MOVIE REVIEWS

Inert first act, but decent start to the ongoing puppet-slasher series RELEASED TO VIDEO IN 1989 and directed by David Schmoeller, "Puppet Master" (or “Puppetmaster”) takes place at a striking old hotel on the California coast where four psychics gather to meet a former colleague and his wife, the heir of the grand inn. However, their colleague has committed suicide and puppets animated by Egyptian sorcery are intent on killing them off one-by-one. This was the first of a franchise that includes a dozen sequels (as of this writing), which is one more than the Friday the 13th franchise. While decidedly Grade B in quality, I liked the grand ol’ hotel setting, the cast, and the Ten Little Indians-like plot. Unfortunately, the first half hour feels lethargic and dull. From there, the film’s decent enough with quality puppet effects. Irene Miracle is stunning as a psychic biyatch and Kathryn O'Reilly & Robin Frates ain’t no slouches on the feminine front, but the filmmakers fumble the ball as far as taking advantage of these resources. Paul Le Mat is genial as the main male protagonist with frightful hair while Jimmie F. Skaggs is formidable as the colleague gone mad. THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour, 30 minutes and was shot in California (Riverside, Pasadena, etc.). WRITERS: Charles Band, Kenneth J. Hall, Schmoeller and J.S. Cardone. GRADE: C+

_Puppet Master_ is the first of the Puppet Master series of movies. It's not the best, so if this is the first Puppet Master movie you see I'd continue on with the series as the sequels are actually much better than the original. In this movie, we are introduced to the Puppet Master himself, Toulon. We don't learn much about Toulon in this movie other than he created some living puppets and killed himself rather than being captured. The bulk of the movie takes place years later when a group of new-age super friends (a psychic, a witch, a magician, etc.) go to a hotel where their other occult friend has recently died. It turns out he was after the secrets of Toulon and _something happened_. Puppet carnage ensues. The Puppet Master movies get much better after this. The latest as of this writing is "Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich," which is done by a different studio and stars Thomas Lennon. All of the original Puppet Master movies are on a video streaming service by Full Moon Features, which produced them.

**A horrible film saved by five puppets and good stop-motion animation.** I saw this film recently, following the advice of a friend, and I didn't have very high expectations: she herself had told me that it was a bad film, and I decided to confirm how bad it was. It brings us a story about living puppets that kill people... something we get tired of seeing in better movies. The problem with the film is not the puppets. This worked very well in other films, it's a relatively recurrent type of premise in horror and I even liked its technical execution, quite good thanks to good "stop-motion" animators: the main problem is a stupid script, which seems to be making fun of with the public's intelligence: it all starts with the arrival of a group of five mediums at a decadent hotel. They were called by a man they already knew, who had married the young owner of the hotel and died in the meantime. It turns out that those mediums didn't like that man at all, and one of them has the bright idea of spending that night speaking ill of the deceased in front of the widow. Speaking ill of someone at the wake itself and in front of the mourners is perhaps the rudest thing that can be done in a situation like this. The stupidity, of course, does not stop here: two of the alleged mediums are like two rabbits in heat and are only concerned with studying their own sexual performance, worthy, incidentally, of the best artists in adult cinema. The common concern of all of them is the possibility that that man, before dying, found the secret of an old toy master who committed suicide in the hotel decades before. Of course, the answer becomes obvious to us when we see all the dolls walking around the hotel in front of everyone's unsuspecting noses. And if screaming or asking for help would be the most reasonable and intelligent thing to do when a wooden doll, alive, decides to try to cut us into slices, then the characters in this film lose all sanity, because they are peacefully awaiting death. Sound stupid enough? The cast is poor, based on actors from B movies and television. None of them deserves a special mention, they are all miserable and hams. Irene Miracle and William Hickey appear in the film, but for so little time that I don't even consider them part of the cast, but mere cameos. Those who really deserve praise here are the dolls. The stop-motion animation used was the best at the time, and it works really well here. The environment, the hotel's setting, was also reasonably recreated, and the film becomes more fun when the puppets appear and start walking around.