Puppet Master

Big Sky Films

Beyond Home Entertainment

All Region PAL

Charles Brand is a prolific cult film producer and one of his most successful series has been the Puppet Master films. The original film which started it all was Puppet Master and dates from 1989. It is an unusual cult/horror film which combines a B grade sensibility with a strange and wonderful set of weird characters. It has moderate gore, a twisted plot and some truly awesome puppets. The special effects are stop motion and are little dated but are certainly a lot of fun. There are some strange moments such as a slashed throat that does not bleed and a horny puppet and that oozes slugs from her mouth they all add to the weirdness of the tale.

The film opens as Toulon, a puppet maker, is breathing life into a new puppet. He has a strange and wonderful family of living puppets which include Blade, Jester, Leech Woman, Pin Head, and Tunneler. Tunneler has a nasty habit of boring holes into people’s flesh with his drill bit head; Leech Woman is a sexy puppet who regurgitates killer leeches which suck her victims dry; Pin Head strangles his victims with his powerful vice-like hands; Blade has a gleaming hook for one hand and a razor-sharp knife for the other and Jester, the brains and meanest of the bunch

It seems he has mastered the ability to bring puppets to life and this ability is desired by the Nazis. To stop them getting their hands on his knowledge he hides his puppets behind a wall and commits suicide.

Years late a team of psychics who have worked together on various projects answer a psychic call from Neil Gallagher to meet him at an isolated resort. When they arrive they find he has died but they all are plagued with odd feelings and strange dreams. The characters are all unusual from Dana the bitchy white witch with her stuffed dog to the psychic couple who used wild sex to stimulate their abilities. There is also Alex Whittaker, a dream psychic and academic.

As they settle in for Neil’s funeral weird events occur, Neil’s body seems to move itself in and out of its coffin and the maid has gone missing.

Things begin to take a turn for the worse; one by one the psychics are attacked and killed by Toulon’s puppets which are now under Neil’s control. It seems Neil did commit suicide but then used the “Ancient Egypt puppet masters magic” to bring himself back from the dead. He needs to kills everyone who is psychically linked to him in case they try and steal his secret knowledge.

While he is now immortal he can be killed but only if his body is hacked and destroyed.

The film climaxes as Neil “resurrects” and just as he thinks he has it made, he makes the fateful mistake of dissing his puppets. Now they are out for revenge and soon he will taste their fury.

The DVD from Big Sky includes a commentary, featurette and trailer.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.1 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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