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.

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.

This movie is absolutely terrible. It's incredibly poorly written and executed. Maybe it was a budget thing, who knows. The acting is very rough to put up with. There's just a ton of a scenes of a girl who is seemingly spaced out and her friend saying, " are you okay? ". Not to mention they make Michal out to be some scary, powerfully possessed chick that everyone should fear, but her friend Charlie was an awful friend and the real bad one ... and a weirdo if you ask me. Her whole friend group seems terrible. Overall it's just incredibly cheesy and corny. That psychic medium? Just rename her Velveeta because holy cow it's pure, unadulterated cheese.

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.

This movie actually had a lot more potential than I was expecting. Unfortunately, it suffered from some amateurish issues but was still intriguing and entertaining.

I found the concept for this to be quite interesting and I think that's where the majority of the potential was. It let itself down in the end with pretty vague and ambiguous final moments. I was pretty surprised and impressed through the beginning but it started to go down hill after the rooftop scene. And I realized what I thought to be good acting primarily revolved around the brunette roommate and it kind of fell apart in that regard without her. She was quite good and the blonde had some moments as well. The actual storytelling here felt a little lazy and the script was really not great. There were however some pretty cool and gnarly deaths that I appreciated.

Overall it definitely has an indie vibe to it in its imperfections but it's actually pretty decent. Had the potential to be great but didn't quite get there. 4.5 rounding up to a 5, would recommend.