The Puppet Master franchise is put under the microscope, with every film in the surprisingly long series, being ranked accordingly. Freddy Krueger. Jason Voorhes. Michael Myers. Most horror that ends up turning into a franchiseβ Hellraiser, Amityville Horror, Saw, Scream , even Leprechaun βare properties that share that same degree of recognition. My association with the movies is certainly from the foregone era of video rental stores where you could aimlessly wander through the horror aisle, looking at cover art and cataloging titles in your brain.
Now that S. This trend of over the top villains continues in the best possible sense, with the film also introducing some highly disturbing, giant puppet humanoid hybrids into the mix. One of these, Camille, is truly frightening and a great visual that transcends anything from the original picture. With the kills being a major enjoyment factor in these films, each one feels fresh and is put to good use here.
The puppet work has also come much further along allowing each kill to function as more of an impressive set piece too, showing off the puppets in motion. This culminates with all of the puppets destroying the giant puppet, which is a great little sequence of teamwork. This film also gives us the introduction of Torch, a flame-based puppet, who is wonderful and ups the stakes and effects department appropriately. The film also explores the lore of the series in a creative sort of way.
The first film establishes these killer puppets and this film digs into the mythos and embraces it all.
The reason the movie works so well is because it tows that line as closely as possible without crossing it. The film wisely restarts the franchise in a modern setting rather than returning to Nazi Germany for the umpteenth time. Furthermore, the people under attack are grown adults, police, and other officials, not reckless teens, which also adds a certain validity to the film.
