Indie puppet horror "Devil's Junction: Handy Dandy's Revenge" is directed by Jeff Broadstreet. The film stars Bill Moseley (Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects, 3 From Hell) and Bill Oberst, Jr. (3 From Hell, Death House) alongside Jake Red, Cody Cameron, Arthur Marroquin, Danni Spring, Kyle Anderson and Katelynn Newberry.
Returning to the abandoned Detroit television station where they once delighted a generation of children viewers, master puppeteer Mister Jolly re-incarnates his minion puppets for a final performance to settle an old score with Richard. The rare blood moon casts an ominous glow as Mr Jolly unleashes his puppets, lead by the infamous Handy Dandy to seek his revenge. Further complicating Richard’s dilemma is the unexpected arrival to the Studio of his son Steffen and his friends. The group become entangled in the thrilling pursuit by Mr Jolly and Handy Dandy through the annuls of the old studio building. They soon realize that they are in a new version of “Mister Jolly and the Handy Dandy Show” -where pain is the game!
Based on the synopsis, "Handy Dandy's Revenge" sounds like a fun, inventive splatter film. Individually each of the horror tropes actually explored in the film would, and should work fine. Unfortunately having killer puppet horror, supernatural occult mayhem and the added slasher elements combined does more damage than good. What we get is a jumbled mess of concepts with no logic or reason written into the story.
There really should have been someone on staff to maybe reign in Broadstreet's ideas. And of course do some background research and soundboarding of choices to see what works and what doesn't. A lot of what we see on screen doesn't work and nothing spoken by the characters justifies it. I didn't buy it anyway.
The acting is mediocre at best. Most of which comes down to underdeveloped dialog and exposition. Not even two iconic cast members are given enough to really elevate the viewing experience. I really don't think much about "Devil's Junction: Handy Dandy's Revenge" is understood by anyone attached to the project. And it shows with the quality of the movie we are presented with, I just didn't find it convincible.
Puppets, sinister Masonic motives and a large metal-headed killer in the tunnels could have been fun, gruesome entertainment. There just isn't cohesion or reasonable writing to explain why all of this exists in what should have been a low-budget horror about killer dummies and their evil master. Overall I was disappointed with "Devil's Junction: Handy Dandy's Revenge". (2/5)
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