Synopsis: A
young scientist working on an artificial intelligence project is the
target of strange gremlin-like creatures, who are out to kill him and
thus terminate his research. By coincidence, in one of the rooms he
uses, there's a mysterious case containing the puppets of the "puppet
master". When the puppets are brought to life, they help destroy
the creatures.
The
whole Puppet Master series has always been one that intrigued me. The
puppets like Blade and Pinhead are instantly recognizable. They
always seem to toggle right on the line of good and evil. In the
first Puppet Master, they were essentially evil until Neil threw
Jester against a chair and they turned on him. In part 2, they are
evil. Part 3 is a prequel and while they are killing for good, they
are only doing it to get revenge for their master Andre Toulon. Part
4 is the first movie that really marked them as being on the side of
good and fighting against evil.
A
demon lord from hell sends 3 servants called totems to kill anyone
who knows the secret to animation. Three scientists are on the verge
of discovering Toulon's secret. Two of those scientists are killed
very quickly. The third, Rick, is working on the secret at the
Bodega Bay Inn (the site of the previous PM movies). Rick and three
of his friends find the puppet Blade and later find the trunk with
the other puppets; Jester, Tunneler, Pinhead, and Six Shooter (my
personal favorite). In that trunk, that also find the elixir to
animate them. They bring them back to life. Right around this time,
the three demons show up and the puppets, along with the newest
arrival Decapitron, fight the Totems and protect Rick.
This
is a solid example of the movies that are so awesomely bad. The
demons look extremely cheesy. It is hard to take the threat of the
totems seriously. They are literally like a foot tall yet there
manhandling the humans they were killing. But despite that, this is
one of those movies that you can't figure out why, but you like it.
I
have to give kudos to Full Moon for wiping the cobwebs off this one
and bringing it back to us. Releasing this on Blu-ray was a great
idea. I own the Puppet Master box set and decided to properly review
this, I would have to watch the original version that I have and than
the remastered Blu-ray. The difference was night and day. I was
actually surprised at the difference in picture and sound quality.
Everything looked so crisp. For me this was awesome because it made
the cheesy special effects actually look better. Everything from the
totems to the lasers guns to the energy beam that Decapitron shot,
all looked much better. I mean, they still look cheesy but just not
as bad. This was a straight to DVD release in '93 so if you were
expecting cutting edge FX, you are going to be very disappointed.
I
consider this movie in its original version to be a must own movie.
But after seeing this in Blu-ray, I may have to update the version I
currently own. And I'd recommend everyone else do that same.
reviewed by Bobby
thanks to blu-ray.com for the images for the Puppet Master 4.
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