A young scientist working on an artificial intelligence project is the target of strange gremlin-like creatures, who are out to kill him and thus terminate his research. By coincidence, in one of the rooms he uses, there’s a mysterious case containing the puppets of the “puppet master”. When the puppets are brought to life, they help destroy the creatures.
We are now at number 4 and so far the series has been very strong, especially for a B-movie franchise, number 4, if I’m truly honest, is a big let down after the brilliance of number 3 and in this review I’m going to explain why.
The ancient demon God ‘Sutek’ is angry that Andre Toulon stole his life-giving formula, so he sends tiny sends some demons to the “upperworld” to get those responsible. Somehow that means scientists from a Government company, despite them having nothing to do with it. Who is involved is kid genius Rick Myers, who has discovered the puppets while doing his experiments at the Bodega Bay Inn while acting as a caretaker.
We do see snippets of Toulon throught-out the film, but this film is all about the Rick Myers character, which we’re given a reason for at the end (I won’t say why in-case you haven’t seen it). To say the film is only just over 75 minutes long it’s hard to believed this film had 5, yes 5 screenwriters! We all know that isn’t a good thing and it makes this film a mess to watch.
Also there’s not enough action from the true stars of the film, the puppets, and whoever had the idea of filming Blade do battle with one of the demons needs a slap, the scene looks like 2 kids playing with toys whilst someone just filmed it, it’s laugh out loud stuff, but not in a good way. Also the fact that the 2 ‘geeks’ of the film are with 2 gorgeous women is just pure nonsense, I’m not saying it’s unbelievable or dissing you ‘nerds’ but if you watch it you’ll see what I mean.
The whole film is a big anti-climax, even the addition of the new puppet is nothing to get excited about, the scene where the puppets bring it to life in a rip off ‘Frankenstein’ scene is just pure awful.
I wish I could say part 5 is better………But it isn’t, and in tomorrows review I’ll let you know why.
Miscellaneous facts about the film:
Shot back to back with Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter.
Marks the debut appearance of the puppet ‘Decapitron’ – an idea stolen from an unfilmed 1989 screenplay (titled ‘Decapitron’, natch) by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo that was to be Empire Pictures’ biggest budgeted movie, prior to that studio’s collapse.
This and part 5 were originally intended to be one entire theatrical movie. Full Moon CEO Charles Band was slated to direct and the project was titled “Puppet Master: The Movie.”
