Puppet Master

Bad acting, awful hair, horrible plot, cheesy action, hokey characters.

Still reading? Good. My brother picked this movie up for me on DVD, because he knows of my love of horror movies. My first thoughts as I inserted the disc was that it'd be a cheesy, laughable pile of 80's horror rubbish. So I was in for a pleasant surprise. If you can get past the initial presentation of the movie (it feels every bit as low-budget as it is), you'll find it to be creepy, intriguing, and above all, great fun. The puppets themselves could have been a whole lot worse. The effects are hardly Lord Of The Rings, but through a strange combination of live-action and extremely well-animated stop-motion, the puppets don't make you cringe every time they show up on screen. They're probably better actors than some of the live actors even, it's difficult to tell who's more wooden. But it's hardly a character-driven story. It's an unusual story nontheless, and it definitely interested me enough to watch it right through - and then pick up the first sequel!

If you ever saw the movie Child's Play, with which comparisons are inevitable, you'll know already whether you can suspend your disbelief enough to enjoy a movie about killer puppets. If you can, and don't mind horrific 80's haircuts, I'd strongly suggest giving this one a rental, you could do a lot worse.

Puppetmaster Andre Toulon (William Hickey) was hunted by Nazis and shot himself at the Bodega Bay Inn 50 years ago. Present day Neil Gallagher invites his psychic friends Alex Whitaker, Dana Hadley, Frank Forrester and Carissa Stamford to the Bodega Bay Inn but they find Neil had already killed himself.

It's too bad that the great William Hickey is dead in the first 10 minutes. This movie badly needs great actors. The acting in this is stiff and uncompelling. The production value never rises above B-movie level. The best thing about the entire movie is the great campy puppets. They are amazzzing.

PUPPET MASTER 1 is one of the better FULL MOON / Charles Band productions. Its strength is in its weirdness. While the human actors, including Paul Le Mat, William Hickey, and Barbara Crampton in a fun cameo, are all solid enough, it's the vicious, oddly endearing puppets themselves that steal the show.

We get: #1- Blade with his knife / hook combo! #2- Leech Woman and her mouth full of bloodsuckers! #3- Tunneler's drill-head! #4- Pinhead with his super strength and mega-fists!

As absurd as this all sounds, it works!

Alex (Le Mat) and a group of fellow psychics have their collective hands full against these tiny terrors. Director David Schmoeller makes the best of the material. Yes, it's fairly silly, but it's also enjoyable and different...

"Puppet Master" is a wonderful, good-hearted slice of old-fashioned horror nonsense from the imagination of Charles Band. Whilst short on plot, it features a variety of pretty unusual characters, some fiendishly good stop-motion and stunt puppets and a few excellent set-pieces with just enough of the red stuff thrown in for good measure.

There are some fun performances from the cast which includes the rather sexy Irene Miracle ("Inferno") and an appearance from William Hickey ("National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", "Prizzi's Honour", etc.).

It's one of those few feel-good horror movies, ideal for Christmas viewing!

When I turned on "Puppetmaster" and saw that it takes place in Bodega Bay, best known as the setting of "The Birds" (and also a movie called "The Pack"), I suspected that I was in for something neat. It's not a bad movie. Paul Le Mat (John Milner in "American Graffiti" and Melvin Dummar in "Melvin & Howard") plays a psychic who goes to a hotel to meet one of his colleagues with some other colleagues, only to slowly find out that the hotel is overrun by murderous puppets brought to life by an Egyptian formula.

This movie does have some of the sorts of things that you might expect in such a movie. Without a doubt, the puppets are the real stars, especially Blade (the one with the hook). I guess that if I could suggest a way that they might have improved the movie, then it would be to go a bit more into the back story of the ancient formula that animated the puppets. Otherwise, it's a really cool movie! Also starring William Hickey (the godfather in "Prizzi's Honor" and the patriarch in "Mouse Hunt").