Triloquist

The latest release from Dimension’s Extreme label is a campy offering in the best, or perhaps that’s the worst tradition of films such as Child’s Play.

The film is written and directed by Mark Jones who is best known as the writer of the Leprechaun film series. This will become evident very quickly as ventriloquist doll, affectionately known as "Dummy" bears more than a subtle resemblance to the that creature of Irish folklore.

An opening prologue shows a drug-addicted ventriloquist mother of two children, Norbert and Angelina, taking a fatal overdose, leaving the kids and the dummy behind. Norbert is the genius mute who only talks through his doll while Angelina is his psychotic, yet smoking-hot sister.

After years of living in foster homes, the kids and Dummy are reunited and plan to takeover mom’s act under the bright lights of Las Vegas and head off on the long trip.

Along the way, Dummy (the voice of veteran TV actor Bruce Weitz) kills an annoying Trick-or-Treater and Angelina leaves Norbert to take the fall. She’s a good sister though and with Dummy’s aid, she kills the cops and sets her brother free to continue their murderous road trip. There are several more encounters with people along the road that end up much the same way. They eventually take a young lady named Robin hostage and amazingly don’t kill her at first, sending the sure signal to the viewer that she will survive her ordeal.

Robin tries to convince Norbert that Angelina is only using him and it’s here where the film gets extremely confusing. You never get a firm handle on just who is talking for the Dummy. Is it Norbert? Is it Angelina? Is the Dummy really alive? It’s suggested he’s running on his own through the woods to capture Robin and he apparently moves on his own on several occasions but the script jumbles everything up so poorly that you’re left scratching your head at the end. The Dummy narrates most of the film and Weitz’ narration is one of the best things about the movie. His deadpan humor and delivery is often hilarious although I could have done without the various musical interludes.

Paydin LoPachin was also a standout as the psycho sister, driven to succeed in show business. She’s one of the more intriguing female horror leads I’ve seen in sometime. It’s just too bad she was weighted down with a confusing script and gimmicks, which went for style over substance.