MaximumMadness From director David Decoteau (under an alias for some reason in the credits) comes the sixth movie in the "Puppet Master" franchise- "Curse of the Puppet Master." And to me, this is the first film in the series that was an all-in-all bad movie. Sure the previous five movies weren't high art, but they had a lot going for them. The first two films were fun little creepy horror movies that were easily accessible and had some nifty special effects. The third movie (also directed by Decoteau) was actually a decent revenge tale telling the origins of the story in Nazi Germany and had a lot of cool (albeit low budget) moments. And the fourth and fifth films, which were shot back-to-back and were essentially one movie split in half, were silly but a lot of fun and were the first movies to turn the puppets into "heroes", and actually explain more of the magic behind it all.The sixth film tries very hard to be unique, at times feeling like an ode to classic Universal monster movies like "Frankenstein", but it just can't quite pull itself together. It lacks back-story, is extremely rushed and feels a lot cheaper than the previous movies.The evil Dr. Magrew (George Peck in a delightfully hammy performance) has somehow taken possession of Andre Toulon's magical puppets, and uses them in his "House of Marvels" tourist attraction. His daughter Jane (Emily Harrison) has returned home to visit, and seems worried that his past assistant has gone missing. They soon meet socially awkward Robert "Tank" (Josh Green), a kind-hearted but meek young man whom is a talented sculptor, but is bullied by others. Magrew hired Robert to help sculpt him a new puppet, and a friendship between the two grows, as does a romance with Jane.However, when a bully from Robert's past threatens Jane, the puppets must once again resume their deadly deeds, and Magrew's devious secret plans are revealed shortly after... plans that may spell doom for the innocent Robert...The problems with the film begin from the opening credits, which made me realize this film was going to be padded beyond belief with re-used footage from the previous films. The credits seem to stretch on forever, and it's simply a montage of poorly edited snippets from previous films. And this film is very bad at hiding the fact that most of the puppet footage is re-used. You will recognize shots from the previous movies constantly, and its very distracting.This film also has a ton of continuity problems from the cheap budget- you can tell the didn't have time to shoot all of the footage they needed. (Case in point is one hilarious scene where the puppet Pinhead is injured, and while he is being fixed, they show a shot where you can clearly see him in a cage, put back together, before cutting back to him being fixed again. It was atrociously bad editing.)The biggest problem, though, is the lack of explanation of the story- the film makes no effort to connect itself to prior entries with no explanation of what happened to characters from the previous films. Also, the film seems to make up the rules as it goes along, and it's very messy- the story simply doesn't make sense, and without spoiling anything, the final 20 minutes are a poorly edited pile of shots with almost no coherence or logic. The story needed a lot more work than the screenwriters gave it.This is the first truly awful movie in the series. While a few of the entries after this one (particularly the more light-hearted and fun "Retro Puppet Master") were actually decent, starting from this movie onward, the series fell in a big, bad way. This gets a pretty-bad 3 out of 10.

Vivekmaru45 The director of Puppet Master 3: Toulon's Revenge now brings us Curse of the Puppet Master.I don't get these negative reviews. The film is not that bad. In fact I was very entertained by it. The effects in the film are better than average and so is the acting and dialogue.As a horror fan you will get all that you want in this film. Those of you who criticize this film are probably doing this because they didn't feel enough GORE in this film.For most horror fans GORE=GOOD FILM. For me, SOLID PLOT AND SUSPENSE=GOOD FILM.The film I saw says its directed by Victoria Sloan. Check out IMDb and it says its directed by David DeCoteau.(?) Apparently DeCoteau was ashamed of his ability and used the directorial pseudonym Victoria Sloan. Why ??? This guy also directed: Leather Jacket (A GAY) Love Story (1997),Creepozoids (1987) starring porn star Ashlyn Gere and Ancient Evil: Scream of the Mummy (1999).Now for a director that directed the best 3rd part of the Puppet Master Series P.M.3-Toulon's Revenge, this film should have been far better.David should go and visit a shrink to get his head straight - that's the only answer. Why this guy is still getting offers to direct films is a mystery. If he has any shame he should have stopped long ago. Majority of his films are flops.I give rating of 7/10 because of the good work he put in P.M.3. That's all the sympathy he ever get...ever.

wolfson-0714 this movie sucks and is in no mean entertaining. the only cool thing is the killer puppets!! and the creepy music. i hardly know the names of the characters because they were barely mentioned.the horrible plot: a country boy working at a gas station starts working for a puppet master while Toulon(the puppet master) plans to turn the boy into a puppet. the acting is outrageously pitiful. the boy seems half asleep throughout the movie. it is not scary! spare yourself the 90 minutes and watch a good movie. avoid at all costs. this movie is so boring too. i don't know how/why i finished it. it looks so good on the DVD cover but it is so bad. i hated it.1/10. i haven't seen any other movies in this series but i'm sure they are somewhat better. at least waist your time on those or good horror movies like Clownhouse by Victor Salva.Rated R for Some Strong Violence/Gore and for Some Language

lordzedd-3 Okay, who the hell is this Doctor Magrew and what ever happened to Rick Myers? Just because Rick wins against the forces of Sutec, doesn't meant he series of movies is over. There is always new evil a foot. Plus did the Puppets turn against him or what? Where did this Doctor Magrew come from? How did he learn that the Puppets could movie on their own? Why did Charles Band stop working on the Puppet Master series, what happened to the promised Puppet Wars? These are questions I want answers to. As for the curse of the Puppet Master, it takes forever to get going, you barely see any of the puppets in the movie, it's mostly about Tank. But still it's not totally a waste a time I give it 7 STARS to the series, but fans of the series will be disappointed. Charles please get your Puppets back!