After escaping from a police transport, a dying serial killer does an occult ritual to possess a group of animatronic robots at a kids' party center, causing them to come to life and attack the clueless staff and guests preparing for an upcoming party and forcing them to come together to get away alive.
This was a decent and enjoyable enough indie effort. Among the more likable factors with this one comes from the wholly serviceable and egregiously cheesy setup that manages to bring the various characters together at the location. Opening with the prisoner escaping the police escort and arriving inside the facility where the satanic ritual offers the perfect reasoning for their later rampage, the turnover into the family taking their daughter there for a party, and the staff at the center going through their own troubles with the backstage drama and new ownership potentially disrupting their plans comes together quite well. Not only providing the excuses for getting everything together but generating the kind of encounters that become prominent throughout here, this all leads nicely into the encounters of the possessed creatures coming to life to attack the clueless staff. The first few scenes before they're aware of the situation lead to a lot to like with their genuinely creepy and chilling setup in the haunted house part of the building before their cheesy rampage at the end with some great stalking, practical gore for the kills and some cheesy lines. These provide the rather likable factors here. While not overtly flaws, there are some drawbacks to this one. The main issue here is that there's a lot of downtime here that doesn't have much in the way of zomghoul action. As there's quite a lot going on with the staff and their backstage antics involving everything from misappropriated lust, love triangles, rebellious attitudes, and general laziness among other issues, not to mention the slew of personnel employed there which is legitimately encouraging to see, that still means the creatures are off-screen for large parts of this one. Before the finale, one requires the employees to go to them in the basement to blow off steam from their problems so they're kept off-screen for quite a while. That's somewhat well and good for some as the film's low-budget origins are on display here with the obvious costumes for supposed robots, CGI gore for the more expressive kills as well as several unnecessary enhancements, and the irritating tactic of switching to a security camera set up to hide the effects. These are the issues that bring this one down even if they're not true flaws.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and children-in-jeopardy.
