Customer Reviews

Curse of the Puppet Master

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Ok, first off, these movies are not movies made to hopefully earn an Oscar award. These movies are just great fun. They are mostly just fun. I don't view these movies as horror. There is a great deal of humour in them. Just imagine several Puppets running around with their own personality and killing method. Either killing for good causes, but not always. Not easy to really explain these movies in a few lines. But if you are looking at this review, I am pretty sure you allready know what the movies are about.

With this boxed set you really do get your moneys worth. Before I bought it I was sceptical, so many bad reviews on sound and picture. But both image and audio is OK. Really, how much do you expect from a series that has been made for direct release on VHS? The quality is not something to brag about, but it is OK. At least I did not expect more from it.

You get all seven movies, and each one of them has a great making-of featurette, as well as trailer and some cast-info. In addition to the seven movies you get an 8th DVD. This disc contains 45 trailers. All Full Moon Pictures trailers. Only a few of them are out on DVD, but it is still fun to look at all the silly, but cool, movies they make.

So all in all, you do get your moneys worth, and it really is a great oppertunety to own all the movies with some added extras. If you are a fan, then you need this box. If you are new to the series, then you should look into what the movies are like. Maybe rent one on VHS, I am pretty sure you will be hooked. Soon after you will be starting to collect Puppet Master action figures and you will be broke! :-)

Though I belive that curse of the puppet master, the 6th video in the set was not that well made, the entire series as a whole has been one of my favoite since I first watched them. This boxed set of 8 DVD's contains the many adventures of a team of puppets that have been brought to life by the Original Puppet Master Andre Tulon. Each movie continues on with the puppets adventures as they gain new Masters. Some of the Puppet Masters are good, and others are evil, but regardless of their master's intentions the puppets cary out their wishes using the special deadly talents that each one was designed with. Unfortunatly for the last several years many of the films in this series have been out of print, but now they have all be released in this great dvd set that I think every horror film lover should buy.

I agree with the review from FANGORIA magazine...Curse of the Puppet Master is nothing but a remake of the man-turned-into-a-snake B-movie classic Ssssss, starring Strother (Cool Hand Luke) Martin and Dirk (Battlestar Galactica) Benedict. The special effects director is even seen goofing off with the original snakeman from that camp classic in the Video Zone segment, so they are proud of their lack of imagination!

"Story" theft aside, I found this entry a silly enough guilty pleasure. Anyone else notice that the skies are pretty clear and blue during the day, but there sure is a heck of a lot of lightning, but no rain, at night. Sadly the effects are really, really bad. The puppets are just dangled on a stick or something, or held by someone under the camera frame and kind of wobbled back and forth to look like they are walking or running or whatever. Blargh!

But I still found myself enjoying it all. That just proves that I am insane.

I'll skip the synopsis since adequate ones are already given. Since this is the most readily available full-length Puppet Master movie, most of you are likely to view this one first. I have to say that this sequel was far better than Parts 4 & 5. If you already are a fan of this series, then you'll likely enjoy this movie since it captures much of the same charm that were in the first 3. The storyline itself is interesting enough for a b-movie, and you really get a sense of who these characters (and the puppets) are. It has all the makings you'll ever need of horror cheese: The lonely old man and his beautiful daughter, a love interest between that daughter and the new 'boy' hired by the father, a town bully who gets his, and a near comical jerk local sheriff.

The main problems I had with the previous two was that the storyline focused mainly on the human characters and lost sight of the puppets. This movie focuses a little more on the people too, but I found this story interesting enough. The dolls do serve an interesting role in this sequel and don't seem to be cut out as much as they were in Part 4. The special effects are of course, on par with the previous two, and does detract from the movie a bit. But I feel that most b-movie, killer doll loving people will enjoy this sequel even if you haven't seen any of the previous ones.

SPOILERS - Only for those that have seen the movie, otherwise scroll to last paragraph

It was nice to see nearly all the puppets back for this one. Since this series has enjoyed going back into the past, it might be interesting to find out exactly what happened between 5 and this one. How did this Magrew find the secret out? Did he need that serum, or were the puppets now officially 'alive'?

I thought that former assistant of Magrew's turned puppet resembled Adrien Brody. Possible early role for him??

I didn't like how the dvd cover to this movie spoils the story. Although I probably would have figured it out anyway, I didn't need to know that the 'doctor' was really a bad guy. This might not have bothered me if they didn't also mention that the dolls were going to turn on him. I sat throughout the whole movie waiting for this to happen and it kinda took a little fun out of it for me.

My final verdict: I would highly recommend, as the featured reviewer states, buying the box set. I made the mistake of buying a set off of ebay for close to $200 - still far cheaper than here. But (as of present time) www.fullmoondirect.com is selling brand new factory sealed sets for about half of that price. Since the rest of the series isn't readily available anywhere else, this is a pretty good deal. As for the single movie, i'd suggest renting it first if you have serious doubts about the series. If you like these kinds of movies, go for the box set. You won't be disappointed.

There were hardly no puppets just about a stupid gang and their stupid friends. I rented this to see puppets and didnt get any. it had no curse and it waz boring. i would have given 5 starz, but it wasnt good enough

Things were getting tired and cheaper by part 6 of the Puppet Master series but there was still some fun to be had with everybody's favorite murderous puppets! The cast is solid, and there's a nice feeling of mystery to this one, and those lovable killer puppets keep things entertaining and fun for 90% of this flawed flick. Take it for what it is, pop some corn, enjoy a cold beverage, sit back and enjoy.

I'm not a Puppet Master guru like some of the other reviewers, but I thought the story line was OK.
Pro: Emily Harrison is cute.
Con: the ending sucked. It's as if the writer rushed to end the story.

It was a cheap rip off of all the prior Puppet Master movies. Can't the producers come up with anything more orignal instead of rehashing the special effects from the other movies. In some of the scenes the special effects were so bad that it looked like the puppets were hovering instead of walking on the ground. Besides the crappy special effects the rest of the movie was really boring. The puppets didn't do much and you barely saw them. The story line wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. It started out okay and just got dumb at the end. The biggest disappointments were that the movie did not reveal any unknown information about Andre Toulon(like in the previous movies) and my favorite puppet wasn't in it, Torch. Since this was such a horrible movie I would not recommend it to anybody. The only good part in the movie was the very beginning where they showed the puppets in scenes from the previous movies.

"Curse of the Puppet Master" is an enjoyable, albeit not original, entry in the infamous Puppet Master series. It has a script that blatantly mimics the classic creature feature "Sssssss" scene by scene. Instead of a mad scientist turning humans into cobras, Dr. Magrew (George Peck) is turning them into living puppets. He recruits an adorably dopey young man, Robert, (Josh Green) to become his new lab assistant. His incredibly cute daughter Jane (Emily Harrison) is smitten by him. Meanwhile, they are harassed by Joey (Michael D. Guerin) the town muscle head who likes to wear tank tops and lift weights. Instead of employing snakes to commit murders, Dr. Magrew uses Andre Toulon's living puppets, especially Blade and Tunneler.

Though not as well crafted as "Sssssss," "Curse of the Puppet Master" is highly recommended because of its character development. You can't help but adore poor Robert and Emily - a type of Romeo and Juliet. You feel much sympathy for them, knowing that their love is doomed by Dr. Magrew's evil plans. The cast is a gorgeous one, lending the film a touch of eroticism. The acting from the leads is rather good considering that none of them are big name stars. Many fans complained about the film's open ending - a lack of resolution. The open, downbeat ending was a very popular device used in the 1970's. It was often used to chill and terrify the audience. The ending for "Curse of the Puppet Master" is very much like the one for "Sssssss."

"The Curse of the Puppet Master" deserves a place in the mad scientist genre. I liken Dr. Magrew to Dr. Victor Frankenstein who strove to create new life. Furthermore, if you haven't seen "Sssssss," I recommend that you do. Watch "Sssssss" and "The Curse of the Puppet Master" back to back and you will be surprised at the similarities. The two films were released over twenty-five years apart. The cast in "Sssssss" was high caliber. Strother Martin was the mad scientist, Heather Menzies played his daughter, Dirk Benedict was the lab assistant, and Reb Brown was the bullying jock. Does Hal Dresner know that Benjamin Carr stole his screenplay? Only joking. After all, imitation is the best form of flattery.

After sitting through the two previous train wrecks that were Puppet Master 4 and 5, I felt that this series had really no where to go but up. Thankfully, with Curse of the Puppet Master, the storyline goes totally away from the previous 2 movies. Though apparently the plot of this film rips off the old Sci-Fi Horror movie called Sssssss. Its a about a young man named Robert a.k.a "Tank" who is hired by the "new" puppet master named Dr. Magrew to help create the perfect puppet. Dr. Magrew has been unsuccessful in re-creating Andre Toulon's ability to bring puppets to life so far , but the Dr. has a dark secret, in that he's wanting to put Robert's soul into the puppet that Robert himself is creating so that the puppet will live. Again, the plot isn't great, but its gotta be better than the storyline to Part 4 and 5. However, just like the other Puppet Master films, there are some horrible screw ups that takes place here. First off, the puppet Leech Woman returns in this one, though she was clearly destroyed in Puppet Master 2. Not even that, but Leech Woman doesn't even have a kill in the film!! In fact, most of the puppets don't do much at all. The death count isn't that high as well. The end of the film makes no sense either. Throughout the movie, Robert is working on a puppet thats made out of wood. Yet, at the adbrupt ending of the film, the puppet that Robert had been working on appears to be some futuristic mechanical gadget made of metal, not wood. The "special" effects, if one has the nerve to call them that, have to been the worst of the series, and the editing and directing is horrible. Actually, in some cases, old footage is used from previous Puppet Master films and injected into this one. And don't worry, the acting is just as bad as everything else. Take special note of the way over-acting tough guy Sheriff!! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! In a nutshell, this is horribly cheap-made film with crappy effects, bad directing, and terrible acting. To say its better than the some previous Puppet Master films in the series may be just splitting hairs, cause at this point, who really cares? But since this story, though it may have been ripped off, is slightly better than previous storylines about little demons from the underworld coming back to earth to do..well..whatever, I gotta give this film a slightly better rating than those previous sequels. As a stand alone film, its a tough watch. I wouldn't recommend sitting through it more than once, and wouldn't buy it at all, unless you need it for your Puppet Master collection.