Buy Curse Of The Puppet Master On Amazon
Curse is the umpteenth movie in the already declining Puppet Master series and while it has some redeeming qualities, it falls flat in a lot of places.
The movie opens with a man (Dr. Magrew) disposing of some sort of item in the woods. When next learn that the good doctor (for whom no background information is provided) now has the puppets and is keeping them in his workshop and is desperately working to have the capacity to bring a new puppet to life.
Next we meet ‘Tank’ (whose given name is Robert), a schlep that works at a service station and a meek, sad total push-over. He is being heckled and shoved down by a group of bullies and their fearless leader (who is hilarious). Turns out Tank also has a knack for carving things and is picked up by the doctor to do some “work” for him.
Flash forward, Tank is taken to Magrew’s crib/museum and introduced to his daughter Jane, who clearly has a crush on Tank. Magrew sets him up in the workshop and instructs him on what he needs to do to get going as well as introducing him to the remaining puppets, Blade, Pinhead, Leechwoman (who was supposed to be dead?), Tunneler, and my personal favorite – Jester.
The museum is then visited by the local (asshole) police goons who are inquiring about another young man who lived with and worked for the doctor. Hm. Magrew kind of gives them the ol’ what-for, but the cops remain suspect of him and are still total dicks when they are on their way out.
The rest of the story is somewhat complicated (for a Full Moon movie at least). Eventually Dr. Magrew’s true plan comes to life and we are treated to a lot of slowly executed scenes, a couple of re-hashed kills (actually footage from other Puppet Master movies) and the ending, which is absolutely atrocious. It kills the entire movie and gives you the feeling that you just totally wasted the time spent on watching this.
All of that said, this is still entertaining and still held my interest. The audio and video work in fair enough, but in another detracting element – all of the new puppet stuff is poorly done and their movement is extremely limited. I’m guessing this was due to budget restrictions.
The DVD is short on features, which seems to be a trend once the ‘Lunar Edition’ discs stopped being rolled out. It doesn’t really leave a lot to be desired in my eyes, because no-feature DVDs from Full Moon are pretty much the norm.
Even though I have missed a few of the Puppet Master movies to come before this one, I was still able to get around the massive plot holes, a total lack of back-story and inconsistencies to enjoy this.
*** out of 5.
