Killjoy (2000 film)

Killjoy
Directed by	Craig Ross
Produced by	Mel Johnson, Jr.
Written by	Carl Washington
Starring	Ángel Vargas Vera Yell Lee Marks D Austin Jamal Grimes Corey Hampton Rani Goulant Napiera Groves Arthur Burghardt and William L. Johnson Penny Ford Dionne Rochelle Carl Washington
Music by	Richard Kosinski
Cinematography	Carl Bartels
Edited by	Craig Ross
Production company	Big City Pictures Full Moon Pictures
Distributed by	Full Moon Entertainment
Release dates	October 24, 2000 (2000-10-24)
Running time	72 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$150,000

Killjoy is a 2000 slasher film^[1] directed by Craig Ross, starring Ángel Vargas. Its sequel, Killjoy 2: Deliverance from Evil was released in 2002. A second sequel, Killjoy 3 was released in 2010, and Killjoy Goes to Hell in 2012.

Plot

The film begins with a boy named Michael, a kid who has a crush on a beautiful girl named Jada but is always rejected because Jada is stuck with a gangster, Lorenzo (Johnson). When Michael comes close to her, he is beat up by Lorenzo and his homeboys, T-Bone and Baby Boy. But Michael is secretly involved in black magic, and tries to bring a doll that he calls Killjoy to life. After he is abducted by the gangsters and brought into the woods, Michael is accidentally shot and killed by Lorenzo.

A year later, Jada is now going out with a guy named Jamal who is similar to Michael. Lorenzo is going out with a girl named Kahara, who is just like Jada. When Lorenzo leaves to have sex with her, T-Bone and Baby Boy go get ice-cream. The ice-cream man, who's dressed up like a clown really sells drugs. Baby Boy and T-Bone hop in the truck but end up in an abandoned building. They split up to find a way out. Baby Boy gets rammed into the wall by the ice-cream truck, killing him. T-Bone starts smoking pot when suddenly, it starts to burn him, and his body vanishes. His corpse ends up back to his hide-out, along with Baby Boy's. Meanwhile, Lorenzo, after having sex with Kahara, hears something outside her apartment building, and goes outside to check. He finds the ice-cream truck and opens the door, and the ice-cream man pulls him in, and ends up at the abandoned building. After finding the ice-cream man, he confronts him and shows him the (living) corpses of T-Bone and Baby Boy; after they fade away, he shoots the ice-cream man dozens of times, but the ice-cream man sucks up the bullets (a spoof of The Mask) and shoots the bullets out of his mouth, killing Lorenzo.

Meanwhile, one of Jada's friends, Monique (Austin), calls Jada, telling her that some guy (Burghardt) came in to her room and needs them to come over. The homeless man tells them that Lorenzo killed Michael a year ago, and explains that Michael was brought back to life by the Ice Cream Man, whose real name's Killjoy, the doll Michael has, and tells them that Killjoy just killed Lorenzo, Baby Boy, and T-Bone. Then he tells them that Killjoy/Michael can be killed by Jada, because the love of a young woman can destroy the evil in the heart. Before leaving, he tells them that they have to kill the doll the spirit of the ice cream man came from, and the ice cream truck is outside.

Still not believing what the homeless man said, they go inside the ice-cream truck to check it out, and they end up in the abandoned building, where they're confronted by T-Bone, Baby Boy, and Lorenzo, who souls' are under Killjoy's control and are now his accomplices. The trio start fighting the accomplices until all three are killed. Then Killjoy comes out and knocks Jamal and Monique out. He asks Jada for a kiss, upon which Jada agrees to do so, under one condition: that he will leave her world and never come back. But instead of disappearing, Killjoy transforms into Michael. Michael tells Jada that he did it all for her. Jada, who desperately wants to stop Michael/Killjoy from killing, stabs Michael to death, and Michael fades away.

Jamal, Jada, and Monique are about to leave when Killjoy, Lorenzo, T-Bone, and Baby Boy appear behind them. Jada then remembers from the Homeless man that they have to kill the doll. The trio frantically run back into the ice-cream truck, where they end up in Michael's house, where the doll lies on the floor. The doll turns into Michael, who constantly begs her for forgiveness, but Jada continues to stab it. The earth starts to shake, and while Jada, Jamal, and Monique try to stay still within the circle of candles without breaking it, Baby Boy, T-Bone, and Lorenzo's souls are sucked into a portal. The trio then watch as Killjoy finishes off Michael (via vaporization), and the trio are sent back to Jada's room, where the homeless man thanks them, and vanishes, meaning he's an angel from heaven.

The trio decides to go out and eat, when they are confronted by Ray Jackson (Washington), and Tamara (Rochelle), who are both in Jada's English class. Ray says that he gained access into the club free because his brother owns the place, and his name is......Killjoy! The trio then see that Ray turns into Killjoy, and Tamara turns into Lorenzo. Killjoy starts laughing maniacally at the trio, with Jada screaming "NO!", until Jada wakes up in bed, along with Jamal, indicating that the entire experience was all a dream. Jamal tries to calm Jada down by going under the covers to perform oral sex on her, but then rises from the covers as Killjoy. The film ends with a shot of Jada screaming and Killjoy stating, "That was some good pussay!!!", followed by evil laughter.

Cast

• Ángel Vargas as Killjoy
• Vera Yell as Jada
• Lee Marks as Jamal
• D Austin as Monique
• Jamal Grimes as Michael
• Corey Hampton as T-Bone
• Rani Goulant as Baby Boy
• Napiera Groves as Kahara
• Arthur Burghardt as Homeless Man
• William L. Johnson as Lorenzo
• Penny Ford as Singer
• Carl Washington as Ray Jackson
• Dionne Rochelle as Tamara

Release

The film was first released on DVD by Full Moon Home Video on Nov 14, 2000. It was re-released again by Film 2000 on Mar 12, 2001. Since then the film has been re-released multiple times by various distributors usually a part of a multi-disk set. The film was last released by Echo Bridge Home Entertainment as a part of a two-disk horror pack.^[2]

Reception

HorrorNews.net gave the film a mixed review criticizing the film's low-budget set location as "less than desired", and the effectiveness of the title villain stating, "while somewhat effective as a reoccurring lesser horror icon-style entity, does in fact come across as poor man’s Wish master".^[3] Chris Summerfield from Scared Stiff Reviews.com awarded the film a negative score of 4.5 out of 10, criticizing the flatness of several of the film's characters, confusing plot points, and lack of scares.^[4]

References

External links

• Killjoy at the Internet Movie Database
• Killjoy at AllMovie
• Killjoy at Rotten Tomatoes

Chris Summerfield from Scared Stiff Reviews.com awarded the film a negative score of 4.5 out of 10, criticizing the flatness of several of the film's characters, confusing plot points, and