Evil Toons: A busty B movie made on an itsy-bitsy budget!
When I stumbled across Evil Toons (1991) online, I must admit that I laughed! It looks completely and utterly ridiculous! The only reasons that I bought the DVD was because;
- It’s a 90’s horror film, so I could watch it and review it on here.
- It would be funny to watch it, purely to see just how cheesy the acting is and just how hilariously bad the film is!
We weren’t disappointed! I’ll explain why in a moment, but first of all, let me explain a little about the plot.
The premise of this film is that four young women are hired to do deep cleaning of a house. Of course, it isn’t just any house – it’s an old, abandoned house with a sordid past! And at the risk of sounding like a Marks and Spencer advert, the four women aren’t just any four women either – they’re four very attractive and very seductive sorority sisters! It’s no coincidence that some of the actresses have also been models and/or pornographic actresses in their time!
Sadly, I resemble something closer to Michelin Man than Monique Gabrielle! …but alas, I can dream! Besides, at least I don’t have a pervy, old neighbour (Arte Johnson) randomly popping ’round all the time – for no real reason!
During their first night at the property, I would expect nothing less than for the women to happen upon a spooky artefact or two in the basement! However it isn’t this that brings trouble to their door – it’s a strange man (David Carradine) who comes to the house to drop off an old, leather-bound book, akin to The Monster Book of Monsters in Harry Potter! Having received no explanation as to what it is, the women decide to open the book and look inside. What do they discover? A strange-looking beast drawn on one of the pages! Unsure quite what to make of it, they set the book down and decide to call it a night. Do you think they have a peaceful night’s sleep? Of course not!
Without wanting to give too much away, expect to see 1 rather… let’s say amorous beast, lots of blood, some fake teeth and above all else, some terrible acting!
Okay, so I feel bad for saying it, but a lot of the acting in this film is truly awful.
At times it reminds me of a school drama project.
Other times I feel like I’m watching a pantomime and they’re waiting for the audience to shout “He’s behind you!”.
…and honestly, it very much has Scooby-Doo vibes!
This film is clearly an example of a meta-horror film – its creators are obviously aware that the film’s events are very stereotypical of its genre… comically so! Isn’t that half of the fun of it, though?!
If you haven’t seen Evil Toons yet but are considering giving it a chance, something that’s worth bearing in mind is the reality of this production and how it was made. In case you didn’t already know, this wasn’t a multi-million dollar production – far from it! It was made on a very tight budget of $140,000 (US). Nobody wanted to take on such a risky – or should I say risqué – film!
Believing the doubters to be wrong, writer and director Fred Olen Ray (Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Scream Queen Hot Tub Party, Bikini Frankenstein & many more) ended up financing most of the film himself. It was shot in 8 days, using leftover film from another production, as well as roping in crew members and equipment from another production. These financial restrictions were inevitably going to hinder production, especially when it came to affording animations.
A lack of funds is the reason why – spoiler alert – Evil Toons doesn’t contain many ‘toons’ at all! There’s actually only 1 ‘Evil Toon’ – a Tasmanian Devil like character who, in reality, doesn’t appear for very long at all throughout the film. I personally found this disappointing, and I definitely think having more cartoons would have improved the film. It’s still a great gimmick though and I think mixing the ‘real world’ with the cartoon world is pretty cool. Of course, this was nothing new though. Live-action x animation films had famously been done many times before, with films such as Mary Poppins (1964), Jason and the Argonauts (1963) & Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). However, I’m pretty sure it’s a first for the horror genre. Please correct me if I’m wrong!
So, all in all, it’s no secret that this film had its challenges. Is it the perfect film? No… but it never claimed to be! Yes, it has its downfalls. Am I annoyed that I spent time watching it? Not at all! In fact, I’d happily watch it again if I fancied watching an easy-going, chucklesome film!
Do give it a chance.
Don’t expect Oscar-worthy performances or mind-blowing special effects.
Do expect to have a bit of fun watching a completely ludicrous bit of 90s meta-horror!
