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Puppet Master (1989) - Directed by David Schmoeller
Genres: Supernatural Horror, Dark Fantasy
So, cheesy b-movies! What's the deal with them, right? Are they Hollywood's excuse for not coming up with anything good? I mean, imagine it. You're a critic who sees obviously cheesy puppets killing people, and he says, "A predictable death scene? Bravo! Encore!" That's essentially Puppet Master. It's campy, but not campy enough, and certainly not scary.
After a 1930's flashback where a magic puppeteer commits suicide to avoid Nazi captivity, several modern day psychics are called to meet their former colleague after his death. They meet his wife in a seaside mansion where they soon find weird things happening, including murders at the hands of those same old puppets. Aaaaand that's it.
The first ten minutes are just plain boring. It sets a magic puppeteer and the puppets, who stand out less than Geppetto ever did, as well as a cheap-ass excuse of a reason for the plot to kick off. Things pick up with some strange scenes involving dream sequences and fortune-telling. Once the major cast is kept in a whodunit-style situation where all are invited to the deceased's house, characters interact with each other in strange ways which brings out the real personality of the movie, especially when the movie dives into the various psychic powers of the group.
However, we hardly get into any real horror until the halfway mark, which means the movie spent too much time with uninspired and unemotional build up and exposition. At least we got some decent characterization out of it. And character development flat-out halts as soon as the sappy attempts at spookiness take over. It doesn't help that the music feels more fit for a cheesy kid's movie about magicians than anything. And by the last quarter, it's all just too predictable. On top of that, can the puppets teleport or what?
The way I see it, this is just another Full Moon feature with better writing than the average B-movie the company puts out. The puppets each had individual powers, but other than that they were just mini-slashers whom Chucky beats in terms of fear factor.
= 35/100.
Genres: Supernatural Horror, Dark Fantasy
So, cheesy b-movies! What's the deal with them, right? Are they Hollywood's excuse for not coming up with anything good? I mean, imagine it. You're a critic who sees obviously cheesy puppets killing people, and he says, "A predictable death scene? Bravo! Encore!" That's essentially Puppet Master. It's campy, but not campy enough, and certainly not scary.
After a 1930's flashback where a magic puppeteer commits suicide to avoid Nazi captivity, several modern day psychics are called to meet their former colleague after his death. They meet his wife in a seaside mansion where they soon find weird things happening, including murders at the hands of those same old puppets. Aaaaand that's it.
The first ten minutes are just plain boring. It sets a magic puppeteer and the puppets, who stand out less than Geppetto ever did, as well as a cheap-ass excuse of a reason for the plot to kick off. Things pick up with some strange scenes involving dream sequences and fortune-telling. Once the major cast is kept in a whodunit-style situation where all are invited to the deceased's house, characters interact with each other in strange ways which brings out the real personality of the movie, especially when the movie dives into the various psychic powers of the group.
However, we hardly get into any real horror until the halfway mark, which means the movie spent too much time with uninspired and unemotional build up and exposition. At least we got some decent characterization out of it. And character development flat-out halts as soon as the sappy attempts at spookiness take over. It doesn't help that the music feels more fit for a cheesy kid's movie about magicians than anything. And by the last quarter, it's all just too predictable. On top of that, can the puppets teleport or what?
The way I see it, this is just another Full Moon feature with better writing than the average B-movie the company puts out. The puppets each had individual powers, but other than that they were just mini-slashers whom Chucky beats in terms of fear factor.
= 35/100.