Making Contact (a.k.a. Joey) (1985).

A bizarre but fascinating and quite dark German horror fantasy drama thriller that is co-written and directed by Roland Emmerich as i believe this is his best movie yet as it's better then his later hollywood stuff except "The Patriot" as this comes all the way from Germany. It's kind of a modern fairy tale but with less-sugar coating as it's the story of a young 9 year old boy who lives in Virgina Beach City, he loves movies like "Star Wars" and "E.T." as he got some merchandise on them but his dad just kicked the bucket (i.e. died) and now lives with his mother. One night he gains psychic powers and telekinetic abilities that make his toys spring to life including his Star Wars toys and even communicate with his father on a toy phone. However at school he now becomes unpopular because they think he's insane for telling him his secret that they refuse to believe. One day he finds a creepy ventriloquist dummy in an abanoned mansion that belong to a famous magician as he takes it home with him, soon he finds out it's possessed by a demon with powers like Joey's only stronger as it terrorizes the young boy, it even threatens his mother his friends, teacher, enemies and city with demons from another dimension as the boy must stop this madness.

It's one of my favorite movies since i was in junior high, at first when i saw this movie in a theater in St. Louis back in 1986 at the age of 5 in the late summer of 1986 it scared the bejesus out of me. It's an endearing and sometimes dark fable that is influenced by the works of The Grimms Brothers, Lucas and Spielberg including "The Twilight Zone" TV show and 1945's "Dead of Night", he uses some of those references even to the Lucas movies in a playful kind of way instead of mean spirited or sarcastic. The boy in this movie is cleary a E.T. and Star Wars fanatic like some children of the 80's as his dream is to live like in those movies in his imaginary world, we all had a similar kind of dream as kids cause we all wanted to live our favorite movies. The movie is about childhood innocence, imagination and even offers a good message about learning to cope with death, the dummy in this movie is the scariest to hit the screen since Fats from "Magic".

The movie can be viewed on youtube with both the heavily cut and editied altered U.S. 1986 New World Pictures version "Making Contact" and of course the uncut extended German version with english subtitles "Joey" which is the better cut:
http://www.youtube.com/user/johnlindsey289

Make sure to watch the U.S. version first then later the German version to know the differences and mysteries of the film, it's a great cult classic and yes it's Emmerich's only cult movie that has a small following.

[The Flayed One]

I haven't watched Making Contact since I was very young, but I remember being fascinated by it. The ventriloquist dummy horrified me, and the movie captivated me.

Unfortunately, it seems to have fallen under the radar. I've been meaning to watch it again, but I'm still scarred from my second viewing of Krull a few years ago. As some people like to put it, I'm most likely unconsciously avoiding the 'raping of my childhood.'

Well like i said, the movie has a cult following and is a cult movie.

I happen to be the one that has the movie on Youtube, you should subscribe to my page and it does hold up well after all these years for it's well done and suprisingly well acted even by the main child lead, it's also still quite dark. If you liked Neverending Story judging from your awesome avatar of Gmork then you'll enjoy revisiting this dark 80's horror fantasy gem from Germany. But be sure to watch the U.S. altered, heavily cut and butchered cut from New World Pictures and after that the superior uncut extended German version with english subtitles called "Joey" which makes more sense, has never before seen footage, bigger characterizations and a superior yet more beautiful music score that is dark yet magical at the same year including more darkness. It's kind of like how "Legend" from Ridley Scott came here in a screwed up and altered version then was re-issued here in 2002 with a superior uncut extended version with Jerry Goldsmith's magical score.