It’s 1892 and Sutekh is hopping mad. It seems a 3,000 year old Egyptian sorcerer has stolen one of the God’s secrets of life – that of instilling the souls of the dying into inanimate things. Sutekh raises three mummified former high priests, led by the villainous “First Servant”, and charges them with recovering both the Sorceror and his secret.
Were taken to 19th century Paris , and shown a very young puppeteer, Andre Toulon. Toulon runs a puppet theatre in the heart of Paris, and meets the sorcerer (the mysterious Afzel) when he is found by the lovely Swiss Ambassador’s daughter Ilsa, after being nearly killed. It is there and then that we find the seed of things to come, and the origin of the Puppetmaster series of tales.
This seventh installment is very well made and excellently acted, Rolfe is without doubt one of the genre’s most under-rated actors and as Andre Toulon the most fantastical performer of Full Moon Productions’ entire catalogue. It’s great to see the studio have done wrong with past entries and are now righting it.
This film travels back 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 are 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 in the series Richard Band’s amazing Puppet theme does not appear and is ultimately the only major error of judgement in this film, a move by the studio that ultimately backfired on them. Other than that you can’t really fault this film, which is the best addition to the series compared to the previous bad entries. It’s also great to see the beginning of the legacy of our beloved puppets and the Puppet Master.
The film is not as bloody or intense as the previous entries, The film is more old fashioned but as a Sunday afternoon flick you can’t beat it it’s almost like an old detective drama. But don’t let that put you off, that doesn’t diminish the entertainment value of this fun series.
If you still need a reason to watch this film then I’ll give you one last one – this film the last actual performance of Guy Rolfe, not just as Andre Toulon, but ever. So see a legend perform his iconic role for the last time.
Miscellaneous fact about the film:
