In circumstances too contrived to reveal, the soul of a young African American med student (Wade F. Wilson) is transferred into the body of a racist looking African tribal doll. The doll then teams up with his former girlfriend (Ciarra Carter) to get revenge on the crooks, cops, and politicians responsible for his demise.
Director Charles Band must’ve seen Black Devil Doll from Hell and tried to remake it in the typical Full Moon/Puppet Master style. The end results aren’t nearly as memorably offensive as that cult item. Although it never quite crosses into full-blown offensiveness, the whole thing is tonally out of whack. The oddest scene comes when Carter takes a shower after being gang raped. What does the doll do? Jerk off while watching her suds up.
I’m not sure how they roped Stacy Keach into this mess. He plays the crooked judge who secretly runs meth on the street. He chews the scenery gamely, but it looks like he filmed all his scenes in one day as he spends all his screen time behind a desk in his office. I did enjoy seeing Karen Black here though, although her presence is more of a wink to her role in Trilogy of Terror than anything else. It’s buxom porn star Siri who makes the most memorable impression as a topless party girl.
I’ve seen so many sixty-minute Full Moon movies lately that one that runs eighty-six minutes feels like a five-part mini-series in comparison. After watching this one, I appreciate those short and sweet features a lot more. Since Ooga Booga is rife with too many subplots and extraneous characters (the drunk kids’ show host being the most egregious), it often feels a lot longer than it actually is. It also features less doll attacks than you might want/expect from a Full Moon flick. It’s watchable, sure, but it never quite lives up to its potential.
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