has been done to death, although I do like the fact that it takes place in Italy. Also, the seance, Lauraline planning to leave her fiance with the cowboy handyman character, and the whole idea of Caitlin being the caretaker of the valuables in the castle, has all been done in one way or another. Granted, with everything that has been done in the history of horror films, it isn't easy to be original, but I feel like they could've thought a little harder about some of these things.

Now for the all-stars: the demonic toys! Baby Oopsy Daisy and Jack Attack are quite similar to their original portrayals in the original Demonic Toys, although there's both a loss and a gain here. Jack Attack doesn't overkill his laugh nearly as much as he did in "Dollman vs. Demonic Toys", so he's a lot less annoying in this movie. That's good. Baby Oopsy Daisy on the other hand, is a LOT more annoying in this film, with more bad one-liners, overtly tongue-in-cheek dialogue and it just feels like the writers tried too hard to give the doll a nasty attitude. The addition of the Italian doll made for an interesting addition. Overall, the appeal of the villains suffered a little bit in this movie but they're still entertaining and worth their screentime.

As in the original, there are some great gore shots here and that earns this movie more points. However, I WOULD like to point out the CGI effects. A few times in the movie, you can clearly see the CGI blood effects, and it just looks flat-out terrible. Compared to some of the other gore shots, the CGI bits look so fake, it's kinda embarrassing. It's too bad because a lot of the other effects throughout the movie were cool-looking, I wish they didn't resort to CGI for some things.

Now for the ending. It's hard to describe one's reaction to and opinion of a movie's end without giving it away, but conclusions can make or break a horror film. This one ended a little strange, it didn't promise a sequel that would never arrive, unlike a lot of horror films nowadays do (something that really irritates me) but at the same time it didn't feel like everything was conclusive. Either way, the ending was more satisfying than a fair deal of other modern horror films.

With all of my negative perspectives on this movie, I'm sure you're wondering why I gave it a three-star rating instead of something lower. Well I'll tell you why, movies in this field are made to entertain. Some films like "Burnt Offerings" or "The Shining" scare you and get you to think, but movies like "Demonic Toys 2" are for the enjoyment and entertaining of gorehounds like myself. This movie entertained me in its 80 minutes, so it did what it set out to do.

Overall, "Demonic Toys 2" is a little disappointing considering the shoes it had to fill of the original and the all-star "Dollman vs. Demonic Toys" superfilm, but for what it is, it's an enjoyable supernatural horror movie with some really good gore shots and is low-budget entertainment done right. Check it out at least once. Thanks for the time, and peace.

17 years and two garbage spin-offs couldn't stop Charles Band from making this long delayed sequel. A collector and his entourage arrive at an ancient Italian castle to purchase an antique puppet, when the spirits of the castle unleash the Demonic Toys once again to stir up trouble! William Butler gets it. He has perfectly recreated the look and feel of the classic Full Moon pictures unlike any of the production company's other recent projects. The reprisal of Richard Band's score helps to add an additional nod to the earlier films. While there have been minor alterations to the toy designs, overall they are very faithful recreations of the originals that are far superior to the cheap plastic excuses used in PMVDT. Newcomer Divoletto is also a great addition to the Toys, with a unique look and aged appearance that fits nicely with the old favorites. To top it off, the acting in this one is perfectly bad; not unwatchably bad, but that goofy, over-the-top bad that only a good B-movie can provide. I admittedly haven't been a fan of many of the recent Full Moon offerings, but this was a true return to form for the company and characters, and hopefully this marks the beginning of a new era for the Charlie and the gang (especially with PUPPET MASTER: AXIS OF EVIL on the horizon). Anyone that has had reservations checking this one out should give it a chance, it proves to be a fun little flick!

-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies

demonic toys 2 was ok movie it was a little bit different from demonic toys 1 which the first one was better not putting down the second movie its just something was missing in the second movie that wasn't right to me but over all it was ok.