John’s Old School Horror Corner: Puppet Master (1989)

MY CALL:  One of the best direct-to-video horror movies ever made.  This is fun, even cute at times while off-putting at others.  IF YOU LIKE THIS WATCH:  Ghoulies (1985) and sequels.

Andre Toulon (William Hickey; Tales from the Darkside: The Movie; The Sentinel), a seemingly good-natured man who crafted and breathed life into his puppet creations, commits suicide to avoid his capture by Nazi officers during World War II.  But, before ending his life, he safely hid his precious creations away so that they me be found present day.

Andre Toulon giving life to Jester.

Seeking Toulon’s creations, a team of psychics are guided by their visions to a large hotel on the coast.  Unlike carnival crazies and ghost hunters, these are all apparently upper-middle class academics of high society.  They waste no time pretentiously using their psychic gifts to find them.  Except, in the case, the puppets seem to be doing all the hunting.

Blade and Pinhead.

Generally, the acting is more wooden than the puppets.  But the tone of this unique horror film more than makes up for the D-list performances.  POV shots simulating scrambling puppets’-eye-views are playfully filmed.  When we see these animated puppets, the stop-motion is imperfect, but delivers a sort of youthful charm…but it can also be quite off-putting at times.

Jester’s sad face.

Blade looking pleased with himself.

The puppets come with their own amusing flavors.  Pinhead has man hands (as in a stop-motion puppet with live-action human hands), Leech Woman magically regurgitates leeches, Tunneler has a drill on his head, Blade has a hook for one hand and a blade for the other but somehow seems the nicest, and Jester strikes me as pure evil.  Leech Girl is totally gross and Pinhead is the most off-putting with his human hands.  Each puppet gets its chance to shine.

Leech Woman interrupting a sex scene.

Not exactly the Barbie your kid sister used to play with, right?

As a nice change of pace, this horror movie uses adults as its victims (not college kids or high schoolers), it’s generally well lit (almost like a daytime setting) and it’s playful.  This is also one of few movies in which I really don’t care that we don’t see the kills.  The gore is okay at first and improves in quality and quantity towards the end of the film.

If you love any of the horror franchises of the 80s, then you must at least see part one of this series!