Puppet Master Continues: Curse of the Puppet Master

Welcome back friends and film freaks to Day 1 of Puppet Master Continues. We move on from the adventures that Doctor Rick Meyers (Gordon Currie from Puppet Master 4, Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter, Beverly Hills, 90210, Ripe, Listen, First Wave and Left Behind: World at War) defeated Sutek and his totems... so where the 9 Hells is he??!! Did Blade convince the others he wasn't worth their time and they gacked him in the middle of the night? Are they on strike? This is Curse of the Puppet Master.

Psst, Warden. Heard from the Governor yet?

With no explanation what happened to Rick Meyers at all the puppets were put up for auction. Maybe they sang show tunes all night and Meyers simply had enough of it. EVEN THOUGH, they are the secret to immortality and so on and so forth. Our film opens at The House of Marvels, a museum devoted to dolls and their collection and of course Toulon's puppets can been seen from... a cage? Dr. Magrew (George Peck of Deathtrap, Under Water, Anywhere But Here, The Extra Man and Excuse Me for Living) assures the puppets that this time everything will be different... to whatever that means and he stuffs something into a wooden crate. Seen speeding off into the foreboding woods (which look a bit like Canoga Park in L.A.) he dumps the crate to the ground, douses it in gas and lights it up. As the camera pulls away from the crate a very faint screaming is heard. OooO maybe he was burning Warwick Davis for all those Leprechaun movies. 

Who missed me??  No I am not a garden gnome!

 Anywho, we meet Magrew's daughter Jane (Emily Harrison of Curse of the Puppet Master, Puppet Master: The Legacy, Food for Thought, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, The Bold and the Beautiful and Defending Santa)fresh from college... though I am convinced she is only done for the year and not graduated. Jane looks about for Magrew's assistant, Matt but apparently he had to leave to tend to his sick father leaving Magrew without aid for his dolly show. Dammit I am still irked that Rick isn't even a factor in this when he was a serious driving force of the previous two films. Well, actually the long film broken into and edited to be made into two movies but that is not the point. I want Rick back!

Driving into town for a break, Jane and her father stop at the gas station where the local slow kid dubbed "Tank" (Josh Green of Sweet Kill, Curse of the Puppet Master, Party of Five, Spiders and Peal Harbor) is treated to some low brow bullying because... hell I guess there was nothing good on cable, at the theater or the bully boys just got done burning some books. Jane and Magrew shoo the bullies away by being smarter than they and try to talk to Tank. A timid soul lurks in Tank as he enjoys wood carving, Magrew notices his passion in the carving and asks Tank if he would rather work for him instead. He introduces Tank to Toulon's puppets as they are "alive" and it fascinates Tank to the point he himself is carving new puppets. I would say it as though we have stepped back in time again but seeing the lad only gets paid $35 a week I wouldn't know where to put that timeline considering a '96 Mustang is shown. Jane seems to have a real bond with the puppets and the business. Will the puppets get loose and do in Magrew? Will Tank be the new master?

Just a few bits of interest now.

Full Moon went completely bankrupt during the follow-up to Part 5 and several film projects simply tanked without Paramount bankrolling so Band had to finance his own films and this was the first step. With a much smaller budget and David Allen unable to do the stop animation of the puppets due to be incredibly ill, the stage hands were holding the puppets up or moving them around, coupled with stock footage of the previous Puppetmaster flicks made this look hokey at best and cheesy at worst. At some points you can see the monofilament wire moving their limbs.

The original script was going to take them back to Egypt were Toulon learned of this animating process but it got scrapped and we were given "this" film shot in 8 days.

Hmm?  Oh sorry, I was thinking about that Seinfeld episode.