Puppet Master

Year: 1989
Director: David Schmoeller
Writer: Charles Band, Kenneth J. Hall, David Schmoeller
Genre: Horror: Evil Dolls

Apparently, this movie is meant to play off the popularity of Child's Play as well as take from the ideas presented in Dolls. Now, Dolls is a much better film than I had ever though it would be, and of course Child's Play is a personal favorite of mine so I was expecting this movie to be better than what IMDB was saying. Generally I ignore IMDB anyway since their 2-5 star films can end up being some of my personal favorites ever. Anyways, I like movies about toys and things coming to life so this was right on the money, or so I thought.

The movie is actually pretty dull. There's a few interesting things here and there but overall the story isn't giving us much new to think over. There's a "Puppet Master" from the 1920s or 30s and he commits suicide before the police can find him. I'm not sure what they were after him for, aside from his use of ancient Egyptian magic to bring life into inanimate objects (puppets!). How would they have even discovered him? Either way, after the little history lesson you're brought up to the current day where a man has just passed away...

For some reason the people who are there for his funeral are all physics of some kind. As expected, the dead man isn't quite dead either and is using puppets to kill off those psychics. Why? Well, there is a reason but most of the movie is left without one making it seem like an awkward slasher film. I did appreciate that the puppets are not purely evil though, although they are still quite fond of killing.

The movie isn't that great but it's a cult hit with certain people. This also happens to be the first film I've seen from Full Moon Pictures. I think that's pretty cool in and of itself since I've been a fan of their wacky trailers for years. After I'm done with this series (if I can bear it) I'm thinking of hitting up some other horror movie series' like Hellraiser, Silent Night Deadly Night, and Child's Play since I only ever saw the first. I'm hoping these damn Puppet Master films get better and not worse, or else I might not make it through.