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NO-STRINGS-ATTACHED DOUBLE FEATURE: A Review of ‘Puppet Master’ & ‘Puppet Master 2’

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The two that started a sprawling chronology of films show us exactly how to keep it weird and make it creepy.

I’ve often heard horror fans bemoan a lack of more original creature designs. People want more outlandish, more inspired, and frankly weirder monsters.And boy, if you like killer toys, have I got a deal for you.

Kicking off our Full Moon February series of reviews, I’ve got to acknowledge the most iconic of the creations Full Moon Productions has made. The Puppet Master series is one of those film franchises that has always been near and dear to me because they were partially one of the series that got me into horror in the first place. They’re a gateway drug that is just the perfect blend of silliness and well-made horror to entice an audience with pure fun.

The first film sets itself up as a psychic murder mystery in which our main cast attempts to understand how they were telepathically contacted by a dead man through fragmented visions of the deceased. It’s a very clever setup, and in retrospect, I appreciate it more now than when I first watched it for evil puppets murdering people. I would like it even more…if this film didn’t have a massive problem in that our first glimpse of the puppets in action killing around the 40-minute mark.

The acting in this is your typical 80’s b-movie fare, and nobody quite stands out as particularly great or memorably terrible. The best of the cast is Irene Miracle playing the fortune teller & southern belle Dana, who spends a hilarious amount of screen time talking to her taxidermied dog. Many of the dryline deliveries in this film add to the comedy we get, unintentional and otherwise.

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David Schmoeller’s directing is as always well done and reminds me a lot of the work he did in Crawlspace, but he’s at his best highlighting the real stars of the show: the puppets! They’re all very doofy looking, but Schmoeller manages to eke out some genuinely creepy shots of them here and there, with Blade and Leech Woman being by far the most memorable in this regard. If they had given this film ten extra minutes of them causing mayhem, it would be golden.

RATING: 6.5 (Killer Toy Franchise Starters)/10. An above-average movie with some hard to ignore pacing and script issues. It’s sleazy at points like most of its low-budget contemporaries of the time, but it’s just weird and unique enough to stand out among them with its bizarre story and even more bizarre killers. It’s a cult classic that I’ve come to embrace fully, flaws and all, but this is one you’re going to have to give some serious time to win you over.

* * *

Oh, look, the budget kicked in!

Charles Band took everything learned from the first production and gave us a rollicking good time back with 2. There’s a real sense of growth creatively, and a major overhaul tone-wise to go more in line with the phantasmagoria and humor of the first. It has the vibes of 60s & 70s horror almost, composed to the tune of something like The Abominable Dr. Phibes, but it has all the new age effects & camp of films like the still new to the scene Child’s Play series. Coincidentally, Child’s Play 2 was released barely eight days apart from this film. Happy accidents, huh?

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Puppet Master had a big problem in that it slowed down to a snail’s pace past the 20-minute mark. 2 does away with the slow burn mystery in favor of a ridiculous and gory roller coaster, at the heart of which is a plot in which the puppets are removing people’s brains for their master, the resurrected Andre Toulon.

Speaking of Toulon, I’m glad they fully realized his potential with this one for the sake of the great special effects they used on him. This is one of the few movies that has undead makeup so good you hope they get something to cover it up; then you have the unfortunate result of being more creeped out by the fake, fleshy doll mask he ends up putting on.

David Allen and his puppeteering crew hit their stride with the effects this time around, especially with their expanded influence on the cinematography. A lot of the best of this film is due to Allen taking over as director for this installment. After all, who truly knows better how their effects work on screen than the person making them?

Say what you will about puppets murdering people being silly; the uncanny stop motion in this film will always put a tingle up my spine. If you don’t believe me, watch that shot of Blade jumping off the bed and running and tell me it doesn’t look freaky. These movies achieve the impossible by taking the ridiculous killer doll angle and coming up with very non-ridiculous ways to show their killing sprees.

RATING: 9 (Magical Puppet Flamethrower Immolations)/10. More SFX madness and makeup enhance a bonkers script. They took everything the first did and crank up the fun by several orders of magnitude. I hate that Allen never returned to the directing chair, because this is the blueprint for great Puppet Master films.

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You can sign up to stream ‘Puppet Master’ and ‘Puppet Master 2’ here.

Luis Pomales-Diaz is a freelance writer and lover of fantasy, sci-fi, and of course, horror. When he isn't working on a new article or short story, he can usually be found watching schlocky movies and forgotten television shows.

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[REVIEW] ‘The Dead Thing’ Takes Ghosting To A Whole New Level

The Dead Thing follows Alex (Blu Hunt), a young woman who works late hours, lives by the rays of a sunlamp, and is looking for the one connection that will make life seem less cyclical. When Alex meets Kyle (Ben Smith-Peterson), it seems like things will finally be going in her favor. But all that glitters is not gold. As quickly as he came, he vanished. Hurt, confused, and pissed, Alex tries to get to the bottom of why Kyle disappeared from her life. Some stones are meant to be left unturned.

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Elric Kane has been a prominent voice in the film and horror space for a long time. One of my fondest memories of Kane is his longtime hosting gig on the Shock Waves Podcast. The amount of film knowledge and obscure films I learned about from him and Dr. Rebekah McKendry singlehandedly fueled my interest in collecting physical media. Hearing how passionate and intense they were with their love of the genre is also what started me down the path of writing. While Dr. McKendry has previously dipped her toes in the feature filmmaking game, it’s now time for Elric Kane to do so.

Cut to: The Dead Thing.

The Dead Thing follows Alex (Blu Hunt), a young woman who works late hours, lives by the rays of a sunlamp, and is looking for the one connection that will make life seem less cyclical. When Alex meets Kyle (Ben Smith-Peterson), it seems like things will finally be going in her favor. But all that glitters is not gold. As quickly as he came, he vanished. Hurt, confused, and pissed, Alex tries to get to the bottom of why Kyle disappeared from her life. Some stones are meant to be left unturned.

Writer/director Elric Kane’s (and co-writer Webb Wilcoxen) singular debut feature film is a superbly crafted supernatural spectacle. The Dead Thing starts slow and deliberate; rather than rushing into an overwritten plot with underwritten characters, Kane and Wilcoxen allow the audience to sit with Alex in her neverending love life. One aspect of Alex that I, and hopefully many will, appreciate is how Alex is written. Rarely does Alex feel written from the perspective of the male gaze. Her life may not be going in the exact direction she wants, but the film never makes it out to be a her problem. At no point do they try and make Alex out to be a floozy or condemn her for the life she’s living, instead they make those who live the same kind of lifestyle feel seen. The film asks the audience if they ever feel like there’s no escape; too many of us can relate to that.

It doesn’t matter how a character is written if the acting doesn’t deliver, and Blu Hunt delivers. Set aside the fact that she has one of the most badass names I’ve ever heard, Hunt provides an astounding lead performance. Whether she’s walking alone down a Los Angeles street, or playing off of her longtime friend Cara (Katherine Hughes), coworker Chris (John Karna), or the mysterious[ly handsome] Kyle, Hunt gives it her all. It helps that Ben Smith-Peterson and the supporting cast all give overwhelmingly brilliant performances.

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Supernatural stories aren’t usually my go-to. They can be too overwritten, too style over substance, too “elevated”, or just plain boring. The Dead Thing quickly finds its footing and lets the audience accept it or not. Kane and cinematographer Ioana Vasile (who was a still photographer for Pontypool!!!) wonderfully capture the sometimes-solitary, sometimes-overstimulating beautiful hellscape that is Los Angeles. It should also be noted that one of my favorite actors in the world, Matt Mercer is a producer on this film.

The Dead Thing hits the perfect blend of claustrophobic loneliness and endless yearning. Just like Dr. Rebekah McKendry, it’s clear that Elric Kane doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk. For his debut feature film, The Dead Thing doesn’t need resuscitation. I’d say run, don’t walk, to check this one out, but if you do…look left and right before crossing the street.

The Dead Thing hits Shudder on Friday, February 14! Watch it with your partner if you can, or watch it alone with a tub of ice cream and an overflowing glass of wine. I won’t judge.

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[REVIEW] ‘Bride of Chucky’ Takes The Franchise In A New Direction

Bride of Chucky follows two groups of people who inevitably meet up for a final climactic finale. Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly) procures Chucky’s (Brad Dourif) body following the events of Child’s Play 3. Her goal is to perform a voodoo ritual to put his soul back into a human’s body. Through a questionable series of events, Chucky kills Tiffany and puts her soul into the body of a doll. The side story follows Jade Kincaid (Katherine Heigl) and Jesse Miller (Nick Stabile) who elope, with a thousand dollars, from Jade’s overbearing police chief uncle Warren (John Ritter). After Chucky kills Warren, Jade and Jesse are fingered for the murder. That’s when hijinks ensue.

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The Child’s Play franchise is all over the place. What started as a [fairly] serious slasher series surrounding a killer doll would morph into a Nightmare on Elm Street-like horror comedy before self-correcting to find a solid middle ground. I’ll be the first to admit that I have never really cared much for this franchise. Child’s Play frightened me when I was a kid, and it wouldn’t be until my college years that I decided to watch Bride and Seed–this altered my overall opinion of what the franchise stood for. Watching Child’s Play 2 and 3 back in college left me wondering how a franchise as culturally impactful as this one fluctuated in style and substance.

Bride of Chucky follows two groups of people who inevitably meet up for a final climactic finale. Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly) procures Chucky’s (Brad Dourif) body following the events of Child’s Play 3. Her goal is to perform a voodoo ritual to put his soul back into a human’s body. Through a questionable series of events, Chucky kills Tiffany and puts her soul into the body of a doll. The side story follows Jade Kincaid (Katherine Heigl) and Jesse Miller (Nick Stabile) who elope, with a thousand dollars, from Jade’s overbearing police chief uncle Warren (John Ritter). After Chucky kills Warren, Jade and Jesse are fingered for the murder. That’s when hijinks ensue.

Before the comments start, let’s return to the opening comment regarding Child’s Play turning into a horror comedy. Chucky was always one for quips. Like Freddy Krueger, Chucky would hit a one-liner shortly before or after his kill. These jokes worked to help cut through Chucky’s horror. It gave some momentary relief from the kills. Bride of Chucky is just one long gag, and for me, it’s frustrating. Like Nightmare, Bride of Chucky has lost the plot. Every scene seems to exist to facilitate a setup for the next bit or one-liner, rather than having moments of comedy flow naturally. The doll sex scene and swinger couple bits are just poorly thought-out filler.

I know this is going to anger some of you, but Bride of Chucky is a seriously awful movie.

There are a few moments that I do truly enjoy and work well in the overall Child’s Play universe. Tiffany kills the officer she buys Chucky’s body from with a nail file and then uses it to file her nails. The moment Tiffany stabs Chucky in the back at the cemetery is a great character moment, but it makes everything that led up to it pointless. With the exception of a few moments here and there, Bride of Chucky ends up being a chore to watch rather than entertainment. For a genre that has always been political, gay representation has been lacking for quite some time. The character of David Collins (Gordon Michael Woolvett) is a welcome addition to the story, but he feels underutilized in the grand scheme of it all.

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While I may not care for the franchise much, I’ve done some research on it over the years. Bride of Chucky features many recycled bits from other Child’s Play scripts and you can really feel it. The kills are few and far between and feel overly forced. Child’s Play 4 was initially put on hold after the abysmal box office of Child’s Play 3 and maybe writer/director Don Mancini should have taken another year or so to really flesh out the canon of Chucky. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of Tiffany becoming a doll and becoming pregnant with Chucky’s baby. But I don’t think the ends justify the means.

Cult and Curse of Chucky, thankfully, take the series back to a more grounded and to-the-roots nature of what Child’s Play was, and I’m glad it took nearly a decade after Seed for it to come to fruition. Mancini is an excellent voice in horror, but time and constraints are necessary for his vision to be fully realized. Those who are Child’s Play die-hards will probably disagree with everything I’ve said, and that’s okay. As a casual Chucky fan, Bride of Chucky feels nothing more than a nu-metal, Hot Topic, try-hard entry into the franchise. The kills look solid, and Dourif gives an incredible vocal performance (as always) but there’s little to no substance to Bride of Chucky.

No wonder half of all marriages end in divorce.

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