Review of Puppetmaster (1989) by Richard D — 16 Feb 2018

We start in a big luxurious hotel back in the 1930's. Some sinister looking men come for William Hickey, who hides a trunk of living puppets he has made before sadly exiting the film. Cut to the present day (1989), and we're introduced to a bunch of psychics including Paul Le Mat who are summoned to the same hotel to find out that their colleague has died and asked for them all to come.

Now nothing much happens except for the puppets killing people. I have watched this film twice and still seem incapable of absorbing much of anything from the last hour. I can see why this spawned a franchise because the puppets are kind of cool (although a puppet that spits up leeches is a pretty stupid idea), but they haven't seemed to come up with any ideas about what to do with their cool concept.

I generally like Le Mat, but damn is he just sleepwalking through this film. Barbara Crampton has a glorified cameo early in the film that serves to remind you how much you wish she was actually in this film.

This is the film that kicked off Full Moon, and was originally supposed to be released theatrically, but was dumped straight-to-video, establishing the pattern for that company. I generally like their stuff, but this is an inauspicious beginning.