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Puppet Master: The Legacy, 2003
Eric (Jacob Witkin) has inherited the legendary murderous puppets, but he finds himself taken hostage by an assassin (Kate Orsini) who is determined to discover the secret to their magical animation. As the two argue over the history of the puppets, we see glimpses into their troubled past.
This barely-bookended look back at the series essentially amounts to a clip show summary of the franchise’s constantly evolving mythology, highlighting just how uneven the films have been.
When it came to watching a film from 2003, there wasn’t much that grabbed my eye. And in lieu of something average, I opted for something I knew would be at least enjoyably trashy.
The enjoyment in this case mainly comes from watching the film attempting to somehow put the events of the series into some sort of coherent storyline. Much of the film ends up in the muddled history of the puppets’ creator, a man who was persecuted by the Nazis but who also, you know, created murder puppets who then went on to murder many innocent people.
It did take me a minute to realize that all of the events in the film are clips from previous films, because I’ve only seen a handful of the Puppet Master series, which never seem to fully live up to their pulpy premise. There’s some silly prologue stuff with the Nazis. The murder sprees of the initial films. The some weird futuristic stuff. At one point, you can see that the series just fully ripped off the Twilight Zone episode “The Invaders” to the point where I’m surprised there wasn’t legal action involved.
My reaction to this film was pretty much the same as my reaction to every other film I’ve seen from the series: ehhhhhhhh. I only find one of the puppets actually scary: the Leech Woman, whose mouth distorts so that she can vomit leeches onto her victims. The rest of them are just kind of goofy and lacking in personality.
Bad, but I knew it was going to be, so whatever. I’m giving it a star for having the nerve to end out of nowhere and then go to a title page thanking everyone who has made the series a success over the years.
Puppet Master: The Legacy, 2003
Eric (Jacob Witkin) has inherited the legendary murderous puppets, but he finds himself taken hostage by an assassin (Kate Orsini) who is determined to discover the secret to their magical animation. As the two argue over the history of the puppets, we see glimpses into their troubled past.
This barely-bookended look back at the series essentially amounts to a clip show summary of the franchise’s constantly evolving mythology, highlighting just how uneven the films have been.
When it came to watching a film from 2003, there wasn’t much that grabbed my eye. And in lieu of something average, I opted for something I knew would be at least enjoyably trashy.
The enjoyment in this case mainly comes from watching the film attempting to somehow put the events of the series into some sort of coherent storyline. Much of the film ends up in the muddled history of the puppets’ creator, a man who was persecuted by the Nazis but who also, you know, created murder puppets who then went on to murder many innocent people.
It did take me a minute to realize that all of the events in the film are clips from previous films, because I’ve only seen a handful of the Puppet Master series, which never seem to fully live up to their pulpy premise. There’s some silly prologue stuff with the Nazis. The murder sprees of the initial films. The some weird futuristic stuff. At one point, you can see that the series just fully ripped off the Twilight Zone episode “The Invaders” to the point where I’m surprised there wasn’t legal action involved.
My reaction to this film was pretty much the same as my reaction to every other film I’ve seen from the series: ehhhhhhhh. I only find one of the puppets actually scary: the Leech Woman, whose mouth distorts so that she can vomit leeches onto her victims. The rest of them are just kind of goofy and lacking in personality.
Bad, but I knew it was going to be, so whatever. I’m giving it a star for having the nerve to end out of nowhere and then go to a title page thanking everyone who has made the series a success over the years.