Good old Shudder has been putting up some real classics of schlock lately, and that includes the first three films in the popular direct-to-video Puppet Master series. These are not good movies, but they are a fun distraction.
The brainchild (children?) of Charles Band, whose entire career seems to have been dedicated to churning out super low-budget horror films with a strong sense of self-awareness, I remember the various Puppet Master flicks being terrifying as a kid.
For context, my parents did not plop five-year old Portly down in front of Puppet Master. The early 90s were the golden age of direct-to-video flicks ending up on cable as reruns years later. Somehow, at some point, I caught a few minutes of one of the films, and was thoroughly spooked.
Consider: as a kid, the prospect of murderous, spooky-looking puppets coming to life is pretty scary. I’m sure everyone reading this blog—even my older readers, who probably got a cedar log and an orange for Christmas—had at least one weird, creepy toy, and had some vague dread that it was filled with malice intent. My mom had these creepy dolls that were supposed to be a little boy and a little girl, with heads made from some kind of 1960s-era molded plastic. Those things still give me the jeebies.
So, do they hold up years later?
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