Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys (2004) Revisited – Horror Movie Review
The episode of Best Horror Movie You Never Saw covering Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys was Written by Cody Hamman, Edited by Paul Bookstaber, Narrated by Kier Gomes, Produced by John Fallon and Tyler Nichols, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
Need a horror movie to watch on Christmas? There are plenty to choose from. The classic slashers Black Christmas and Silent Night, Deadly Night. The thrills of P2. The brutality of the French film Inside. The insanity of Gremlins. But how about a movie where the lives of millions of children hang in the balance? Where a demonic force wants to unleash tiny terrors on the world… and they can only be stopped by a group of tiny heroes. We’re talking about Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys (watch it HERE) – and if you haven’t added this one to your Christmas viewing rotation, it’s the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw.
The Universal Monsters shared the screen with each other. Freddy fought Jason. Aliens fought Predators. Similar to those concepts, Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys is a crossover between two of the most popular franchises set up at the production and distribution company Full Moon. As you can glean from the title, it pits some of the puppets from the Puppet Master movies, who can be presented as heroes or villains depending on the master they’re serving, against the evil Demonic Toys.
The film stars Corey Feldman as Robert Toulon, father to teenage daughter Alexandra, played by Danielle Keaton, and great grand-nephew of legendary puppet master Andre Toulon. Who famously used his puppets to fight the Nazis during World War II. Robert has acquired the diary of the puppet master, along with the puppets Blade, Pinhead, Jester, and Six Shooter, from a flea market in Paris. Now he’s making the formula that will bring the puppets to life. This requires mixing chemicals, boiling them for hours, and adding two drops of Toulon blood. The importance of Toulon blood is a new addition to Puppet Master lore. In fact, this movie has a completely new back story for the Toulons that stretches all the way back to Jean Paul Toulon in the Renaissance era.
The Toulons are unknowingly under surveillance by Sharpe Toys business owner Erica Sharpe, played by Vanessa Angel… who has her own plans for the puppets. She is a servant of the demon Bael. There’s even an altar hidden in a sub-basement of the Sharpe company headquarters, where she regularly sacrifices the virgin women she hires as receptionists. Sharpe has made an apocalyptic deal with Bael. At dawn on Christmas morning, every toy in the Christmas Pals toyline – which is based on Bael’s demonic toy minions Baby Oopsy, Jack Attack, and Grizzly Teddy – will be inhabited by demons. Millions of Christmas Pals are out there in the world, and on December 25th they will all become living, murderous creatures.
This may sound familiar to you, because the story was clearly inspired by Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Where a toy maker plans to murder millions of people by activating Stonehenge magic he has attached to his Silver Shamrock line of masks. No one who watches Halloween III will ever be able to forget the Silver Shamrock jingle, which was set to the tune of “London Bridge Is Falling Down”. Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys has its own Christmas Pals jingle, which is set to the tune of “Jingle Bells”. Thankfully, this jingle isn’t played nearly as many times as the Silver Shamrock one was.
Since Erica Sharpe will soon find herself living in a world overrun by demonic toys, she wants the puppets to protect her and do her bidding. To accomplish this, she will need Toulon blood. And that’s the set-up. Demons are going to destroy the world on Christmas morning. The only people who can stop them are the Toulons. With the help of the puppets and Robert’s love interest, police officer Jessica Russell, played by Silvia Suvadová.
First announced in 1992, Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys didn’t make its way out into the world until 2004. When it finally went into production, it had Ted Nicolaou – director of Full Moon’s Subspecies franchise – at the helm. The screenplay was written by C. Courtney Joyner, who previously wrote Puppet Master III. The most popular of the Puppet Master films; the “puppets vs. Nazis” story. But even though there were Full Moon regulars on the creative team, it was not a Full Moon production. This was solely a product of the Sci-Fi Channel…
Crossovers like this were something Charles Band had in mind from the moment he launched Full Moon. He was taking inspiration from Marvel Comics, where heroes have their own solo titles, but also appear in issues of other heroes’ comics. And form teams like The Avengers. The idea was that all Full Moon movies exist in the same universe, so characters from one franchise might show up in another.
The company was three successful films into Puppet Master franchise when they made Demonic Toys. On the Video Zone featurette that played after the movie on the VHS tape, Band revealed that he was already thinking of having the Demonic Toys fight the Puppet Master puppets. He even shared a look at poster art* for Puppet Master 4 that showed some of the characters facing off. Baby Oopsy, Jack Attack, and the lazer-blasting robot Mr. Static – who didn’t end up in the crossover – in the same image with Blade, Six Shooter, Pinhead, and another character who didn’t make it into the eventual movie, Torch. But when Puppet Master 4 was released in ‘93, there were no demonic toys in it. The toys were featured in another crossover that year instead: Dollman vs. Demonic Toys. Which saw them battling characters from the Full Moon productions Dollman and Bad Channels. Dollman vs. Demonic Toys was fun… But, of course, it didn’t satisfy fans who were eager to see Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys now that the possibility had been dangled in front of them. The movie was going to have to be made at some point.
Band really started focusing on getting the crossover off the ground at the end of the ‘90s. Full Moon announced a contest that would give a lucky fan the chance to appear as an extra and win a treasure chest of merchandise. Filming was expected to take place in Los Angeles, beginning in April or May of 2000, aiming for an October release. Band showed off concept art for a new version of the puppets that would see them getting cybernetic upgrades. Turning them into Cyber Puppets. J.R. Bookwalter, best known for making low budget classics like The Dead Next Door and Robot Ninja, was set to direct the film. Since eBay had become extremely popular, there was reportedly a draft of the screenplay written in which the lead character bought the puppets off the auction site. Then stored them in the Demonic Toys’ base of operations, the Toyland Warehouse, where conflict would ensue. It was rumored that Traci Lords had been cast as the new puppet master.
The problem was, Full Moon was dealing with some serious financial issues at that time. When the company started out, they had a deal with Paramount Pictures. Which allowed the films to have higher budgets than Full Moon has ever been able to achieve in the years since that deal ended. After Paramount, they had a deal with Kushner – Locke. But that deal had also recently ended. And at this point in time, Full Moon could barely even afford to make a regular Puppet Master sequel. There was no way they could pay for Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys on their own. So they had to bring in another company to co-produce. And there was an obvious choice: the Sci-Fi Channel. Full Moon movies were shown on the channel regularly, and the companies were already working together on the William Shatner-hosted show Full Moon Fright Night. Sci-Fi jumped at the chance to work on the crossover and were ready to put up half of the budget. But Full Moon couldn’t come up with their half. Desperate to get the movie made… wanting to make sure fans would get the movie they had been waiting for… Band sold the rights to Sci-Fi completely, giving up creative control. The producer put in charge was Jeff Franklin, best known for creating the sitcom Full House.
That’s when C. Courtney Joyner was brought in to rewrite the script. As Joyner told Nat Brehmer, author of the book Puppet Master Complete, “I never saw a treatment or anything as I recall. And when the whole thing went over to Jeff Franklin and the Sci-Fi Channel, the idea was that it was going to be a pilot to a television show. I wrote it, and they really wanted it to be very much in the tone of something like Gremlins.” Franklin envisioned the film being an irreverent family comedy. So that’s what Joyner’s script ended up being. Aside from the virgin sacrifices. Nicolaou then went through the script and enhanced the humor some more.
Once Sci-Fi was in control, Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys was put on the fast track. Pre-production began in June of 2004, with filming scheduled to take place in August and September. Post-production needed to be completed in November, because the movie had a December premiere date that couldn’t be missed. Since the story was set at Christmastime, the movie needed to air at Christmastime. Initially, the plan was to shoot in Romania, on sets that were left over from the making of Seed of Chucky. And had been designed for filming scenes with puppets. But the movie ended up being made in Bulgaria… on sets that were not built to accommodate the puppets.
This made work difficult for effects artist Jeff Farley and his crew. And really impacted the puppets and toys scenes. As Farley said in a Pit of Horror interview, “I feel that the short shooting schedule tempered a bit of the action. We had to simplify it, due to shooting most of the film in practical locations.” The fight scenes in this rumble in the toy box are very short and simple, which was a disappointment to a lot of fans. But as compromised as the action is in the finished film, it was almost much worse. Farley and his crew were only going to get three weeks to work with the puppets and toys. He was able to talk Sci-Fi into giving the crew four weeks to work with the tiny characters. And they added some second unit photography, directed by Gary Jones.
Even then, don’t go into Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys expecting to get much out of the titular clash. It’s over way too quickly. Freddy vs. Jason it isn’t. It’s nowhere close to the level of the scuffles the puppets had with equally small creatures in Puppet Master parts 4 and 5. Back when the movies had big enough budgets to feature stop-motion animation. But despite that disappointment, Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys is a highly entertaining movie. One that’s well worth revisiting every Christmas season.
It’s the unexpected choice to lean into comedy that makes it so much fun to watch. You can tell Joyner and Nicolaou knew how absurd the concept was, and they ran with it. The script is full of hilariously ridiculous lines, and Corey Feldman goes completely over-the-top as Robert Toulon. A character who is an out-of-touch knucklehead, and was also meant to be older than Feldman was at the time. Joyner has said he thought they could get Fred Willard to play Robert when he was writing the script. And that actor was born thirty-two years before Corey Feldman was. Watching the movie with that in mind, you can definitely see the Fred Willard influence on the character. You can also see that Feldman was enjoying playing such a goofball. His interactions with other characters feel like they’re right out of an awkward sitcom.
Any scene that involves Feldman acting like a flighty, beaten-up old man… even though he was only in his early thirties at the time… is a winner. Vanessa Angel also isn’t being subtle with her performance as Erica Sharpe. But there are fun scenes with the puppets and toys as well. Like when the puppets get cybernetic upgrades. Sort of along the lines of Jason Voorhees becoming Uber Jason in Jason X around that time. And as quick as the fight is, it’s still cool to see the puppets destroy their enemies.
One of the best moments involves Feldman being chased down a hallway by Baby Oopsy. It’s a very amusing sight that gets even sillier when the baby doll launches itself through the air. And starts pummeling Feldman’s face. As he describes it later, “Baby Oopsy kicked my butt!”
Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys made its December premiere date. And brought in good ratings for the Sci-Fi Channel. But it didn’t lead to any more Sci-Fi produced Puppet Master or Demonic Toys stories. The characters went back home to Full Moon. Where Charles Band doesn’t count Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys as part of either franchise, since he wasn’t involved creatively. It’s not even appreciated by some of the people who made it. Director Ted Nicolaou told Video Fugue, “It didn’t have the kind of brooding quality that Puppet Master fans want, it didn’t have great puppet action, it didn’t have a great lead because Corey Feldman is such a complicated actor. It was a mistake, that film.”
Really, the only mistake here would be in taking the movie too seriously. It wasn’t made under the best of circumstances and its limitations shine through brightly. But none of this is meant to be taken seriously at all. It’s a comedy that you can laugh at and with. It’s cheesy, it’s corny, the performances are hammy. It’s a wonderful Christmas feast. So set aside some time this holiday season to take in a viewing of this under-valued, misunderstood crossover. Give it the chance to boost your holiday cheer by showing you something to laugh at for eighty-eight minutes. It’s not the movie fans ever thought they would get. But it’s a good time. And it’s better than finding one of the Christmas Pals under your tree.
A couple previous episodes of the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw series can be seen below. To see more, and to check out some of our other shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
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