The 2002 comedy horror filmTerror Toonsis one of those movies someone would see at a VHS and DVD rental store back in the early 2000s. They would walk up to thecolorful and wacky-lookingphysical copy of the very low-budget horror film and think about what a fun and scary movie it might be, and decide to go along with the adventure.
But depending on the viewer, this is either the worst B horror movie ever made, or a film so bad it’s good that also perfectly encapsulates the early 2000s. Somehow, this hot pile of garbage got two sequels, and in 2021 another film was announced. The film franchise definitely has its own style. And if it got several sequels, it must be appealing to enough people.
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The firstTerror Toonsfilm was made on a budget of $2,300. It’s not known exactly how much money it made, but the sequel’s budget was significantly increased to about $175,000. This movie is incredibly violent and gory, so people should try to avoid watching it when their grandparents or any children are around.Terror Toonsopens with a mad scientist named Doctor Carnage disemboweling a prisoner he is experimenting on. But the wacky cartoon animations suggest they are not in the real world, but rather a cartoon-like dimension. The ‘doctor’ then proceeds to pull the man’s skull out through his stomach. This film is more gruesome than anything Quentin Tarantino has ever done, and with little purpose or reasoning for such violence.
Within the dimension that is Earth’s reality, a group of friends (three girls and two guys) get together to watch a DVD one of them received in the mail. The movie has got a very similar premise toThe Ringwhere if the evil video is watched, a curse is put onto those who witnessed it. InTerror Toons, this DVD was created by Satan and shows the group of friends some of the messed up and awful things Doctor Carnage and his lab monkey assistant named Max Assassin have done, onlypassed off as goofy anticsbecause of their cartoon appearance.
The female friends then play one of the most ridiculous and funny games used as a plot to get them nude called Strip Quija. When one of the friends named Candy (played by adult actor Lizzy Borden) falls asleep, she either enters the cartoon dimension, or Carnage and Max have entered into the friends' reality. They kill her inone of the most horrific ways to dieas well as one of her friends. A very fitting role for such a movie, a pizza delivery guy shows up right on cue. Doctor Carnage and Max Assassin befittingly dismember the driver with a giant, human-sized pizza cutter. At one point, the maniacs do a disco dance that was apparently funny enough to one of the friends to make him laugh so hard he vomited his organs.
Some more crazy killings and terrorizing are presented to the viewer throughout the remainder of the film. The apparent goal of the crazy cartoon monsters is to corrupt children by making multiple copies of the DVD and sending it to children everywhere. Cindy (played by adult actor Beverly Lynne)becomes the hero of the storywhen she challenges the Devil and destroys the machine that was making the copies of the DVDs. She even manages to kill both Doctor Carnage and Max Assassin. At the end of the film, Cindy and Candy’s parents return from their trip. These characters in that ending scene are some of the funniest moments from the whole movie.
While the audio is really bad, itwas made for less than $3,000. The parents scream and make hilarious, over-dramatic facial expressions as they discover the scene: one friend beating his bloodied head against a wall with Cindy rocking back and forth with her dead sister in her arms amidst the dismembered corpses of the friends. The final shot is of a next-door boy receiving theTerror Toonscopy in his mailbox and presumably shutting his door with the DVD in hand to watch the film, as is implied by the distant and distinct laugh of Doctor Carnage.
Everything about this film screams early 2000s from the wardrobe to the effects and the comedy, and even the line delivery. It also heavily relies on adult film stars for comedic purposes, something that was done a lot at the time especially for B comedy horror movies with super low budgets likeTerror Toons.Some may find this little 2000stime capsule to be a gem, but it will take a lot to sit through all of the terribly cheesy effects and gore. Honestly, it’s not for the weak-hearted. And there are far better movies out there to watch for early 2000s nostalgia.
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