Wuchak RELEASED TO VIDEO IN 1989 and directed by David Schmoeller, "Puppet Master" (or "Puppetmaster") takes place at a striking old hotel on the California coast where four psychics gather to meet a former colleague and his wife, the heir of the grand inn. However, their colleague has committed suicide and puppets animated by Egyptian sorcery are intent on killing them off one-by-one.This was the first of a franchise that includes a dozen sequels (as of this writing), which is one more than the Friday the 13th franchise. While decidedly Grade B in quality, I liked the grand ol' hotel setting, the cast, and the Ten Little Indians-like plot. Unfortunately, the first half hour feels lethargic and dull. From there, the film's decent enough with quality puppet effects. Irene Miracle is stunning as a psychic biyatch and Kathryn O'Reilly & Robin Frates ain't no slouches on the feminine front, but the filmmakers fumble the ball as far as taking advantage of these resources. Paul Le Mat is genial as the main male protagonist with frightful hair while Jimmie F. Skaggs is formidable as the colleague gone mad. THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour, 30 minutes and was shot in California (Riverside, Pasadena, etc.). WRITERS: Charles Band, Kenneth J. Hall, Schmoeller and J.S. Cardone. GRADE: C+

SnoopyStyle Puppetmaster Andre Toulon (William Hickey) was hunted by Nazis and shot himself at the Bodega Bay Inn 50 years ago. Present day Neil Gallagher invites his psychic friends Alex Whitaker, Dana Hadley, Frank Forrester and Carissa Stamford to the Bodega Bay Inn but they find Neil had already killed himself.It's too bad that the great William Hickey is dead in the first 10 minutes. This movie badly needs great actors. The acting in this is stiff and uncompelling. The production value never rises above B-movie level. The best thing about the entire movie is the great campy puppets. They are amazzzing.

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).

Lee Eisenberg When I turned on "Puppetmaster" and saw that it takes place in Bodega Bay, best known as the setting of "The Birds" (and also a movie called "The Pack"), I suspected that I was in for something neat. It's not a bad movie. Paul Le Mat (John Milner in "American Graffiti" and Melvin Dummar in "Melvin & Howard") plays a psychic who goes to a hotel to meet one of his colleagues with some other colleagues, only to slowly find out that the hotel is overrun by murderous puppets brought to life by an Egyptian formula.This movie does have some of the sorts of things that you might expect in such a movie. Without a doubt, the puppets are the real stars, especially Blade (the one with the hook). I guess that if I could suggest a way that they might have improved the movie, then it would be to go a bit more into the back story of the ancient formula that animated the puppets. Otherwise, it's a really cool movie! Also starring William Hickey (the godfather in "Prizzi's Honor" and the patriarch in "Mouse Hunt").