One day while her parents are out of town, Candy (played by Lizzie Borden) receives a DVD in the mail. The DVD is of a new cartoon called Terror Toons. While her sister, Cindy (Beverly Lynn), and her friend, Amy (Kerry Liu), invite some boys over for a party, Candy decides to watch her new DVD. Unfortunately, the Terror Toons DVD plummet the sisters and everyone else in the house into an evil cartoon world where the fantastic is possible. Enter Dr. Carnage, an evil scientist from the cartoon world and his mad monkey experiment, Max Assassin. These two begin wreaking havoc on the human world until Cindy finally decides that she has had enough.

Terror Toons is a very goofy movie but manages to be more creative than much of the low budget horror flicks out there. Director Joe Castro (Blood Sisters, Maniacal) does a great job with this film packing it with bizarre characters, eye-catching lighting, ambitious visual effects, and gooey splatter effects. Any director that throws a transexual mother (Shimmy Maxx), an evil DVD machine, and The Devil himself into the same film definitely needs some attention.

There is a somewhat dull montage of a game of Strip Ouija (Strip Poker with a Ouija Board) that never results in any actual nudity. However, the scenes involving the overgrown teenagers are very silly and are clearly intended as comical and representational. Just watch when the girls’ eyes light up at the very mention of wine coolers.

Unfortunately, one of my favorite characters (and the one who is easiest on the eyes) doesn’t have nearly enough screentime. Lizzie Borden’s wide-eyed and oddly childlike, Candy, steals every scene she’s in. And her sister, Cindy, played by Beverly Lynn, goes through a wacky transformation into the film’s heroine. Jack Roberts plays The Devil in an old campy style that is just terrific.

It’s not often that you find a film with such a meager budget as entertaining as Terror Toons. There’s plenty of imagination and gore packed into this feature that should give horror fans something to cheer about. I’m eager to check out the sequel, Terror Toons 2: The Sick And Silly Show. If you’re looking for some quick and cheap (but also evil and mean-spirited) fun then give Terror Toons a chance. What planet is this from?

DVD Stuff

Terror Toons looks great in its 1.33:1 aspect ratio and sounds just fine as well in Dolby Surround 2.0. The DVD is practically overloaded with extras. There are interviews with cast and crew, behind the scenes footage, bloopers, a look at the film’s special effects, a photo gallery, and trailers for other Brain Damage titles.