This is obviously one of those "killer doll" movies following the success off of Childs Play(1988). Instead of focusing on just one demonic doll purchased in the dark aisle of Toys R' Us, we have a collection of little macabre puppets who are given life by a man named Toulon who dies in the first scene of the movie which takes place in the 1940s. A long drawn out scene that could have been edited to under 5 minutes.
The film cuts forward to present day (late 80s) where a group of acquainted psychics are called together to a hotel in Bodega Bay, California, to investigate the suicide of Neil Gallagher, another psychic. In this empty hotel they encounter his laid out corpse, his widow, mysteries, and oh yeah, killer puppets which include a leach spitting hell Barbie, a puppet with a drill on his head, a macho man pin head, and my favorite, blade...a trench coat wearing skeleton with a hook and knife for hands.
The story is a little confusing and ridiculous at times. It's not well explained how the psychics know one another, or their direct ties to our deceased and clearly disliked Neil Gallagher. A good half hour is dedicated to identifying each of their psychic traits...none really directed to the puppets. The truth of the matter is that the killer puppets seem to be an addition to the plot, like an accessory to the film, but not the main premise. I'm sure that they wanted to make a film that was more sophisticated than just a "killer doll" movie...but I don't think it helped with this one. Instead of creating a plot, we are left with scenes that drag and leave us confused.
The execution of the film was mediocre. The vibe I got was that it was a cheaper low budget foreign film trying to look like a high budget American horror flick. The acting was pretty terrible. None of the characters were really memorable, except the one psychic brings her taxidermy dog everywhere she goes.
Our puppet scenes were more memorable than the characters. The most cringe worthy was leech woman vomiting leaches all over one of her victims. It literally looked like she was taking a dump out of her mouth...with gargling moaning sound affects. And our tunneler head driller ramming into one of the psychics (guess she couldn't see that coming).
Some of the puppet scenes were done with stop action and green screen, making it look really choppy and unrealistic. It gave it more of an animated feel which I don't know if it enhanced or detracted from the film. I always find something off putting about stop action and choppy edits.
Puppet Master is a series that gets better in the sequel. The story was as choppy as the effects, and the characters and vibe of the film were pretty dull. This is one of the films that you watch when you are in the mood for a killer puppet feature and nothing more. The puppet concepts are the only saving grace in my opinion. They are all unique and fun to watch for they have distinctive looks and methods of killings. Throughout the series we are introduced to new puppets that become part of the Puppet Master family.
