Puppet Master 5 Reviews

PUPPET MASTER 5: THE FINAL CHAPTER is the fifth installment in the popular straight-to-video series about murderous puppets, and should not be confused with either THE PUPPET MASTERS (1994), a paranoid science fiction picture adapted from a Robert Heinlein novel, nor the Chinese film THE PUPPET MASTER (1993). While fans may eagerly await each new adventure of the miniature monsters, the uninitiated may roll their eyes in confusion as they contend with extensive flashbacks from previous films and confusing puppet action sequences. Chosen by master puppeteer Toulon (Guy Rolfe) as his successor, Rick (Gordon Currie) feels he has a sacred duty to guard the puppets from harm and exploitation. Questioned by the authorities about a spate of murders at the Bodega Bay Inn, Rick realizes his conquest of the supernatural forces of the Netherworld was short-lived. Further muddying the battlefield are representatives of the Omega Corporation, headed by Doctor Jennings (Ian Ogilvy), whose associates are interested in the potential of the puppets as weapons. Rick's girlfriend Susie (Chandra West) pays a hospital visit to Lauren (Teresa Hill), a survivor of the Bodega Bay Inn massacre, and Lauren receives psychic warnings which she tries to communicate to Rick through his computer. Meanwhile, Jennings hires three men to accompany him to the cordoned-off murder site, hoping to steal the puppets. In the Netherworld, a powerful demon unleashes a surrogate beast to travel up to Earth for him and vanquish Toulon's dolls, which were created through magic stolen from his realm. Jennings's trio tangles with the puppets and survive, only to be picked off, one by one, by the demon's beast. Flanked by his companion puppets, Toulon's master creation--Decapitron--is juiced up to do battle. Jennings attacks Rick and Susie in an elevator, hoping to gain custody of the puppets, who prove their loyalty to Rick by savagely destroying the avaricious scientist. Primed for combat, the puppets gang up on the other-worldly beast, which they conquer by preventing its exit through the inter-world portal to the Netherworld. The puppets have always been the main event in the PUPPET MASTER films, and this one is no exception. They're so ingeniously devised that one can overlook the ludicrous plot in favor of the opportunity to enjoy Torch or Pinhead or Six-Shooter demonstrating their homicidal specialties. The special effects are generally excellent, so PUPPET MASTER 5 gives genre buffs their money's worth. But it's tough going for other viewers, even as part of a series with aspirations as limited as this one. It relies excessively on the viewer's knowledge of prior films, serves up a not particularly effective demon beast (it seems to have escaped from the set of GREMLINS) as an adversary, and tangles everything up in a story line that's painfully predictable. The film lacks purpose--except, of course, that it was meant to cash in on a profitable idea--and if PUPPET MASTER 6 doesn't break some fresh ground, those overburdened puppets may next aim their assaults in the direction of this series' lazy producers and writers. (Extreme profanity, graphic violence, extensive nudity, sexual situations.)