Peopletoys (Devil Times Five) (1974) – Nostalgia Central

A van transporting a group of children from a psychiatric hospital crashes on a snowy mountain pass in Lake Arrowhead, California.

Most of the passengers are killed, except five mentally unstable young children: An albino girl who dresses like a nun and calls herself Sister Hannah (Gail Smale); David (future teenybopper pop star Leif Garrett); Susan (Tia Thompson); Moe (Leif Garrett’s real-life younger sister, Dawn Lyn), and Brian (Tierre Turner).

The children set off on foot to seek shelter.

In Los Angeles, Julie (Joan McCall) and her boyfriend Rick (Taylor Lacher) set off to Lake Arrowhead to visit her father, real estate tycoon Papa Doc (Gene Evans), at his remote lakeside chalet.

Arriving at the chalet, Julie and Rick find Papa Doc’s conniving business associate, Harvey Beckman (Sorrell Booke) and his wife, Ruth (Shelley Morrison), also present.

Julie witnesses Papa Doc’s new young wife, Lovely (Carolyn Stellar, the real-life mother of Leif Garrett and Dawn Lyn), attempting to seduce the intellectually disabled house servant, Ralph (John Durren), and sparks a fight.

Meanwhile, the children break into the wine cellar at Papa Doc’s chalet.

Back at the crashed van, the children’s physician, Dr Brown (Henry Beckman), regains consciousness and begins frantically searching for the children. He tracks them to the wine cellar, where the children murder him. They bury his corpse in the snow.

In the morning, the children surprise the residents of the chalet, and Papa Doc agrees to let them stay for one night. In conversation, David tells Harvey that he and the others were on their way to make a film in Hollywood when their van crashed.

After dinner that night, David and Brian sneak into Ralph’s cabin and disengage the generator. When Ralph goes to inspect it, he is caught in a booby trap that strangles him to death.

The next day, Rick finds Ralph’s corpse hanging from a noose in front of the generator. Papa Doc assumes Ralph committed suicide, but Rick suspects the children. He subsequently discovers that Papa Doc’s car has been tampered with and that the guns and knives in the house have gone missing.

Wearing makeup and a dress, David hacks Harvey to death with an axe while he chops wood outside.

Sister Hannah drowns Lovely in a bathtub, while Moe sets Papa Doc’s pet piranhas loose in the bathwater to devour her.

When Papa Doc witnesses the children dragging Lovely’s body through the snow, he chases after them to Ralph’s cabin, where he is killed with a knife in another rigged booby trap.

Armed with the stolen guns, the children return to the chalet, first attacking Ruth, who begs Susan to let them go. The children douse Ruth in gasoline before Susan throws a lit match onto her, burning her alive.

Rick and Julie attempt to escape on a boat, but David forces them back to the chalet at gunpoint, and the two barricade themselves in an upstairs bedroom.

In the morning, David uses a ladder to reach the bedroom window and impales Julie through the neck with a pole that he forces through the glass, killing her.

Rick, alone and desperate, witnesses the children gleefully throwing snowballs at Papa Doc’s corpse. This enrages Rick, who confronts the children outside, only to be caught in an animal trap. Sister Hannah slashes his throat with a knife, killing him.

With all the adults dead, the children drag their corpses into Ralph’s cabin and seat them around a table, playing with them as though they are dolls.

After a short time, Susan and Brian declare that it is time to move on. Moe expresses that she wants to continue playing, to which Sister Hannah responds that they will find new “toys” to play with

Released in some markets as Devil Times Five. Quentin Tarantino has since praised both the film and Leif Garrett’s performance in it.

The film’s original director, Sean MacGregor, was fired after a few weeks of difficult filming and clashing with producer Michael Blowitz (culminating in physical fistfights on set). Most of the footage was considered unusable and David Sheldon had to reshoot.

Harvey Beckman
Sorrell Booke
Papa Doc
Gene Evans
Rick
Taylor Lacher
Julie
Joan McCall
Ruth Beckman
Shelley Morrison
Lovely
Carolyn Stellar
Ralph
John Durren
David
Leif Garrett
Sister Hannah
Gail Smale
Moe
Dawn Lyn
Brian
Tierre Turner
Susan
Tia Thompson
Dr Brown
Henry Beckman

Director
Sean MacGregor (1)
David Sheldon (2)

Video