Retro Puppet Master

David DeCoteau directed 'Curse of the Puppet Master' (the sixth Puppet Master movie) as Victoria Sloan and here directs the seventh as Joseph Tennent. Not sure why a director of some of the most ridiculous movies ever made would replace their name on their more credible work but there we go. This seventh instalment is well made and excellently acted with the last actual performance of Guy Rolfe, not just as Andre Toulon, but ever. Rolfe is without doubt one of the world's greatest actors and as Andre Toulon the most fantastical performer of Full Moon Productions' entire catalogue. This film travels back to early 20th century Paris to find the origins of the Puppets, there are a few extra puppets here that - as yet unexplained - do not appear in other films. Our favourites here, such as Pinhead; Torch and Tunneler are more traditional wooden puppets, not yet fully developed and very low on personality and colour - their oak finish makes them seem far more sinister though. For the first time Richard Band's amazing Puppet theme does not appear and is ultimately the only major error of judgement in a fun and fantastically produced addition to the series. Watch the dead homeless man on the steps though (who first gives his 'life' to the puppets) - though dead and looking almost like a puppet himself he can't help blinking in full camera shot. The film is old fashioned and almost Sunday afternoon family fun (like an old detective drama or something). Surprising.

The film follows on Puppet Master 3, but is actually also intended as the first film in the franchise, as it takes us back to 1902 when Andre Toulon learnt the secret to bringing the puppets to life. The majority of the film is set in 1902.

Bad acting. Bad accents. Silly dialogue. Silly plot. Very poor effects - even for a B-movie, and the puppets are stocky and lifeless. This was annoyingly bad on every level. It is also a vessel for religious mockery. You won't miss anything by not watching this installment.

Incredibly cheep garbage made fun by the Rifftrax team. Without their commentary it would have been very tough to sit through this crap.

Greg Sestero from "The Room" has the lead, which must be the reason they picked this one, because most PM movies can be spoofed with ease. The fact that Sestero speaks with an idiotic French accent must have been an added bonus to choose this bad sequel as opposed to other bad sequels. This leads me to suspect that the reason he got this role is because he told the casting director that he is a fluent French speaker. (I read most of his autobiography i.e. The book about "The Room".)

The puppets look more horrible than ever, as opposed to horrifying, and the "Egyptian" bad guys are the least ominous supernatural demons in the history of cinema. Based just on this laughable trio I would slap this turkey with a G rating. 3 year-olds would laugh at this movie.

I have seen only of one of the other Puppetmaster movies and remember that it was about an older man with his killing puppets. So I had no knowledge of the beginning of the old man but this Retro film gave me a feel for the man named Andre Toulon played by Greg Sestero. It was not a movie filled with overwhelming killing like the other film I saw but gave the characters a heart. Toulon was a young man that cared for the downtrodden. A man that was falling in love with a woman named Ilsa who likewise cared for people in need when she helps to save an old man attacked. This old man was Afzel, a sorcerer that stole the secret of life. Afzel is being hunted by servants of Sutekh because of this secret. These servants kill all of the friends and fellow puppeteers of Andre but they live again in the puppets of their own creations. Now it is a battle to the death between the servants of Sutekh and Andre and friends when Ilsa is taken hostage. The ending leaves you wondering why these friends would become so evil later in chronological time?

In 1989, writer Charles Band and director David Schmoeller created "Puppet Master", an inventive horror film about a group of puppets magically brought to life by its maker, Andre Toulon, and took to America during World War II. While the original film and its sequel were basically straightforward slashers, the third film made an important big change in the format, moving away from horror to fantasy and setting the movie in the WWII, explaining how Toulon escaped from the War and moved to America. The following three films in the series had the Puppets as heroes and took place in the present, returning the gore and violence to the series by walking the fine line between horror and fantasy. "Retro Puppet Master", the seventh chapter of the Puppets' saga, takes the series again further into fantasy, telling the story about the origins of Andre Toulon and the Puppet's first adventure.

In turn of the century Paris, young puppeteer Andre Toulon runs a small puppet theater where every night he and his crew make a living. One night after a show, he meets Ilsa, the Swiss Ambassador's daughter who secretly watched his act, however, the circumstances of their meeting are not nice as Ilsa found the body of the mysterious Afzel after he was brutally attacked by a pair of thugs. Andre takes care of the wounded Afzel, who claims to be a 3000 years old sorcerer, but while at first he believes the man is crazy, soon Andre begins to believe, as the dying Afzel tells him the secret that will put Andre in danger for the rest of his life: the ancient gods' secret of giving life to inanimate things.

Ever since it was released, "Retro Puppet Master" became quite a controversial movie among fans of the series, as the screenplay (by Benjamin Carr) is definitely more a fantasy adventure than a horror film, making it receive many critics due to the lack of gore and suspense. Personally, I think the move really helps to the story, as for the first time in years the focus of the film is not on the Puppets, but on the Puppetmaster himself, so the toning down of the horror is a reasonable change. The story is also about how he met his future wife Ilsa, so romance plays a very important part of the story (another difference with the previous installments).

Directed by a long time Full Moon regular, the notorious David DeCoteau, "Retro Puppet Master" is surprisingly a change of tone from the typical late 90s Full Moon releases. It's a lot subtler, and even classier than other DeCoteau films, and is probably his best film in a long time. While the cinematography looks like the average TV movie and the special effects are of a terribly bad quality (due to budgetary constrains), the movie looks very good considering its a period piece, and even the score (by John Massari) fits the new tone of the film as a glove.

Newcomer Greg Sesstero has a big challenge when playing the younger version of a character that basically was created by the great Guy Rolfe (who has a cameo), however, Sestero makes a terrific job and adds a lot of charm to the role. Brigitta Dau makes a good job as Ilsa, and like Sestero often make sup her lack of experience with her charming personality. Jack Donner does a terrific low-key performance as Afzel, but the efforts of these three actors get ruined by the average performance of basically everyone else in the film.

Worth to point out are the terribly bad performances of the three servants (the main villains of the movie), who easily are the worst part of the film. While some of this may not be entirely their fault (as their lines are also the less inspired part of the script), their lack of talent make a bad role atrocious, as it literally kills what could had been a good movie. While I praised Carr's original take on Band's idea, it's safe to point out that his work does not help the film to reach its true potential, as some lines of dialog are simply awful. Many has been written about the simplistic special effects, and while sadly they are not on the level of the previous films (they are of TV Series quality at best), at least there isn't an overuse of them through the movie.

"Retro Puppet Master" has received a lot of what I think is an undeserved bash through the years, however, it's safe to say that it's one of the best film sin the series. While it certainly could had been a lot better, it really shows that Band was concerned in saving his beloved franchise (he would do a better job in "Legacy"), and DeCoteau's direction is remarkably effective (almost reminiscent of his better earlier work). While many fans don't like the change to fantasy, I think it was what this particular chapter needed. Watch it with an open mind and low expectations, and you'll be rewarded.

6/10