Puppet Master 4

Year: 1993
Director: Jeff Burr
Writer: Douglas Aarniokoski, Stephen E. Carr
Genre: Horror: Evil Dolls

After the surprisingly good time I had with the last movie I wasn't sure what to expect here. Unfortunately, Puppet Master 4 falls back into 80s horror tropes for the most part and doesn't cover much new territory. Basically, this is fresh start back to the modern world.

Ancient Egyptian mystical beings are still alive and worry that our modern society is about to discover how to reanimate life. Because of this, they send out their demonic children to take out scientists involved in the project. For no good reason other than setting up the plot, the brains behind the scientific endeavor lives at the Bodega Bay Inn. This Inn is where all the events of the first and second film took place. The puppets are, of course, all still in there and ready to come to life when needed.

So for whatever reason the scientists visit their friend at the Inn. An evil Egyptian demon thing gets delivered to their house and everyone flips out, but not before bringing the puppets to life. Unlike the other films, the puppets do not rely on their initial kill instinct. Instead, they play a rousing game of laser tag. The tagline of this film is "when bad puppets turn good" and that's pretty much exactly what it is. Why they "turn good" is never really disclosed but apparently it's because their dead master crowns the geeky scientist kid the new Puppet Master.

Really though, the entire movie felt like a drawn-out episode of a TV show. Not even a good TV show either. It was dull, goofy, and didn't add anything to the world of Puppet Master. Well, aside from granting us a new, and much less fearsome master.