Evil Toons is a 1992 American live-action/adult animated comedy horror B-movie written and directed by Fred Olen Ray.[1] The film is a light spoof of traditional haunted-house films.[2]
Evil Toons | |
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Directed by | Fred Olen Ray |
Written by | Fred Olen Ray |
Produced by | Fred Olen Ray Victoria Till |
Starring | David Carradine Monique Gabrielle Madison Stone Stacey Nix Dick Miller |
Cinematography | Gary Graver |
Edited by | Greg Shorer |
Music by | Chuck Cirino |
Production companies | American Independent Productions Curb/Esquire Films |
Distributed by | Prism Entertainment Corporation |
Release dates |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $140,000 |
In the past, Gideon Fisk hangs himself in the basement of a mansion, seemingly to spite a possessed book made of human skin. The film then moves to the present day where a quartet of co-eds are hired to clean the now old, decaying mansion over a weekend. Upon arrival, they clean the basement and find a strange dagger hidden in a chest. That night, the ghost of Gideon delivers the cursed book to their door. Once gone, the girls examine the book, finding it full of sketches of bizarre monsters engaged in depraved sex acts.
When an incantation in the book is read, one of the drawings emerges from the book and becomes a living cartoon. The cartoon mutt stalks and attacks the sexually liberated Roxanne, taking on her physical form after killing her. Roxanne's football player boyfriend arrives and is killed by the monster. The demon plans to damn everyone in the house's soul to hell so they can bring back their other monster friends from the book prison. After finding Biff's body, the girls call their boss, Burt (Dick Miller). Burt arrives, but before he can help the girls he's lured away by Roxanne. She seduces then kills him. The monster goes on to kill two more girls, leaving only the sexually inexperienced, Megan, alive.
The ghost of Gideon returns and aids Megan in defeating the monster, stabbing it with the strange dagger. Before the monster can return to the safety of the book, Megan, throws the book into the fireplace, incinerating it and erasing the monster from existence. Gideon explains that he needed Megan's corporeal strength to help him kill the demon and ascends to the afterlife. All of monster's victims are revived the next morning, remembering only a bad dream. Mr. Hinchlow, a neighbor stops by and brings his portable television set so that the girls can watch Saturday-morning cartoons, leaving Megan screaming in terror.
The film was shot in eight days.[3] Due to the low budget of the film, combined with the high cost of animation, the animated demon is only on screen for approximately 90 seconds in the film.[4] Director Fred Olen Ray says that mainstream Hollywood executives would not finance the film, citing risk due to the premise. He was quoted saying "Even Roger Corman turned us down" and "He said it was too risky... so we did it ourselves."[5]
On May 4, 2010, Infinity Entertainment Group released the 20th Anniversary Edition on DVD.[6]
The film has received a number of negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reports a score of 29% based on 7 reviews, with an average rating of 3.29/10.[7] Critics were negative about the acting in the film, the dialogue, as well as the animation quality in addition to how sparsely it appears in the film.[4]
The 2000 book horror movie encyclopedia Creature Feature gave the movie two out of 5 stars, stating that it was a sorry excuse for a movie, wasting the talents of Carradine and Miller.[8]