A small figure is silhouetted against what appears to be two far larger dummies when it properly lets rip. The sound effects are gorgeous. The larger couple fall to the floor with not an eyelid batted towards realism… and that’s just the way we like it. Charles Band’s Puppet Master is back, this time with The Littlest Reich. Comrades, it’s beautiful!
For the uninitiated, the Puppet Master films follow a general mythology whereby a master puppeteer called Toulon created intricate marionettes with the key to life itself , and promptly committed suicide when hunted down by the Nazis. This film is different as it is set in a parallel universe where Toulon is in fact a Fuhrer-follower himself. Far from this being a plot that you should discover for yourself, it has a massive impact on the film’s tone. Rather than the tiny terrors being little antiheroes or even simply ambivalent, here they are actually tools of the Third Reich. Believe it or not, Wither’s Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund’s direction means you think of ethics in a killer doll film. And it’s a good thing. Really.
We open on the 30th anniversary of the shootout that ended Toulon’s life, and a group of marionette memorabilia collectors has descended on a convention to trade the toys and take the carnage site’s gore tour. Among these are couple Ashley (Jenny Pellicer) and Edgar (Thomas Lennon) and Edgar’s inappropriate boss, Markowitz (Nelson Franklin of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World). They’re joined by a variety of folks from suspiciously different backgrounds, and when they begin to die outrageous deaths after their puppets go missing, The Shelter’s Michael Pare turns cop to sort things out.
The puppets perform as expected (nope, never wooden). Many of the classics are here and you get close ups and gore shots to your hearts’ content. What is impressive is the acting. The plot feels like it matters here because of the historical context, and that makes a few killer scenes unexpectedly affecting. This means that even some jokes in truly awful taste actually feel appropriate as they become incredibly cathartic, and credit goes to Nelson Franklin for his straight-faced but angry dignity. That said, this is still Puppet Master and amongst the contractual carnage you can’t fail to note horror royalty Barbara Crampton. She gets the big scream duties this time around. Flesh For Frankenstein’s Udo Kier appears as a tut-tutting Toulon who walks into a bar and gets upset when the dolls don’t focus on him. For all that some films are crowbarring diversity quotas into their casts at the minute, Puppet Master is rather bizarrely one that makes it count.
The Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich’s ending is delightfully peculiar, but that’s hardly a surprise. It’s also setupsville for the sequel. With Fabio Frizzi’s famous theme music still ringing in our ears, we’re excited already.
PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH / DIRECTOR: SONNY LAGUNA, TOMMY WIKLUND / SCREENPLAY: S. CRAIG ZAHLER / STARRING: CHARLYNE YI, KENNEDY SUMMERS, TINA PARKER, THOMAS LENNON / CERT: TBC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (USA)
