PLOT: A woman obsessed with dolls lives a sad life with an abusive stepmom, neighbors, and what seems like the entire world against her. But as luck would have it, she receives a special doll in the mail that might help solve all of her problems.
LOWDOWN: Baby Oopsie (WATCH PART 1 HERE – PART 2 HERE) is the newest entry into the Full Moon Features catalog and a spinoff/sequel to the Demonic Toys series, but before I get into it, a bit of history first. Full disclosure, Charles Band and Full Moon Entertainment were a big part of my childhood. Since it was the era before helicopter parenting, I would wander to the Family Video on my own and hang around town as long as I was home by the time the streetlights turned on. Once the streaming era started, and after the DVD boom, video stores closed in my hometown. Full Moon Entertainment was a strictly VHS era for me, and once DVDs took over, I grew up and lived my life.
To say I’m a bit nostalgic for the company would be an understatement because when the Full Moon Horror Roadshow came around in 2005, I bought a bunch of their old catalog on DVD. Many of which I had previously never owned, and I relived many movies that were staples of my youth, and one of those DVDs was Demonic Toys.
Baby Oopsie is an interesting take as it’s a sequel that acknowledges the original Demonic Toys and its lackluster sequel but goes the solo/spinoff route with a new doll design and an entirely different tone and style from what came before. Set in an old house in Ohio, we follow Sybil Pittman (Libbie Higgins), an older woman still living at home with her abusive stepmom Mitzy (Lynne Acton McPherson). When she’s not getting scolded by Mitzy or at work from her ass of a boss, Sybil spends her time making a decently successful YouTube show about restoring antique dolls. After receiving a damaged vintage doll from an admirer, Sybil does the decent thing and fixes the ugly thing up, only for it to kill everyone she knows.
Baby Oopsie is an odd take on the character and who’s put in a pretty weird environment for a spinoff. Taking elements from the films of John Waters with a splash of Todd Phillips Joker, Baby Oopsie may be one of the more unique films Full Moon has put out in a while. Sybil is a loser who doesn’t have the self-confidence to fend off the suspicious number of people that hate her, despite having a good heart. She just wants to play with dolls on YouTube like every other Ohioan. Seriously, everyone is comically mean to her, and she’s awkward enough to treat the few that are nice to her with a cold shoulder. Libbie Higgins sells this with her oversized glasses, terrible haircut, and lack of eye contact; you feel for Sybil, yet she’s strange enough that, like the worst cringe on YouTube, you can’t look away. Then we have Sybil’s neighbor and biggest fan, Ray Ray (Justin Armistead), who she can’t stand and is so unusual and peculiar that I thought was a John Waters creation; he is not. Ray Ray and Sybil may be worth the price of admission alone as they are so damn strange.
Producer Charles Band and director William Butler go out of their way to make almost every character the most trashy, ugly, and gross they can be. Mitzy just huffs around talking sh*t to her stepdaughter, which is played seriously for a bit but becomes a bit of a running gag where I looked forward to her next insult. Lynne Acton McPherson plays that type of southern white trash to absolute perfection. Yes, I know Ohio isn’t south, but for Baby Oopsie, you just got to roll with it. It’s such a strange move to make as most of the story takes place in the confines of an old house with a sleazy Ohio family. Sybil is the hero, the one who’s been wronged and who Oopsie will kill for before moving on to the more innocent, but it is so inherently strange that I’m more fascinated by the tone and execution than the killer doll itself.
The kills are ridiculous and corny but are handled with better care than in Demonic Toys 2. We have some decent practical effects, and Baby Oopsie is such an odd enough flick that you may find you’re more interested in the doll hoarder Sybil than the killings. My biggest issue is that the Oopsie isn’t used much and only starts killing in the second part of the story and isn’t in much of it for its own solo entry. There are a few genuinely fun parts and the characters to a lot of heavy lifting, but I wish this had more of the doll or added a higher body count to make up for time lost. The design is on the cheap side also doesn’t look close to the ’92 original. Now, Since Full Moon separated from Paramount in the mid-’90s, their budgets have never been the same, which makes a lot of the newer era stuff a step down in production quality. I get it and won’t judge too hard, but I do miss the classic look. The new Oopsie doll gets the job done but is a long way away from its contemporary’s creepy design and style.
GORE: We get a few good gory kills, with some much appreciated practical blood splatter.
BOTTOM LINE: For hardcore fans of the original film, this spinoff may be too strange of a turn to embrace fully. Still, I found the tone of Baby Oopsie different enough that, for as low budget as it is, it puts forth a better effort than the sequel for 2010 and is entertaining in the right way. Baby Oopsie is Full Moon Features meets Desperate Living with the murderous baby doll from Demonic Toys. Does it work? Not as much as it should for a killer doll flick, but that’s not to say you shouldn’t see this or that it doesn’t have other merits. It’s a good time that does its own thing with a unique set of characters. It’s more serious than Corona Zombies (which I liked, btw) and Evil Bong but still silly compared to the early ’90s stuff. For me, I’d rather Full Moon features embrace this odd indie tone over anything straight comedic, but then again, I’ve always gravitated towards the earnest or weird. If you have an open mind and want to see where Baby Oopsie goes in 2021, this is a decent ride as long as you embrace its offbeat style.
Baby Oopsie Is Out Now On VOD, Digital And, Fullmoonfeatures.com