People Toys
1974 film by Sean MacGregor
People Toys is a 1974 American slasher film directed by Sean MacGregor and an uncredited David Sheldon and starring Sorrell Booke, Gene Evans, Shelley Morrison, and Leif Garrett, along with Garrett's real-life sister, Dawn Lyn and their mother, Carolyn Stellar. The film follows a group of four sociopathic, homicidal children who, accompanied by a mysterious nun, seek refuge with a number of snobbish vacationers at a lakeside chalet, only to systematically murder them one by one.
The film was re-released theatrically in 1976 under the alternate titles Devil Times Five and The Horrible House on the Hill in both the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as Tantrums in the United Kingdom on home video.
Plot
On a snowy mountain pass in Lake Arrowhead, California, a van transporting children from a psychiatric hospital crashes, apparently killing most of its passengers, aside from a young nun, Sister Hannah, and four of the children: Susan, Moe, David, and Brian. The children and Sister Hannah travel on foot, seeking shelter. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Julie and her boyfriend Rick embark to Lake Arrowhead to visit her father, Papa Doc, a real estate tycoon, at his lakeside chalet.
Julie and Rick arrive at the chalet, along with Papa Doc's conniving business associate, Harvey Beckman and his wife, Ruth; Julie witnesses Papa Doc's new young wife, Lovely, attempting to seduce the mentally disabled house servant, Ralph, and sparks a fight. Meanwhile, the four children break into the wine cellar at Papa Doc's chalet. Back at the crashed van, the children's physician, Dr. Brown, regains consciousness and begins frantically searching for the children.
“People Toys” enters the record as 1974 film by Sean MacGregor. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what People, Toys and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“People Toys” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, People, Toys and film provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7166091. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1974 and 1976.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “People Toys”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow People Toys primary sources, People Toys archive and People research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “People Toys”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “People Toys” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.