Dollman vs The Demonic Toys (1993)
Directed by Charles Band
This review is going to be something different. This is going to be less of a review and more of a tribute. Dollman vs The Demonic Toys is a movie I watched with my friend Tom around the age of 11 or 12. Tom had a love for the schlocky B movies, heck even the C movies. Any time I would go to his grandparents’ house we would go to the movie rental store and grab some movies to watch. Every time we’d go, Tom would HAVE to find some of the weirdest movies and rent them. It didn’t matter how crazy they were, how low budget and bad they were, Tom loved them. This past year my friend Tom passed away, he has been my friend since 4th grade and it was a shock. I started to think of all the good times we had and my mind kept coming back to those trips to Panorama Video in Caro, Michigan, which is long gone now. The one movie I kept thinking of was Dollman vs the Demonic Toys. So in tribute I bought the DVD and watched it,
The story is pretty funny, basically there is a group of toys that are possessed by demons. They’re in control of a toy warehouse in a small town, tormenting and killing anyone that enters. We get flashbacks from a female cop named Judith. The flashbacks are from the original Demonic Toys. This movie uses A LOT of clips from previous films. Judith seeks out the Dollman aka Brick Bardo, a cop from another planet of small people. When Brick is introduced, we get to see his back story, stock footage from Dollman the previous movie. Brick has a smoking hot little girlfriend named Ginger, whom also gives her backstory aka more stock footage, this time from the movie Bad Channels. She’s your basic big boobed blonde girl that you would expect to see in a movie like this. Anyway, with the help of Dollman, Judith goes on to fight the Demonic Toys.
The acting in this movie, well…it is right on par for the genre. Honestly some of it isn’t bad, its better than most Troma movies but not great. The bad acting though is really part of the charm of a movie like this, they’re trying to be serious and that makes it funnier. The special effects are actually half way decent especially for the microbudget of the movie. The toys are all puppets, except for the soldier figure which is a guy in a suit. There is some corny early CGI in this but it really isn’t as bad as some of the movies from this time. The action is pretty decent as well and Brick comes off as a badass. Really the main thing that matters with a movie like this, is enjoyment. Man I had a good time watching it and its only an hour long. Most of the film is stock footage from the three movies mentioned earlier, but the new scenes are entertaining and fun.
I’m not going to be grading this movie, nor will I recommend it to anyone. I’ll leave that to you. My main reason for watching this was to give a nod to my lost friend. Tom was a great guy with a big heart and a love for campy bad movies. I wish I would have had a chance to sit with him and watch more of these, but life can pass you by. I know he’s up there somewhere looking down and laughing at me for writing this review, and I know he shared the same memories of Panorama Video, watching this, Heavy Metal 2000 (for the cartoon boobs of course), Spawn, Spawn II, and numerous Kung Fu movies. Cheers to you bud, I love you, I miss you and I’ll always have warm memories while I continue to watch the genre you loved.
