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1990
Retromedia 20th anniversary edition
Back in the early 90’s I discovered this great video store about 20 minutes from my house. It was 50 cents for a week for old stuff, and a buck for video games and new releases. So usually every weekend I would got and rent 8 things. This place had a limit of 8 rentals per account. Well I worked my way through the horror section. Saw this movie titled Evil Toons. The cover made it out to be a combo of Roger Rabbit and a slasher movie. Well I brought home and loved it. So I made a copy and for years held onto that videotape. Sometime before I moved out to Texas I lost the tape and forgot about the film. Then in 2003 when I finally got high speed internet I started searching for the film.I saw that it was out on DVD, but of course that DVD was out of print. Then on a torrent site I found a laserdisc rip of it. So I downloaded it and made a DVD. But then a few years later that DVD-R died. Well my cousin kept wanting to rewatch the movie. So I was searching for a decently priced used copy. But found out that a 20th Anniversary edition was coming out soon. So I preordered it.
We got a pretty simple plot. 4 college girls have been paid to spend the weekend in an old house. They have been hired by Dick Miller. He wants them to clean up the house so he can sell it. They arrive there Friday afternoon, and after some hard work they settle down to eat dinner. There is a knock at the front door. One of the girls answers it and finds a old book. The book is written in some old language, but of course one of the girls, the “nerdy” one who has huge breasts, knows this language. She starts reading parts of it out loud. This creeps the girls out so 3 of them head upstairs to go to sleep. One of them, played by 90s porn star Madison, stays downstairs. She is waiting on her boyfriend to show up. It seems that the parts the nerdy girl read have released a demon from the book. This demon is animated and looks sort of like the Tasmanian Devil. He attacks Madison and assumes her form.
The film continues with the demon killing off all but the nerdy girl. We get plenty of nudity. And lots of cheesy comedy. But for a 90’s era DTV b movie it isn’t bad. There is a few interesting things about the film. It starts off with David Carradine hanging himself. And this DVD was released not too long after he died. Also there is 5 females in the cast and out of all 5 of them 4 of them either did porn before or after this film. The animated demon only shows up for about 5 minutes of screen time. But it is pretty well done. Also the book that the demon comes from, is well done and looks kind of like the nerconomicon from the Evil Dead series.
Now from what I have read the first DVD and the laserdisc release had no extras besides a trailer. This release has a commentary, a trailer, a making of feature, and an installment of Fred Olen Ray’s Nite Owl Theater. The print looks great, way better than the laserdisc or the VHS looked. And all the extras are fun. Evil Toons gets a B.
