The Puppetman

The Puppetman is a horror movie directed by Brandon Christensen. The movie tells the story of Michal, the daughter of a convicted killer on death row who always maintained his innocence and claimed that an evil force controlled his body as he slaughtered his victims. Michal begins to suspect that there may be some truth to her father's claim when those around her begin to die in brutal ways. She must try and break the curse of The Puppetman before all her loved ones are killed.

Well, the Puppetman is a 2023 horror flick with a decent story, some blood and gore, decent acting, a few twists, nice photo and music/ambience and with a new spin on the occult and possession horror. But it falls short and fails to stand out, mainly because of the many clichés and its disjointed narrative. The plot holes are many, and towards the end the movie becomes even more nonsensical.

However the effects are well made, and some of the story line feels fresh. In my opinion, this one is just a little bit above average.

It's worth watching if you're into new entries in horror movies with some blood and gore, but don't expect too much.

Final score: 5.5.

I think this film deserves closer to a 6.5 or even a 7 to be honest, I thought it was pretty great and had a fresh idea. I did have hopes for a different ending though, see if you catch what I mean. The actors and actresses were pretty good and the main character was cast really well, i hope they can do another one because I'd be interested in seeing it. The way it was shot and sets were good too. I dont know why others gave this the review they did but if you're like me and always check IMDB before watching a flick, I hope you see my review here and watch the movie, I think it could have somewhat of a cult following.

Of course I hadn't heard about the 2023 movie titled "The Puppetman" prior to sitting down to watch it. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon it here in 2024 by random chance, and with it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I had to check it out.

Now, I said I was 'fortunate enough' above, which might be an overstatement, because I found the storyline in "The Puppetman" to be rather dull, slow paced and mundane. Writers Brandon Christensen, Ryan Christensen and Matt Manjourides put together a script and storyline that failed to entertain me. And it was a very, very generic attempt at a horror movie, cashing in on stereotypical horror tropes.

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, which was actually something that worked well in favor of the movie, despite of it being a rather dull viewing experience. The acting performances in the movie were fair enough, taking into consideration that the actors and actresses virtually had nothing worthwhile to work with.

Visually then you're not in for any grand treat here. The movie doesn't make much use of special effects, for better or worse.

"The Puppetman" was a massive swing and a miss in terms of entertaining me, and this is definitely not a horror movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. Nor is it a movie that I will recommend to horror fans, because it just simply isn't worth spending 96 minutes on watching.

My rating of director Brandon Christensen's 2023 horror movie "The Puppetman" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

I recently viewed The Puppetman (2023) on Shudder. The plot revolves around a man who, under the influence of a malevolent entity, is compelled to commit a heinous act in front of his daughter, leading to his execution. Years later, his orphaned daughter, now a high school student, faces the entity as it possesses her friends, coercing them into committing gruesome acts. Will she become another victim, or can she find a way to stop the entity?

Directed by Brandon Christensen (Superhost), the film features Alyson Gorske (Jungle Run), Kio Cyr (Give Me an A), Zachary Le Vey (Run Hide Fight(, Michael Paré (Gone) and Angel Prater (Amy's F it List).

The Puppetman had the potential to be a standout horror film. The opening scene was well-crafted and effectively set the movie's tone. Unfortunately, it didn't maintain the quality of kill scenes after the beginning. While there were some entertaining fire and a shootout scenes, there was also a terrible seance that was awkward. The acting was good enough, but the ending was disappointing and felt like a copout.

In summary, this movie offers a few engaging scenes and a solid concept but struggles with execution. I would rate this a 4/10 and suggest considering other options.

The newest Shudder exclusive entry as of today- I appreciate the network but lately has been hit or miss. Found the idea and set up on this one to be good, and intriguing. Unfortunately, the script seemed a bit uneven and fragmented and about a quarter way in just stammered along until it got closer towards the end. Good effort, but character motivations were questionable (including the entity's) and a couple characters in general didn't gel well with the over-all plot (which by the time it was said and done, I thought seemed a bit thin). Once it finally got to the reveal, it was a decent twist, and a decent death or two were included along the way.