Evil Toons (1992) [copyright 1990]

... aka: Gonoszkák (Wicked)

... aka: Magias do Mal (Evil Spells)

... aka: Qui a peur du diable? (Who's Afraid of the Devil?)

Directed by:

Fred Olen Ray

This has a lot in common with Jim Wynorski's Sorority House Massacre II. They were both filmed at around the same time on a budget of around 150,000 dollars, have a (very good) Chuck Cirino score and have the same basic plot about a handful of busty, nightie-clad babes trapped in an large old house where one becomes possessed by an evil spirit and starts killing off all the others. Both films are also filled with tongue-in-cheek humor and endless in-jokes that you can only appreciate if you've seen your fair share of exploitation / horror / trash movies, as well as a weird next door neighbor character who's always lurking around outside and appears to be stalking the girls. Oh yeah, and let's not forget a generous helping of T&A, as that's one of the chief reasons these movies were made in the first place and why they excelled on both the home video market and late night cable. In my opinion, Wynorski's film (despite being less ambitious) is the better of the two because the dialogue is consistently funnier and it somehow works as both a slasher flick (with plenty of the expected bloodshed) as well as a send-up of exploitation films, whereas this one doesn't work very well as a horror film and is more straight-up camp. Still, if you know what you're getting yourself into and are familiar with the director and cast, Toons is a silly, upbeat and pleasant enough way to kill 83 minutes of your time.

The home where sorcerer Gideon Fisk (a somnambulistic David Carradine) hung himself because of an evil, talking book many years earlier is now being sold by Burt Wentworth (Dick Miller), who's in need of a clean-up crew pronto before the new owners can move in. Enter Terry (Suzanne Ager, Ray's girlfriend at the time), Megan (Monique Gabrielle), Roxanne (Madison Stone) and Jan ("Stacey Nix" aka Barbara Dare), who apparently all work for some cleaning company but show up for work dressed like Hollywood Blvd hookers in cut-off Daisy Dukes and spandex. The girls are paid a whopping 100 bucks apiece to spend the weekend there and tidy the place up, but after some exploring around and an impromptu strip-tease, Carradine's character shows up at the front door to deliver a special package. Inside is the evil book and the nerdy Megan picks the wrong passage to translate; unleashing a wolf-like cartoon demon in the process. It promptly possesses Roxanne and she begins killing everyone off with eventual plans on releasing other demons from the book after she's harvested a few souls for Satan.

While this was heavily-promoted as a Roger Rabbit-style merging of cartoon and live action in a horror-comedy context, you'll be extremely disappointed if you expect too much. There are only two toon sequences in the film lasting just a few minutes apiece and only in one of them does the Chas Balun-designed demon really interact with one of the actors. That said, the fact they were even able to pull off that much for so little is impressive for the time and budget. There's not much plot to speak of but in lieu of that we get some spirited bad acting, lots of corny dialogue (only some of which is funny), a few semi-famous stars in small roles (Arte Johnson is also on hand as the pervert neighbor) and nude scenes provided by each of the female stars. Miller ends up with the most amusing bit and has a very funny scene watching himself in A BUCKET OF BLOOD on TV ("How come this guy never won an Academy Award?") and then spurning the sexual advances of his sexpot wife ("Special Guest Star" Michelle Bauer), who then is forced to retreat to her bedroom alone with her chainsaw!

The biggest surprise of the cast is certainly hardcore porn actress Madison, who's extremely lively and, eh, animated (may as well use a bad pun myself since this film is full of 'em!) in her role. Her over-the-top, eye-rolling facial expressions and bizarre Valley Girl dialogue delivery make for a welcome contrast next to the more wooden performances from many of her co-stars and it's actually kind of a shame she didn't end up in more of these. Madison appeared in both this and the R-rated NAKED OBSESSION (also 1990) very early on in her career so it's possible that at one point she was attempting a "legit" career in B movies before transitioning over to adult. Same can not be said for fellow adult actress Dare, who acted in this right as she was exiting the adult industry for good. While not a great actress, this may also be Gabrielle at her very best. She's oddly endearing playing a shy / innocent character for a change, plus her 'mirror scene' reveal is probably the most memorable moment in the entire film.

Ray, who also scripted under the alias "Sherman Scott" and co-produced, had initially attempted to get financing for this project from Roger Corman, but his request for 250,000 dollars was rejected because Corman felt it couldn't properly be done on such a small budget. Instead, Ray ended up mostly financing the film himself... and for 100K less! While the animation is minimal, it's fairly well-executed under the circumstances. Ray also provided a distorted voice over for the monster and book, while an uncredited Robert Quarry voiced the demon. As per his usual, Gary Graver did a fine job shooting it, though the mostly-subdued use of colorful lighting (this would have been the perfect time to go all-out!) feels somewhat like a missed opportunity.

After it made its VHS debut via Prism in 1992, Ray's company Retromedia handled subsequent distribution. There was a 2002 DVD release, a 2010 "20th Anniversary Special Edition" DVD release, which comes with a Ray commentary track, and a 2017 "25th Silver Anniversary Edition" Blu-ray release, which is a marked quality improvement over all previous releases, features a new Ray commentary track and lots of other extras.

★★1/2

Raw Nerve (1991) [filmed in 1990]

... aka: Farligt sinne (Dangerous Mind)

... aka: Intuizioni mortali (Deadly Insights)

... aka: Kuoleman sirpaleet (Fragments of Death)

... aka: Nervos à Flor da Pele (Nerves on the Skin)

... aka: Premonition

Directed by:

David A. Prior

After losing their parents, adult children Jimmy and Gina Clayton (Ted Prior and Traci Lords) share a home. He's a minor league race car driver with conservative morals and financially supports the two of them. She's a smart, though slightly rebellious, 18-year-old high school senior who wears halter tops, skin-hugging miniskirts and high heels to class (well, she IS Traci Lords, after all) and has just been accepted into the Pre-Med program at the college of her choice. The two share a close bond, which actually comes off as a little TOO close as in borderline creepy incestuous close. He complements her on her looks and "great legs" while she tells him "You look hot!" Yikes. Jimmy is extremely overly protective of his kid sister, borderline paranoid she'll be led astray and expects her to live the same impossibly clean lifestyle he does. That means no dating, no sex, no drinking, no drugs and no sexy shoes. Fat chance. She is Traci Lords, after all. Jimmy's slovenly uncle, car mechanic Blake (Randall 'Tex' Cobb), who drinks beer for breakfast, belches constantly, doesn't appear to ever shower and has been married six times, informs him that Gina "needs to be out running around, getting laid..."

While out on the race track, Jimmy wrecks after getting an excruciating headache followed by a scary psychic vision of twin sisters being murdered by someone clad in black in a room of mirrors at a carnival. He's later able to confirm via a newspaper that these murders did indeed take place. And they're not the first either. So far the tally is six and a serial killer with a fetish for red high heels is on the loose. He's called "The Face Killer" by the press for his penchant for shooting women in the face. Police officers - led by Captain Gavin (Glenn Ford) and Lt. Bruce Ellis (Jan-Michael Vincent) - are already trying to crack the case.

Jimmy goes to the police station and offers to be of some assistance but when he informs Gavin of his visions he's understandably thrown right out. Thankfully, nosy investigative reporter Gloria Freedman (Sandahl Bergman) is at the station trying to get the scoop and overhears some of the conversation. She then invites Jimmy out for coffee to discuss things further. That leads to dinner at her place which leads to Jimmy finally loosening up a bit and jumping into bed with her on their very first date. Their budding relationship doesn't sit too well with Ellis, as he used to be married to Gloria and is still in love with her. Meanwhile, Gina and her friend Lori (Yvonne Stancil) go to a school dance, sneak outside to "smoke a doobie" and are accosted by the killer, who leaps out of a second story window with his shotgun and kills Lori. Gina, who passes out, is spared. For now, at least.

Police come up with a profile for the killer. A police psychologist believes he or she either suffers from multiple personality disorder and perhaps "a classic case of object-induced dream state psychotic dysfunction" (?!) Plugging the information they have thus far into their trusty computer, Jimmy is tagged as the most likely suspect in the killings. Further delving into his past, Ellis discovers Jimmy had an extremely traumatic childhood. Not only was he sexually abused by his own mother up into his early teen years but he also witnessed his father shoot their mother in the face before turning the gun on himself after he caught the two of them in bed together. Jimmy then spent three years at "the funny farm" to recover. But has he? Then again, Uncle Blake could be responsible. He's seen fondling a pair of red high heels in one scene and starts stalking and threatening Gloria. Or the killer could be an out-of-left-field choice. I'll never tell.

There's a deranged elderly lady who shows up at the police station filing false rape reports against her neighbors, a car chase that ends on top of a parking garage, a pretty good car wreck, a new wave band performing at the dance and a few skeevy family secrets revealed during the twist ending, which is probably responsible for this otherwise bloodless and sexless film getting an R rating. Otherwise it is surprisingly tame.

Despite Prior's reputation for making nothing but violent exploitative schlock (see also: Deadly Prey, KILLER WORKOUT), this one is actually competently made for a change and could easily pass for your average made-for-TV psychological thriller. Even though it's nice to see that the director could make a passable film that doesn't insult one's intelligent, the problem here is that the plot is simply too tired and unoriginal. While this is watchable, it's not nearly as memorable or entertaining as many of his other films, even if it's technically put together with more skill.

One of the biggest selling points is certainly the cast. In his final theatrical release, top-billed Ford looks bored as hell sitting behind a desk reciting colorless dialogue. Vincent, who appears to be drunk in all his scenes, gives an absolutely terrible performance which consists of barely-coherent mumbling and making simple lines of dialogue look physically painful to spit out. Surprisingly, Ted Prior proves to be a capable leading man here and Cobb can play this shady greaseball in his sleep; in fact he made a career of just that. Bringing much more to the table are the ladies. I always love me some Traci Lords and she looks very vibrant and beautiful here, plus creates a likable character with her limited screen time. I wasn't previously a big fan of Bergman's work outside of Conan, but she's really been winning me over here lately the more I've seen of her and makes for a very appealing female lead.

This was filmed around Mobile, Alabama and was given a very limited theatrical release by AIP in 1991, followed by a VHS release through the same company. As far as I know, all DVD and streaming releases are sourced from the video copy.

★★