Joey (1985 film)

Joey, also known as Making Contact, is a 1985 West German techno-horror-fantasy film from Centropolis Film Productions (now Centropolis Entertainment). The film was co-written and directed by Roland Emmerich.

Plot
The plot concerns a 9-year-old boy named Joey Collins who loses his father, but makes contact with what he believes is his deceased parent via a small phone and is terrorized by a ventriloquist dummy named Fletcher who is possessed by a demon. The doll summons other demons and evil forces to threaten his friends, mother, and enemies. Joey must go into the spirit world to destroy the evil doll in a battle of good vs. evil. The boy develops the power of telekinesis, which soon gets out of hand.

Cast

 * Joshua Morrell as Joey Collins
 * Eva Kryll as Laura Collins
 * Jan Zierold as Martin
 * Tammy Shields as Sally
 * Barbara Klein as Haiden
 * Matthias Kraus as Bernie
 * Jack Angel as Fletcher The Dummy (voice)

Production
Roland Emmerich said of the production:"I want to make entertaining movies for a broad audience. Germany needs a film industry again. Making 'artsy' movies may be nice for the ego, but it will not feed an industry. Entertaining the masses is the foundation, and that has been neglected here fora long time. People like Spielberg and Lucas are showing the way. Why shouldn't we go in the same direction? We can do it too, and we can do it cheaper!'"

The film took a year and a half to make and Emmerich kept costs down by building his own effects studio in an abandoned factory instead of using a more expensive established effects house. In order to shoot the film in English, Emmerich recruited several of his actors from an American Military base in Germany. Completion of the film was delayed after Emmerich was dissatisfied with the initial effects work and opted to scrap the already finished effects work in order to fully redo it.

Release
Joey was released in North America as Making Contact. The North American version was heavily cut and ran 79 minutes. Despite mainly negative reviews the film was able to recoup its budget in Germany alone and generated further profits from foreign sales. Joey was subsequently released as a 2 disc DVD set featuring the original 98 minute version along with the edited North American cut. In 2016, Kino Lorber has announced a Blu-ray with a new high definition transfer and newly produced special features.

Making Contact was riffed for the 2022 Mystery Science Theater 3000 LIVE: Time Bubble Tour.