La maldición de la marioneta

Despite the film's logline, his intentions are not clear until the very end. The entire film we see the scientist (George Peck) have Robert (Josh Green) cut and carve little wood blocks, but we actually never see the end result.

This is the film that rebooted the franchise, which still continues to this day. This installment is not so much about the puppets, but instead more about the 'dummy boy' Robert, who steals the show. The plot is more solid than the other Puppet Master films, and I enjoyed this film more than the previous installments. In fact, this would hold pretty well as a film on its own and not part of the franchise, especially also since it is a completely new storyline. George Peck was also rather good as the scientist.

Pity the film had such an abrupt ending...

Based totally on the interesting looking cover I saw, I decided to see this movie. I had not seen any of the previous sequels, so I started from scratch. It starts out strange as a man is burning something and tells whatever it is that he was sorry. This man turns out to be Dr. Magrew, an old tinkering man that appears to be a scientist or something. There are these dolls, strange looking ones that move by themselves. One with a knife, a top's head, pinhead, and a cowboy with six arms. I assumed that they were evil, but they only seemed to kill humans that seemingly deserved to die. Two sheriffs and a bully were the victims. The most evil of the beings turns out to be Dr. Magrew who is turning an innocent man named "Tank" into some puppet. Jane Magrew is also innocent and for some reason loves the "Pinhead" doll. This doll loves her more than the human Tank whom she falls in love with. A very strange ending as Tank's anger gets the best of him with Dr. Magrew receiving his wrath. Poor Jane just survives but with many questions to answer with all the dead bodies laying around her house. If you like strange then this film is for you.

Curse of the Puppet Master takes a very different turn from the rest of the series, which for many is a bad thing - I have to agree as it does not fit chronologically anywhere in the original story...

Another notable thing that may upset many fans is the amount of footage from previous movies that has been used to cut down on the budget... Sadly, where this is done it is VERY noticeable and it does ruin the immersion in the story.

With that said, it is far from a terrible film but has marked a new direction which has upset long standing fans... My guess is they could not get a good enough script for a true Sequel or the cast were not willing to come back after Puppet Master V.

Either way, this is a new story arc in itself.

A doctor has now taken possession of Andre Toulon's puppets and seeks to recreate the work that his predecessor had done, but the opening scenes suggest all is not well.

While the change of story arc is unwelcome (If you wanted to fit this movie in Chronologically, it would appear somewhere early on as Leech is still alive...) the overall quality is good and the acting is actually better than some of the rest.

Joss Green who pays 'Tank' is brilliant in his role, which makes it surprising that he has not had more roles overall - He has the potential for great things... I could really see him in an Avengers role.

So, yes - if you were expecting a continuing story - Afraid you will be disappointed, but the new story arc has some sufficiently dark turns to get the nerves tingling!

After not being terribly impressed by the last two additions to the franchise, I wasn't expecting all that much from "Curse" and this was a blessing disguise. I found David DeCoteau's sequel somewhat a step-down in quality (which at times looked very second-rate), but probably a little more enjoyable if a tad creative in its story (despite a silly script, unintentionally humorous plotting and an abrupt ending). While still being one of the weakest, it skipped that childish feel of the recent ventures… to only deliver on the nasty and gory quota with its nightmarish details (resembling the tone of the original features), but while the jolts and cruelty is there it seemed to meander on its characters interactions and the constant mystery surrounding a disappearance, which is rather predictable to figure out. The puppets have always been the stars and that's nothing new here, as the creations are well-used despite some obvious stock footage from other features. The uncanny appearances and personalities come through, although some are underused; The Jester and especially Leech woman. However there are plenty of images of the puppets cementing how they are best of pals. DeCoteau's practical direction is raw and threadbare, but there's a lyrical guidance that shows in some atmospheric visuals. Most of the performances are particularly lousy and over-enthusiastic, but Emily Harrison seems to be an exception to the trend.

Curse of the Puppet Master, the sixth film in the long running horror franchise, sees Toulon's tiny terrors in the possession of Dr. Magrew (George Peck ), owner of The House of Marvels, a small-town roadside attraction that he runs with the help of his pretty daughter Jane (Emily Harrison). When Magrew meets gas station attendant Robert 'Tank' Winsley (Josh Green), who likes to carve with wood, he offers him a job at his place, creating the many parts for a new living puppet, into which he secretly plans to transfer Robert's soul.

Director David DeCoteau (as Victoria Sloan) starts things off well enough, introducing his characters and setting up a few deserving victims along the way: a gang of local bullies, led by Joey Carp (Michael Guerin), and a nasty sheriff (Robert Donavan). So far, so good, but then it all goes pear-shaped: there's too much use of archival footage of the puppets, the boom mic makes an appearance, very little effort is made to make the puppets move as though they're alive, the gore is disappointing (just some blood splashed around), DeCoteau provides lots of shots of shirtless hunks (no surprises there) but no T&A from Harrison, there is an overuse of lightning and smoke to the point where it is distracting, and worse of all, the ending is ridiculously abrupt. The film simply stops mid-action, leaving the viewer to ponder whether they fell asleep and missed something. We should be so lucky.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.