B-Movie Nostalgia: Puppet Master

Puppet master has to be one of the most memorable B-Movies I've watched. Next to such atrociously bad flicks as Trancers, I find that this film from Full Moon Pictures is still the one that my memory keeps pulling up for some reason.

For the uninitiated, here's the general background of the movies (based on Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge):

Andre Toulon, a puppeteer who discovered the secret of reanimating the dead via an ancient Egyptian ritual (involving brain matter and other substances) creates a small army of puppets to avenge himself upon the evil Nazi's who killed his wife.

That being said, all the of the other movies in the series (including the first one and part 2) all give slight variations of this. The most obvious one being that in part 3 (which takes place in the past) Toulon reanimates the Puppet known as Leech Woman with the soul of his murdered wife, Ilsa. While in Part 2, the reanimated Toulon insists that Carolyn is the reincarnation of Isla, all while Leech Woman is there with him. Oh, and he sets fire to Leech Woman there too.

Personally, I'd blame it on the fact that a reanimated Toulon could not possibly be a sane Toulon, but that's hardly an official answer.

So, I've been blathering about the plot for a while, but the actual highlights of the film are the puppets themselves. Here are a few images of the puppets for your viewing pleasure:

Jester:


Jester is the supposed "brains" of the first batch of puppets introduced. He appears to have no special abilities aside from to spin the three component parts of his face around and change his expression. Doesn't sound like much, but he's pretty cool.

Blade and Pinhead


Blade is often the coolest puppet, as he actually has a hook for one hand and a nasty looking blade (hence the name) in the other. He's pretty darn fast for a puppet and he's usually the one the leaves the more gruesom kills.

Pinhead is the direct opposite of Blade. Pinhead is aptly named, and I won't get into that, but his redeeming factor is that he's got very large (human sized) hands that help him do his job of strangling people to death very well. He's also the strongest of the puppets, capable of wrestling full sized people.

Torch


Er... I'm not sure what his backstory is, but his schtick is that he's got a miniature flamethrower for a right arm and it shoots not-miniature sized flames.

Tunneler


Tunneler, the funky drill bit headed puppet of doom rams people head first, digging in and taking the time to leave a chunky mess without even staining his uniform. He's also responsible for my sister not daring to look under the bed, as Tunneler makes his first kill that way.

Leech Woman


The vessel for Ilsa's soul, Leech Woman was created by Andre Toulon to extract revenge on the Nazis. I'm not sure, but if I were to reincarnate my wife as a puppet, I wouldn't choose to make it one that regurgitates leeches.

Six-Shooter


Six-Shooter is six armed cowboy sporting six fully functional(!) miniature pistols. He's got no real story to him, but the bandanna does go up to cover his mouth bandito smile and he's got a funky laugh. Next to Blade, he's my brother's second favorite puppet.

Decapatron


Decapatron is the "secret puppet weapon" that the puppets reanimate in Puppet Master 4. He's got interchangable heads, this one being a strange Tesla-Coil like device that he uses to great effect fighting the ancient puppet sized egyptian monsters they face in the movie.

Apparently there have been no less than nine(!) puppet master movies made, with varying levels of B-movieness. That being said, I still find it to be worth musing about.

Ah, to those who have not heard it, here are a few links to some multimedia sources for you to enjoy:

The Puppet Master Theme Music

And

The Trailer for Puppet Master: The Legacy the latest Puppet Master Movie.