Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

She's perfect...gorgeous face, great figure, porcelain skin, raven hair down her back. She has only one flaw. She has a habit of gagging up thick, mucous-covered leeches while making deep, retching noises. Personally, I'd just think of England and avoid kissing her. Please note, in addition to the spoiled corpses in the movie, there are some other spoilers in these comments.

She's Ms. Leech, and the major delight of Puppet Master I is watching her and her other pint-sized companions, Blade, Pinhead, Jester and Tunneler do their stuff. We meet them in the Bodega Bay Inn when a small band of psychics arrive to learn why they seem to be getting strange mind messages from a former colleague, a man named Neil Gallagher. But it turns out Gallagher is dead...we see him in his casket. We also see him sitting in a chair and waltzing wearing white mask. We see him at the head of the table when his friends gather for dinner. Could it be that Gallagher discovered the secret formula an old puppet master named Andre Toulon used to bring life to his puppets? Hmmm. All we know for sure is that 50 years ago, at this very same Bodega Bay Inn, Toulon hid his puppets in a secret compartment, then fired a bullet into his mouth as Nazi agents burst in his room.

And now, in 1989, in the dead of night and in this deserted Inn, Blade, Pinhead, Jester, Tunneler and Ms. Leech seek out the visiting psychics and the Inn's lone maid to slash, smash, strangle, burrow and regurgitate them to death. Only Alex Whitacre and Megan Gallagher, Neil's wife, will survive that night. They find themselves at that same dining table, this time with the bodies of their friends slumped in chairs...and with a live Neil Gallagher maniacally announcing his hideous plot to bring life, not just to puppets, but to corpses.

But what's not to love about murderous little dolls? If a cult film requires a silly but amusing plot, home-spun acting that brings smiles, a stuffed pekinese that shows a lot of talent and death charging at you at ankle level, then Puppet Master is one of the best of the cult films. Among my favorite characters were Irene Miracle as Dana Hadley, a whiskey-swigging voluptuous psychic; Jimmie F. Skaggs as Neil Gallagher, a thin, prancing actor with a face like one of his puppets; Ms. Leech, of course; and Tunneler. When Tunneler goes to work on your face you'll wish you were back in your dentist's chair having a root canal done.

Long ago, a puppet maker named Andre Toulin (William Hickey) has discovered the means of bringing puppets and dolls to life with ancient Egyptian magic techniques and a potion that brings them to life making them into vicious little killers. Years later, a group of psychic investigators (Paul Le Mat, Irene Miracle, Matt Roe and Robin Frates) are called in with each other as they investigate an old hotel only to discover that Toulin's puppets are on the loose and wants their blood.

One of the most well known killer doll flicks, this flick started the "Full Moon" company back in 1989 when Charles Band's company "Empire" was bankrupted, it instantly became a genre favorite among fans. Barbara Crampton ("Re-Animator") does a nice cameo in this movie as a costumer for one of the psychics, the movie was inspired by an early Charles Band production "Dolls" as this became a follow-up of sorts. Alongside the Zuni Doll and Chucky, these puppets are pure evil creatures that deserve to be horror icons.

Now if only MGM or Paramount or Full Moon can re-issue this movie with the rest of the movies on DVD then that would be great.

Also recommended: "Trilogy of Terror", "Child's Play Series", "Dolls", "Magic", "Devil Doll (1964)", "Re-Animator", "Dead of Night (1945)", "Making Contact (a.k.a. Joey)", "Pinocchio's Revenge", "Stephen King's IT", "A Nightmare on Elm Street", "Tourist Trap", "Black Christmas", "Dolly Dearest", "Poltergeist", "Pumpkinhead", "Cemetery Man", "Carrie", and "Demonic Toys".