Puppet Master: Doktor Death

I've been a fan of the puppet master franchise since I was a kid, and they've always been low budget and a little campy, which is half the charm.

Unfortunately this iteration takes this to the extreme and totally ruins what could've been a fun film to watch.

From the outset the camera work is shocking, jutters when panning across scene and hardly ever square on, leaving you struggling to focus. The music is pretty much constant in every scene which is really off putting, especially when it's just dialogue and no action.

The acting is absolutely terrible, I've seen better at the local amateur dramatic society and school performances, it's as if the just don't care.

The special effects are just as bad, nothing looking the slightest bit real and difficult to watch because of the quality.

This is one of the few films I wish I'd never have watched. Don't waste your time with this one, I'd burn all copies and erase it from existence.

I recently watched Puppet Master: Doktor Death (2022) on Tubi. The storyline follows a group of medical students working at a mortuary, unaware that it's home to a possessed puppet with its own sinister plans. The students soon find themselves the unwilling subjects of the puppet's deadly experiments.

Directed by Dave Parker (Tales of Halloween), the film stars Jenny Boswell (Call Me), Emily Sue Bengtson (Frost), Erin Eva Butcher (Saint Clare), Ashton Wolf (Mayberry Man), and Bill D. Russell (Evil Lurks).

This entry is a significant improvement over the Blade spinoff. It truly feels like a Puppet Master film from start to finish. The Doktor Death doll is an excellent villain (or hero, depending on your perspective), and the kills exceeded my expectations. The sound effects and soundtrack were solid as well. My only critique is that the scenes where characters wrestle with the puppet look awkward, but the rest of the kill sequences are entertaining. The direction of the ending was exactly what I hoped for, and I'm looking forward to a sequel. My only real gripe is that the film should have been feature-length rather than just an hour-there was potential for more development.

In conclusion, Puppet Master: Doktor Death is a strong addition to the Puppet Master universe and offers hope for a solid relaunch of the series. I'd give it a 7/10 and strongly recommend it to fans of the franchise.

I must admit that I was actually harboring some expectations to the 2022 addition to the "Puppet Master" franchise. Why? Well, I figured that it was a pretty new movie, so perhaps they upped their game somewhat. I hadn't actually heard about "Puppet Master: Doktor Death" prior to watching it as part of a "Puppet Master" movie marathon.

Director Dave Parker managed to deliver a watchable movie, for sure. But "Puppet Master: Doktor Death" was hardly the pinnacle of the franchise. The storyline in this 2022 movie was adequate. There wasn't really anything outstanding to be experienced, but it made for a watchable enough movie.

And the movie just ended very abruptly. Sure, it is so the cards are dealt for a follow-up movie, of course. But a more satisfying ending would have been preferable.

I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list in "Puppet Master: Doktor Death". The acting performances in the movie were actually fair enough, especially in comparison as to what was performed in the "Axis" trilogy of the "Puppet Master" franchise.

Visually then "Puppet Master: Doktor Death" was quite okay. Nothing outstanding for a horror movie, sure. But the special effects served the movie well enough.

My rating of "Puppet Master: Doktor Death" lands on a four out of ten stars. There simply wasn't enough murderous dolls in the movie.

Doktor Death comes in the line of Full Moon movies that try to achive Charles Band's theme of making his studio the "Marvel Comics" of the 1990s. Horror features that have a comic book tone with the prospect of future crossovers. The last movies that came out this year have been hit and miss. But with this latest spin off, I can make an exception.

The killer Doktor is let loose in a senior living home as working nurses try to figure out what's going on. This entry can be described best as the original movie but set in a nursing home. It offers a good amount of characters that sound interesting on paper. A painter that creates predicting art, a guy who binges on old VHS tapes of the Subspecies movies, a mute woman that knows what's going on and so forth. The only one that nearly ruins it is a pervy old rich man who aims to pinch the rumps on the workers. Thankfully, that doesn't get focused on and it does lead to a kill that was hilaious.

The gore effects are a mixed bag. Some of the kills are standard while others are a bit creative. There's a suspensful scene that involves a laundry room with the bedsheets hanging over and floating like ghosts. That's enough to tell me there is some effort for a low budget affair. The special effects with the killer doll refect the nature on how the kills are staged. As the movie goes on, they do get better. Especially for one particular moment that I can't give away which I thought was impressive.

As said before, this has been a hit and miss year for Full Moon Features. From giant women to fish creatures with jaw-boobs, Doktor Death really tries to bring back the old feel of what Full Moon did. It has a Creepshow vibe that is unique and doesn't go too dark with its premise. I can't say this is the best of the Puppet Master films, but its entertaining enough. How can I complain when we have a senior home that has issues of Fangoria?

On a side note, the movie ends on a cliffhanger that does suggest something. My prediction is that we will get a set of solo features on some of the puppets. We already have one on Blade, so why not? If this is the direction things will go, I'm open to it.

Puppet Master: Doktor Death, in which the titular puppet goes on a murder spree in an old folks' home, looks incredibly cheap at times.

For example, the sign for the Shady Oaks Senior Living retirement home, where most of the film takes place, is poorly photoshopped (the perspective is all wrong) and it is unconvincingly superimposed. The leaves on the sign aren't even oak leaves. And every time that horrible sign appeared, my eyes were drawn to the digitally rendered grass at its base, which doesn't match the real grass. The sign for Abbott's Funeral Services is also poorly executed: the camera tracking is off (I like to dabble in After Effects and I notice these things).

There's no disguising that this is a slapdash movie, churned out on a micro-budget with little attention to detail, so thank heavens for the blood and boobs, which always make a bad film more bearable. The death scenes are reasonably gory, and Emily Sue Bengtson, as care worker Jennifer, bares her baps, which was just enough to keep my attention for the very short runtime. As cheap and tacky as the whole thing is, it's far from the worst the series has to offer.