Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Cortechba Overrated

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Warren Marris PUPPET MASTER was the first in what was to become a long running franchise sent straight to Video.The story revolves around a secret that allows a human soul to be put into a doll or puppet to give eternal life, once lost - Until guests arrive at the Bodega Bay inn where Andre Toulon, the Puppet Master, his his creations.As these films were all straight to video releases, do not expect anything too amazing from the story or effects. They were quite excellent for their time but are now very dated.With that said, the film is an excellent watch, but if you want to view all of the films in some kind of Chronological Order, Watch this one 4th in line...Switch your brain off and just enjoy some good old 80's Cheese... This movie has it in spades and is intensely watchable.

Dr_Drew_Says Puppet Master (1989): The Good, the Bad and the Blind?Synopsis: Story centering around a puppet maker from the 1930's with the power to breathe life into inanimate objects - in this case, his puppets. A group of colleagues, all with some sort of psychic powers of their own, try to track down secrets that the puppet maker left behind with the mindset of harnessing the ancient power of raising the dead.The Good: Okay, so for starters, this is pretty cool concept for a movie. There is a lot of good back-story with the character of Andre Toulon (which has far too little screen time), the puppet maker with a gift of breathing life in his puppets... which he just happens to make look kinda creepy... and with weapons for hands and heads and stuff? Uh, okay... I guess so. Anyway, the fact that there is a lot of mysticism and psychic power type of stuff going on all over the place is enough to keep your attention. I actually wanted to know what was happening and how it was all going to unfold. For a cheesy puppet-kills-people movie, the story was intriguing enough to keep my attention until the end. There's a little bit of a "who-dunnit" type mystery aspect to this movie and I guess I wasn't expecting that. It was a nice touch to the script, which isn't awful.The Bad: The acting is a bit over-the-top and not in a good way. I wouldn't call it "bad", just not great and it's distracting from the characters, because they are somewhat interesting... even if it is only from the standpoint that you want to know what their secret power is and how it relates to the overall story. Also, the puppets themselves almost become secondary to the story and at times, the writers almost forget about them... which is a bit odd. Are they good? Are they evil? It's almost like the writers couldn't figure it out. Maybe they are neither, I don't know. It was like, "Okay, I guess this is supposed to be a horror movie, so let's throw in a scene where one of the puppets does something nasty." They really seem to want to tell two stories, but don't blend them well enough to tell them both simultaneously, so it focuses more on the humans and what they are after - which is the ability, not the puppets, so the puppets become a side show instead of a centerpiece. The puppets themselves are not scary and the movie isn't overly gory, but they are kind of cool and unique to an extent, I guess.The Blind?: Are all the people in this movie blind? It's funny how no one can actually SEE the puppets running around. There are far too many scenes shot from the view of the puppet (running around on the ground, etc) and no one sees them. It wouldn't be so distracting if they didn't take a "hey, look at the cool camera trick we are doing to make it look like you are the puppet running around" every five minutes. It takes some of the believability out of the movie (and yes, I know that's an oxymoron).

ironhorse_iv It's mindless fun written by Charles Robert Band, the Founder of Full Moon Features, an company known for its direct-to-video B-List horror & sci-fi movies. Full Moon's first franchise was Puppet Master inspired from an earlier Empire film, Dolls, and United Artists' success with Child's Play the year prior. Directed by David Schmoeller, the first movie start off in 1939 at a hotel at Bodega Bay, CA where the puppet master himself, Andre Toulon (William Hickey) who commit suicide to escape being captured by Nazi spies for his knowledge of reanimation dead people and putting their souls into his puppets. Bodega Bay will be used for the settings for a lot of the Puppet Master movies. The actor that play Andre will most likely be remember to most people as Uncle Lewis from 1989's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Anyways cut to 1989, where a bunch of psychics are invited by a former colleague, Neil Gallagher. (Jimmie Skaggs) who they believe has been sending them visions of the future. Only to find that Neil Gallagher shot himself and they have come upon his funeral. If they were really psychics, how on earth did they not see that Neil killed himself? They must have not been the best of their trade. The first 40 minutes dragged on without any puppets on screen. Finally all of the psychics are attacked or killed by the puppets that remain at the hotel. Only two of them will find the connection between Andre Toulon's puppets and what happen to Neil Gallagher. Without giving away too much of the mess of a plot, the film is a bit confusing and made absolutely no sense. I watch it, a number of times, and it still doesn't. It didn't explain enough in the film, to the point, I have to guess just to fill in the blanks on the plot holes. Metaphysically speaking Neil killed himself. Okay that really tells us a lot about why there's puppets running around the hotel killing people. What did the new puppet master had against his own friends and quickly turn against his puppets? How was he able to bring himself back from the dead, when he was dead? Wouldn't it make sense if his wife use the formula to bring him back? What ever happen to his wife in the end of the film? Anyways it's never answer, and the whole heavy use of psychic power was never explain in the other films. The other thing, good about the plot was that they at less, gave the victim characters a little bit depth. Plus, the puppets seem to have more free will than the film lets on and can quickly turn sides unlike other movie monsters. They can play both the villains and the heroes. The movie got a cult following so the puppets were turn the good guys in most of the subsequent films, fighting various enemies including Nazis and inter-dimensional alien puppets. One of the treats of the movies is when new puppets are introduced, although it's always kind of sketchy as to how they come into existence considering Toulon is dead in most of them. The best thing about this movie are the puppets. Each of them having an interesting way of killing people. Blade looks like a small version of the Fisherman from 1997's I Know What You Did Last Summer with a hook. Pinhead is a Conehead lookalike muscle man mixed with Addams Family Uncle Fester who punch and strangles people. Tunneler has a drill on his head, that drills into people. Last is Ms. Leech who is a Leech-puking doll is originally terrifying. Also there is Jester who pretty much just there to be there. He's pretty useless. Overall: Puppet Master was enjoyable, but I never bought the struggle between man and puppets. Too much rolling around. Chucky from 1988's Child's Play was certainly the superior murder toy. The puppets themselves are magnificent though, but I just wouldn't see how people in this film can't overpower them. Their stop motion movement was always fantastic and creepy. Lending the film a unique eerie presence that couldn't be accomplished with CGI and this is coming from someone who thinks people are too hard on CGI. Would've been nice to see some elaboration on the sequels considering there are so many of them, but this was nice none the less. I was left scratching my head for about 90% of the movie and the other 10% of the time, I was freaked out by the puppets I do like the music. It fits the mood indeed. The movie is full of 1980's and 1990's stupid horror clichés. Following the age-old formula of people wandering off alone and getting killed one by one, stupid scenes of nudity, and pointless scenes that make no sense. It's watchable, but give up your hopes for a serious horror movie here. It's not that. So check it out if you want to.

Michael_Elliott Puppetmaster (1989) ** (out of 4) A group of psychics gather at the former house of a puppet maker (William Hickey) who killed himself back in 1939. In the present day, the psychics try to figure out some of the mysteries inside the house but they're soon attacked by his puppets who are alive and well. Charles Band and his Full Moon Pictures released quite a few movies straight to video back in the day and I think it's safe to say that this here is one of the few that managed to gather some mainstream attention. The film would eventually set forth a ton of sequels and even a few rip-offs but watching the movie I was a left a little curious as to why. There's no doubt that there's some minor appeal to this thing but for the life of me I didn't see anything overly special that would make me think that we needed a ton of sequels. I think the best thing the film has going for it is the low-budget because this manages to help build up a nice atmosphere that runs throughout the film. I thought director David Schmoeller did a nice job at building up this atmosphere that at least made you feel as if you were in some sort of fantasy land where these puppets could actually be alive. With that said, that's about the only positive thing to say about the picture. One of the biggest problems is that the so-called "mystery" is so poorly done that you're bored within the first ten-minutes and it's nearly impossible to build up any excitement in regards to what's going on. Another problem with the screenplay is that it really doesn't develop any of the main characters and in the end you have a very hard time caring for any of them and you really don't care if any of them live or not. I thought the special effects were fairly decent considering how low the budget must have been but there are a few moments where the puppets just seem to be much bigger than they actually are. There's one scene with a puppet whose head is ultra-small has its small hands around the neck of a woman and for some reason the hands are big enough to fit around her large neck. This scene doesn't work because it's obvious the hands belong to someone else but the biggest issue I had with all of the puppets was the fact that they simply weren't scary. The R-rated film offers up some brief sex scenes, some nudity and some blood but nothing overly memorable. The performances are decent at best but it's always nice to see Hickey but sadly he isn't around for long.