It's been a long time since I watched an entire series of horror movies. I watched all the Hellraiser movies, all the Halloween movies, and I think it's about time I launch into my next series review and talk about the very strange first step for the series that is the original PUPPET MASTER.
Puppet Master is an American horror film series which focuses on a group of anthropomorphic puppets animated by an Egyptian spell, each equipped with its own unique and dangerous device and are represented as heroes, antiheroes and antagonists. The franchise was created by Charles Band and Kenneth J.Hall. Produced by Full Moon Features, the series was established in 1989 with the eponymous first installment, which has since been followed by ten sequels, a crossover with the characters of Demonic Toys, a 2018 reboot entitled The Littlest Reich, a spin-off film about the puppet Blade, an upcoming spin-off about Retro Puppet Master's Doktor Death, two comic book mini-series, an ongoing comic book series, a multiplayer video game slated to release in 2022 by October Games and numerous other collector's items.
Once upon a time I bought this movie on Blu-ray, and after I watched it for the first time I threw it in the garbage. With a name like puppet master you really expect this movie to focus on crazy puppets getting nasty kills, but that is not at all what you get with this movie. Now that I know what I'm in for, this movie definitely deserves to be re-watched with a far less cynical eye.
Assailed by nightmarish visions, Alex Whitaker and his fellow psychics descend on the Bodega Bay Inn. There, they discover that their compatriot Neil has apparently committed suicide. But, as the gruesome visions continue, they sense that there's still something sinister afoot. When they find themselves hunted by a band of homicidal marionettes created by twisted puppeteer Andre Toulon, they discover they're right.
Despite this being a full moon movie (one step above asylum movies) i was surprised to find that this movie is pretty well directed. this movie was directed by David Schmoeller, and his directing mixed with Richard Bands score really work well together to give this movie a darkly whimsical atmosphere. Normally mediocre acting can kind of ruin your immersion, but the bad acting on display feels right at home in this crazy dark and horny fairytale version of reality. and speaking of horny, its half past time we met this movies surprisingly fun group of psychics.
Four psychics miles apart are all contacted by Neil Gallagher, all five of them previously being acquaintances: Professor Alex Whitaker through a nightmare involving Neil and leeches, Dana Hadley via a premonition of her own death, and psychic researchers Frank Forrester and Carissa Stamford through unspecified means. these characters are all fun as hell and full of little personality quirks that are just as wonderfully weird as the rest of this movie. having so many psychics around means we have a good excuse for plenty of psychic vision/dream sequences that really help keeping things from getting boring. even without the Puppet element I'm a big fan of this movies setup, but even though we don't get much puppet action in this movie the puppets scenes really standout.
all in all, this movie is a thousand times better than i thought it was after my first watch.
So if you are ever in a Canadian landfill and find a copy of PUPPET MASTER on Blu-ray, you're welcome
8/10
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