Making Contact (1985)

**½

I was looking for something light hearted to screen, something along the lines of E.T. What I wasn't planning on was being scared shitless by a demented dummy.

First off, don't let me fool you, this is an E.T. rip-off. They even draft in a kid (first and only timer) who looks like the spitting image of Henry Thomas. Then you can see him in one scene drinking some milk from an E.T. glass. The problem with this one though is that it's a million miles from Spielberg's effort.
After Joey's father dies the child receives strange phone calls on his toy phone, which he believes are coming from his dead father. He then finds a creepy old dummy in a basement and soon discovers that the calls aren't from his dad, they're from something much worse. The dummy is one seriously scary character, his voice so menacing. I was not prepared for the tone of his voice.

The one thing that saves this film for me are the kids from school who are hellbent on finding out what Joey is up to. These are all in the latter stages of the film, and maybe if it had have stuck to this from the start it could have been a better film. Because it spends a large chunk of the running time with the teacher and his mom, it's quite boring to be honest. The best scenes are definitely with the kids, Joey finally makes some friends.

Decent early morning fodder but if you want to see an Emmerich film which includes a dummy and is good, check out Ghost Chase aka Hollywood-Monster. That one is really fun.