Shadow Puppets

You know those times in Star Trek Enterprise when we were wondering what the hell does Steve Bakula do and then the writers of the show would gave us one of those "almost naked T'Pol" moments to calm us down? Well, somebody thought making an entire movie on the concept would be nice.

It is not such a bad movie, after all, though. I mean, yeah, the premise is ridiculous, the monster pathetic and the acting poor, but then there is Jolene Blalock, in her underpants! And if it is not enough for you, Natasha Alam looks good enough to eat and she gets a completely naked scene. And if this doesn't do it for you, Buffy fame Spike is there, joined by Candyman's Tony Todd.

BTW, look Tony Todd up. He is at his 136th movie and still acting strong, even if only in secondary roles. When they say supporting role, Tony understands supporting the movie industry. Lol.

So, let's sum it up: the smoke monster from Lost hunts T'Pol, Spike and Candyman in an underground facility where no one remembers who they are. And that's the original part of the movie ;)

A woman wakes up dressed only in her underwear, in a padded room, with no memory at all. She soon discovers there are more people like her with no recollection of anything. While trying to figure out where they are, a shadow creature is picking them off one by one.

This wasn't bad. Tony Todd joins the cast playing the patient with violent tendencies. The film is similar to Cube (1997) with the unknowns and how they find more people as they explore. They up the ante by throwing in a shadow monster.

Moves along at a good pace revealing more and more as the film progresses.

I found this refreshing from the usual vampire, zombie, slasher movies. This movie fits in to the mold of the classic The Thing for the simple fact that you don;t who is out to get you. With that the story was good. On the other hand the acting could have been better. Some of the characters seem lost in the scenes and I give Tony Todd props for trying to keep the story up and going. But it still falls short. It's worth a one time watch if nothing more. If you are streaming for a movie to watch for a long trip just to go to sleep. This is the one. Or a overnight party with friends that like horror flicks that are some what campy but easy on the eyes.

I enjoyed it. The basic concept is simple, of course: let's make a version of 'Cube' that is more down to earth/without the math, try even to give nice explanations for the apparently supernatural, get a few familiar faces since there are only 8 roles to be cast, and then give the picture a rusty, blood splattered look - thus it will appeal not only to the sci-fi audience, but also to the horror fans. Fair enough for a genre movie which wants to make a bit of money. 'Shadow Puppets' surely creates an atmosphere of uneasiness when none of the characters remembers who he/she is, and information is revealed only much later. It's none of the "it's Halloween again" flicks that keeps the audience awake only with a killing every five minutes, actually I think nobody at all was killed in the first half. So this may be worth checking out if you are not into horror in the first place, but also some more psychological thrillers.

What can I say? I'm a big fan of horror (as well as science fiction, and anything generally weird). If you too are a fan you will be entertained by this movie. It's a "trapped-and-hunted" movie which is a common enough plot idea, but the delivery had some originality and was very entertaining.

Basically, an unlikely mix of people (one's a nympho, for instance) wake up (separately) to find themselves in a cell in underwear with no knowledge of who they are or where they are except that they are captives of some sort. They are able to leave their cells and walk around and in so doing they eventually run into each other. There mission is of course to find out who they are, where they are, and generally: What the heck is going on!!!

I don't want to say anything more and ruin it for the rest of you. Suffice to say that you will be entertained, especially if you are into horror and sci-fi like I am. Finally, it's really hard to find a good scary horror movie these days, isn't it? Sometimes I think it's a lost art and nobody out there really knows how to scare the crap out of you anymore. In fairness, maybe it's harder to scare today's crowd who've been there, done that. I guess we've lost our innocence and the challenge for any moviemaker these days is to find the child in us and say- "Boo!" Love, Boloxxxi.