Puppet Master 4

 *½

Jeff Burr, the sequel directing machine, stepped up to the plate to direct a couple films for Charles Band’s Full Moon and the Puppet Master franchise. Gordon Currie is robotics genius trying to figure out artificial intelligence, his work connected to Biotech company where two brilliant scientists (played by wasted Felton Perry and Stacie Randall, both of whom deserved to be stars in Full Moon pictures if anything) are visited upon by elaborate creature figures called totems (their murderous path possessed by demons in this underworld where the secret of life animation originates). Currie is, Rick Myers, caretaker of the Cliffside resort, Bodega Bay (I was glad to see the franchise return to this location, although its presence isn’t as pronounced as the first or second films in the series), and uses the space (which just seems limited unlike the first two films where you felt the killer puppets had so much room to go about their devilish business) to conduct his laser games with robots he keeps hoping will act on their own and unpredictably defeat him for once. 

Rick Myers’ girlfriend, Susie (played by Chandra West and her knockout smile), brings along friends, Cameron (Ash Adams) and Lauren (Teresa Hill) for a night of wine and conversation. Cameron is a selfish prick and envious of Rick’s success and brilliance, while Lauren claims to psychic channel, a sensitive who realizes something’s not quite right about Bodega Bay. Rick happens upon Blade, the doll with the Jack the Ripper threads, knife hand, needle eyes, and white complexion, and soon learns that he is alive and can move on his own. Eventually the four find a case containing, Pinhead (the doll with the small, pointy head attached to a stout, bouncer-body), Six-shooter (the six-armed gunfighting doll that lets off a giggle that is more than a bit unnerving, as his face is fixed in that wicked grin), Jester (the clownish doll who has that face that spins in three pieces and has expressions of either sinister or worried), and Tunneler (the doll with the drill head). In the case (which is the exact case Toulon had when battling Richard Lynch and the Nazis in Puppet Master III) along with the puppets is a type of Ouija board, reanimation fluid (funnily enough, green…not inspired by Re-Animator, is it???), and Toulon’s notes. Cameron sees all of this as his meal ticket, persuading Lauren (they seem to be an item) to help conjure up Toulon and learn of the power of the reanimation fluid. Instead, all the two do is conjure a portal opened to release more totems to roam free in the resort to try and kill them all.

So Cam heads for the car, with Lauren following behind. But he wants her to “get out and push” because the car won’t start. Yeah, this guy is a piece of work. It is raining and he even locks the doors…well, this fucker has a totem in the car with him that tears right into him. Lauren soon joins back up with Rick and Susie but those nasty totems are on the prowl, ready to sprint/strike.

The bloated plot fits within 75 minutes and even includes the ghost of Toulon haunting the grounds of Bodega Bay, a new puppet revealed named Decapitron (its face is unformed and head can be detached if needed for a laser shooting contraption) with Toulon’s face often appearing to talk with Rick, and a head demon of the underworld, Sutekh, vowing to kill anyone who knows of the reanimation secret. It seems the Egyptian sorcerers Toulon learned the secret from stole it from Sutekh. Sutekh isn’t happy. He gets even angrier when his demons start to drop dead when the totems fall prey to the heroes.

In wrestling terms, the Toulon puppets were turned babyface, probably due to how well received they were in the previous film killing off Nazis. I prefer them as heels, scurrying about causing horror to innocents. The Bodega Bay was the perfect hunting ground for them in the first two films. The totems are cool but only growl and have little personality besides their intimidating features. There is one neat scene where Tunneler drills a hole into one of the totems while it is being held by Blade and Pinhead. Jester has little facetime, presented in more of a cameo…not a lot of love shown to it. Susie tosses acid on one of the totems, but it returns to kick Blade’s ass, soon exploded by the lasers from the machinehead attached to Decapitron. The scene where Cameron is attacked by one of the totems is rather hilarious because Ash had to pull a Jeffrey Combs (the attack of the fur doll cat he had to make real  in Re-Animator) in the front seat of the locked car. Burr had to be inventive with the camera (basically move it frenetically) to truly sell the totem attacks on humans as the actors had to imitate a itty bitty doll going for their jugular. The “soul sucking”, where the totems hold their clawed hands over the faces of subdued (much larger) humans as their lifeforce is drained from them, is laughable. In fact, Rick’s laser combat with the robots and Pinhead and Tunneler further lames up the film. All that said, you get a lot of puppet action with them in total movement often. David Allen was a master and truly lent some great talent to Band’s productions. Even the totems move at times. Sure Burr has to use the camera and cheat due to the time constraints of a low budget by shooting the puppets in ways that would save on constant stop motion, but I think Part 4 does include them a lot more than I remember in previous films. 

The emphasis on Toulon can be kind of cheesy, truth be told. His face forming on the Decapitron is especially corny. The film even goes Frankenstein with Blade, Pinhead, and Tunneler using lightning and wire to give Decapitron life (along with green fluid, of course)…not before hooking up one of the totems to blow up. Toulon tells Rick he’ll always be around and that he is now the Puppet Master. The film ends with us seeing that the series wants to follow a different leader of the puppets. It basically links to Part 5 which Burr also directed. You can kind of connect the third, forth, and fifth parts as a type of trilogy.

Currie has energy to him but he's a bit of a kid. It is hard to take him seriously as a leader against evil. Especially when he is playing laser tag with toys. He even shoots a fake laser at one of the totems which does nothing but make him look foolish. When he rushes the ladies away from danger, he expects Blade to do the dirty work! When a totem explodes, Rick and the ladies fall backward as if hit by a shockwave! So ending with him given the keys by Toulon does seem temporary. He'd return for one more film, as would West who defense herself quite well in comparison to her beau.

I do think you can see the franchise waning by this point. It would continue to deteriorate in terms of quality as sequel after sequel was made. Band loves his Puppet Master movies.