Movie Review: Devil’s Junction: Handy Dandy’s Revenge
Written by J.S. Brinkley and Donald Borza II (story by) and directed by Jeff Broadstreet, Devil’s Junction: Handy Dandy’s Revenge is an independent horror film about a group of “kids” who go into an abandoned warehouse at night to scope it out as a future nightclub location. Steffen Crane’s (Jake Red) father Richard Crane (Bill Moseley) owns the warehouse building. It used to be the set for a 1960’s children’s show called “The Mr. Jolly and Handy Dandy Show”, and the show itself was surrounded by a dark past as Mr. Jolly (Bill Oberst Jr.) himself had hung himself years ago, and there were some child killings in the area at the time. Steffen convinces his friends to come into the building with him so he can show them his vision to turn the place into a nightclub but doesn’t tell them about the dark history until they are inside, and it might be too late.
Right off the bat, we would like to say that this film has its moments. It seemed a bit like the writing was very sporadic in the sense that there were a lot of things happening, but also a lot of questions left unanswered, and some of the scenes and dialogue just didn’t really feel like they were thought out well in the context of the film’s premise and continuity. They did, however, do a great job of incorporating the dolls, which was the most important thing. The dolls were foul-mouthed and felt alive. There were even some good scenes where they torture and harass people. The gore was done pretty well. There were a few scenes where there were some cool practical effects, and the special effects, in general, were pretty decent. We also thought that some of the acting was good, but some not so good. It was hard to tell if this was just in-part due to the writing, though, so it was ok.
Overall, Devil’s Junction: Handy Dandy’s Revenge isn’t the best film we have seen when it comes to horror films having dolls that come to life, but it also wasn’t the worst by far. It had a lot of charm. It also had most of the things you would expect to see in a cheesy horror film with foul-mouthed killer dolls and college students: Drugs, alcohol, nudity, questionable decisions, gore, and other miscellaneous horror tropes that you know and love. We think this was a pretty average indie film, but if you are into horror and killer dolls, we would recommend this before we would the 2019 Child’s Play film. While we wish the writing was a bit better and not so scattered, it is worth a watch. You can find Devil’s Junction: Handy Dandy’s Revenge on 11/5 on-demand and also DVD from Midnight Releasing.
