Rating: 2.5/5
Cult Movie Challenge 2017 | 10/52 | Full Moon Entertainment
WARNING: spoilers for Puppet Master are inevitable. Readers beware.
In the Shady Oaks cemetery, behind the Bodega Bay Inn, the puppet called Pinhead opens the casket of André Toulon, the puppeteer who brought his puppets to life back in 1939 before committing suicide. Along with four other puppets, Pinhead pours a vial onto Toulon’s corpse. The puppets watch as the skeletal corpse becomes animate.
Carolyn Bramwell tries some keys on the doors of the Bodega Bay Inn to no avail. She returns to her US Investigators of Paranormal Claims van, where her brother Patrick awaits. She asks Patrick to break in while letting Lance and Wanda out of the back of the van. Camille Kenney joins the team at the hotel, where they set up cameras and measurement tools. But she doesn’t trust their tools, relying on her psychic abilities.
I'm afraid a great violence was done here. The taint of unholy fury has been absorbed by every particle of this place.
At dinner that night, they discuss the former owner, Megan Gallagher, and her violent murder in which the killer extracted her brain through her nose. Alex Gallegher, our lone survivor from movie one, is now in an asylum after authorities believe his premonitions are lunatic ravings. But Carolyn reads an account of Toulon’s suicide that corroborates Alex’s rantings. Before they can conclude, Camille screams, having spotted two puppets. The gang goes to investigate but finds nothing.
Still, Camille warns them that they are all in danger as long as they remain in this house—I mean, inn. She plans to leave the paranormal investigators to their own devices to learn the truth—if they live to find it.
[cue evil laugh, lightning strike, and the most annoying MIDI strings you’ve ever heard]
Like the first Puppet Master, this film bombards us with information before the first act finishes, leaving me scrambling to determine the plot. I omitted four characters just to keep my summary brief. Still, with all the lore from the first movie established (and reestablished here), we get to action much quicker.
I like the puppet work and claymation! It’s not high quality, but it’s fun. Steve Welles is the only actor who appears to be having a good time. His Toulon is so silly.
I wish the movie was just pulpy puppet nonsense, but it spends SO MUCH time watching people chat, and it adds nothing to the film.
** Stray Thoughts / Spoilers **
- Richard Band has three or four presets on his Casio that he loves, and he’s not changing it for anyone.
- Charlie Spradling
- They find a vase no one broke thrown against the wall, and they don’t seem to care.
- “He can’t handle alcohol—a trait he inherited from our father.” I wonder if this will play into the plot. Nope!
- Why is a candle burning in a box under the camera receiver?
- The puppet autopsy
- Martha’s sadness over her broken doll was actually a pretty heartbreaking moment :(
- Why would a French puppet maker fleeing Nazi Germany design one of his puppets after a Nazi stormtrooper?
- I like Toulon’s Invisible Man-esque attire.
- So, Toulon’s wife and some Egyptian guy manipulate him into using animating magic? To what end? I guess we’ll have to wait for Puppet Master III to introduce another plot thread it won’t tie up.
- Oh my god, we are an hour in. I think you’ve done enough characterization, movie!
- — “I feel like this guy can explain everything.” — “I don’t care. We have another half-hour to kill, so don’t!”
- Oh, Toulon without the wraps looks pretty gross!
- Ooo, the uncanny animated life-size dolls are creepy!