Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich

"Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich" (2018, Sonny Laguna, Tommy Wiklund, RLJE Films) is a reboot film to the franchise and is  canon to the original film.


Edgar (Thomas Lennon) returns to his parents house after the death of his brother and discovers a puppet in with his brother's things. But not any old puppet, it's a Blade puppet. A quick internet search tells Edgar that the Toulon puppet is valuable and that there is a Toulon murder convention nearby. Edgar, his new girlfriend, Ashley (Jenny Pellicer) and his best pal, Markowitz (Nelson Franklin), travel to the convention to learn more. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to them, the spirit of Andre Toulon (Udo Kier) and his murderous little creations are about to start a bloodbath.


A completely bonkers B-movie  that serves up some quality practical gore amongst ridiculous action, tongue-in-cheek scripting and a liberal serving of boobs, blood and bad taste humour. With a change to the previous films' plotline, Toulon is this time revealed to have Nazi ties and his puppets' evil ways lead to some creative death scenes. The movie throws everything it can at the audience, no matter how batshit crazy it may be. We are also introduced to a few more puppet characters, and the film opens up a few new doors for yet further sequels in the franchise.


Humorous, insane and close to the knuckle in most scenes this film manages to bring Toulon's puppets into the modern day in the true Puppet Master so-bad-it's-good spirit.

[Image: RLJE Films]

Hani

ABRUPTIO: Support the online crowdfunder

"ABRUPTIO" is a feature film using puppets. It was written, produced and directed by experienced husband and wife team, Evan and Kerry Marlowe.

**Update** Thanks to all the support for this Crowdfunding campaign, "Abruptio" has moved into the next stage of production! I, for one, am so excited! 


The film is an homage to 70s horror and centres around a man (puppet) waking to find that he has had an explosive device implanted into his neck by a devious mastermind. He must do what he's instructed, no matter how unsavoury, or risk being blown up!


Viewers will be familiar with many of the cast (which includes some personal favourites of mine) including James Marsters, Robert Englund, Sid Haig, Jordan Peele, Hana Mae Lee, Christopher McDonald and Rich Fulcher.


Prop and effects nerds like me will also recognise the name of creature creator Jeff Farley who has worked on many well-known titles including 1989's Pet Sematrary.


The film is nearing the next stages and, if like me you fancy helping out, Kerry Marlowe has recently set up an online crowd fund on Seed&Spark to keep the project moving on (and finance some more fake blood, which I'm fully on board with).


You can find the fund over on www.seedandspark.com - here
You can also find more information about the project at www.abruptio.com


Let's help get this movie made!

[Image: www.abruptio.com]

Hani

Silently Within Your Shadow

"Silently Within Your Shadow" (2015, Scott Lyus, Crossroad Pictures) is a short horror from the creator/director of "The Order of the Ram" (2013). Having picked up a couple of awards and completing many festivals, it is currently available to view on Amazon.

Lucette (Sophie Tergeist) is a budding ventriloquist. Her boyfriend, Jace (Byron Fernandes), is jealous of Lucette's close relationship (see "obsession") with her dummy, Hugo (voiced by Bill Moseley). He feels that they're trapped in a strange love triangle where the dummy is always present. His protests are not heard, however, as Lucette says simply that Hugo does not like to be alone....

As things progress, more than Jace and Lucette's relationship becomes strained. And Hugo begins to make his presence known.

A fun short of around 15 minutes run time. Whilst the premise isn't hugely innovative, the film really earns credit due to some smooth editing and by not overusing the puppet prop too much. He's utilised just enough to make him creepy and Bill Moseley gives him an excellent chilling edge.

The story is built up in a good, timely manner with enough dialogue to understand the characters and plot without going overboard and becoming too bogged down in monologue scenes. The stage scenes are particularly well shot considering the budget.

A very 'indie' style film, but with some nice character to it and some fun, bloody pay off within also.

[Image: Crossroad Pictures]

Hani

Puppet Master 2

"Puppet Master 2" (1991, Dave Allen, Full Moon Entertainment) is the sequel to "Puppet Master"... surprisingly....

The Puppets are back at the Bodega Bay hotel and have raised their original Puppet Master, Andre Toulon (Steve Welles) from the grave using the same dark mojo that animates themselves. Unlike in the first film, however, Toulon is not using the puppets for good and decides to set them upon a group of paranormal investigators who are checking out the hotel after the events of the first film. He's also got his sights set on young Carolyn (Elizabeth Maclellan) whom he believes is the reincarnation of his wife, Elsa.

A slightly better made production which appeared to have more of a budget, "Puppet Master 2" looks slightly shinier, but lacks the gore of the first film. However, the dialogue and scripting is much improved, only being half as boring as the original.

The puppets are still wonderfully animated for a low budget film and enjoy more screen time. While it doesn't do much for franchise in terms of plot or acting and is riddled with plotholes, but it's a fun little flick.

[Image: Full Moon Entertainment]

Hani

Puppet Master

"Puppet Master" (1989, David Schmoeller, Full Moon Productions, Paramount Pictures) is the first film in the Puppet Master series. Coincidentally, it was also the first film I ever streamed back when that was a novel idea!

An old puppeteer named Andre Toulon (William Hickey) is interrupted in his work (making, caring for and bringing to life weapon toting little puppets) by two Nazis. In order to escape them he hides his creations and then kills himself.

Now in the 80s, the hotel where the above took place is now a large house. The owner of which, Megan (Robin Frates), is mourning the sudden death of her husband, Neil (Jimmie F. Skaggs). Megan is also entertaining guests, the psychics and magicians of her husband's circle. All of whom are nasty, except Alex (Paul Le Mat), Alex is ok.

It would appear that ol' Neil has found Toulon's secret and brought back the puppets. But only a true Puppet Master can control the little beggers, and Neil is dead! So who can stop the puppets as they kill each of Megan's guests?

A delightfully low budget gore fest with lots of simple effects, shady 'puppet view' camera angles and excellently animated puppets. The death scenes are hokey, but excellent in that nice blood spatteringly 80s way.

The dialogue is a little boring and stilted, but it remains one of my favourite 'possessed doll' horrors to date.

[Image: Full Moon Productions]

Hani

Puppet Master Vs Demonic Toys

"Puppet Master Vs Demonic Toys" (2004, Ted Nicolau, Terry Kelley) is the 9th film in the Puppet Master series and the first cross over with the Demonic Toys Series. Definitely a made-for-TV film. And it's set at Christmas. And that should tell you all you need to know about it!

Ok, Ok, I'll tell you more :)

Robert Toulon (Corey Feldman) is the great-grandnephew (seriously...) of the original Puppet Master, Andre Toulon from the first movie. Robert and his daughter Alexandra (Danielle Keaton) live in a Doll Hospital, surrounded by toys which they repair. They're both kind of weird, like awkward children. I'm going assume that this was intentional.

Robert seems to have a bit of an obsession with bringing the original Toulon puppets back to life... Why, at this particular second, I don't know... but it's handy that he does because the Sharpe Corporation, an evil toy manufacturer run by Erica Sharpe (Vanessa Angel), are spying on him in order to steal his secrets and his puppets... and unfortunately his blood, because that's the main ingredient in the potion!

Erica is also quite childlike, but more like a little spoiled, bratty, girl. She kind of reminds me of Glory from BTVS, but that might just be her dress sense.

Robert and Alexandra work out how to animate the puppets on Christmas eve (ah, the magic of Christmas, bringing murderous puppets to life!) and explain to them that they are their new masters. The Puppets seem cool with that, and don't attack them.

Erica's recent line of Christmas toys are called "Christmas Pals" (damn original!) and they are alive. Well, they're demons inside the toys. The demons are there as Erica's misguided father sold his soul in order to please her with 'living' dolls. In order to control them, she has to sacrifice virgins (usually secretaries) to the demon Bael (who had surprisingly good makeup!).

The box said "Monsters, in-your-face-gore and breast-focused nudity".... there are none of these things, much to my buddy Jim's disappointment. It should have said "Evil toys and puppets, some fake blood and a secretary gets her shirt ripped open and her cleavage bitten by a demonic baby doll".... But I suppose that wouldn't have sounded half so good, right?

The demons are crass and rude, as demons tend to be, and Erica wants Toulon's secrets so that she can make obedient, yet nasty little guard puppets of her own. But she's selling Demonic Toys to children as she hopes to rule the Earth; as any modern business woman does, right? No?

After an attack by the Sharpe company, Robert and Alex flee their home and fix up the puppets with some kind of cyborg weaponry. The puppets seem pleased with this, which is good and well, else our story would have been cut short when Blade decided to cut up Toulon.

But the fun soon moves to the Sharpe company premises, where the puppets face off against the toys in a very retro-styled scene by special effects dude, David Allen, and Toulon seems to take 10 minutes to get past one guy to save his daughter from certain death by iron maiden (the torture device, not the band).

There's also a random cop lady, Jessica (Silvia Suvadova), who inspected the Toulon premises solo, decided she quite fancied a bit of Robert Toulon, and has since just been around, solo... Is it just me, or do cops usually run in pairs??? And how did she know where Toulon's ex-wife's mansion was?!

So who will win? The Puppets with their weapons, or the Demonic Toys with their teeth and apparently eye bursting laughs, I'm looking at you Jack Attack! Well you'll have to watch and see for yourself!

The special effects aren't great for a 00s movie. But the animation of Jack Attack is particularly good, especially when he, snake like, escapes his box. And I think the awkward, almost stop-animation technique adds some charm to the puppets and toys, as this is how I'd picture them moving! Also, I could get really geeky here and bring up the stop-motion master, Ray Harryhausen, and over-analyse by saying that maybe David Allen was paying some homage to him in some way. But then again, maybe it's just a low-budge made-for-TV film, and I'm just a SFX nerd... probably more likely.

Corey Feldman's Robert Toulon character is awkward and a bit nuts, but I find this entertaining. Plus, he keeps tripping over things, which I presume to be part of the plot, or else someone put the mark on the wrong bit of floor for him! He's also got that funny voice thing going on again (you know, the one Chrisian Bale is so fond of mimicking in Batman).

The plot is just nuts, the script is not the best, with lines like "What's the ruckus?" and a need to explain every move of every character, just in case you didn't think what they were doing was in any way to do with plot development.

And as I said, no nudity, other than Corey Feldman in his boxers, a secretary's bra and an evil corporation lady's almost boobs. Oh, and did I mention a particular lack of blood?

Also, Feldman and Keaton don't really look much like father and daughter. But I can assure you, he's about 33-ish in this film, and the pigtails she's sporting indicate 'young teens' in the movies, so I suppose it's ok.

But all in all, I laughed, Jim laughed and now we have something else to watch on Christmas eve along with 'Die Hard' and 'Scrooged'.

[Would you shake hands with Pinhead?

Picture: Sci Fi Pictures]

Hani