Horror Movie Review: Demonic Toys (1992)

I always thought it was odd that Demonic Toys existed, seeing as Full Moon already had their Puppet Master franchise. Sure, Demonic Toys is a bit different, but not obviously so. Thankfully, upon watching, it turns out to have its own identity and in the case of this first film in the series, turns out to be mildly enjoyable.

Created by Charles Band, written by David S. Goyer, and directed by Peter Manoogian, Demonic Toys has a more complex plot then you might first think. It’s not just about evil toys, and that is what we see as the film opens with a botched arrest attempt of gun dealers Lincoln (Michael Russo) and Hesse (Barry Lynch) by two police officers, Judith (Tracy Scoggins) and Matt (Jeff Weston). The latter is killed, with the former chasing the two criminals into the nearby Toyland Warehouse.

Inside, she is able to fatally wound Hesse, and capture Lincoln, but she needs backup and can’t leave the criminal alone. This is where delivery driver Mark (Bentley Mitchum) and ‘runaway’ Anne (Ellen Dunning) come in handy. Except, all have a much bigger problem now. The toys have come to life, and they’re all trapped inside with the murderous Baby Oopsy Daisy, Grizzly Teddy, Jack Attack, and Mr. Static.

Who, or what, has brought them to life and how does these events relate to Judith’s dreams of two young boys playing the card game ‘War’ and the fact that she is pregnant?

See? More complex than first expected, especially as around halfway through the film, we get the reveal of the power behind the toys and it’s a demon. One that takes on the form of a young boy (from Judith’s dreams) and played brilliantly by Daniel Cerny. He is the best thing in this film, but he’s got a decent record for playing evil smarmy kids that you just want to punch (Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest).

He does chew the scenery though, and the film does get bogged down by his constant monologuing, but when characters are non-existent and we don’t have enough cast to get a ton of bloody action from the toys, we need something to the time.

I don’t get it. Why is this film so light on mayhem when such effort was put in to making the toys both real and frightening? Why not have a few more bodies for them to tear up? It’s not like the leads even have notable things about them so who cares if some NPCs are used to up the body count? It’s such a flaw, ensuring that the uninteresting story and awkward acting seems worse by default.

Just like the Puppet Master franchise, the star of this show ends up being the toys. Which is odd, because it would be 18 years before we got a proper sequel, and 29 years before we started to see the individual toys have their own spinoff films. Maybe, it was more impactful. Regardless, it’s a perfectly fine feature that looks and feels like an early 90s Full Moon film. Entertaining in places, but not strong enough to stand alongside their best and brightest efforts.