Puppet Master III (1992)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The Puppet Masters film series is always been one of my guilty pleasures. It is by no means a series of puppet masterpieces, but it did entertains me, as a kid of the 1990s. Coming off, their success, off of their first two, direct to video, movies, 1989's 'Puppet Master' & 1990's 'Puppet Master II', 1991's 'Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge' is by far, the best film in the series. Directed by David DeCoteau, the entire plot has puppeteer, Andre Toulon (Guy Rolfe), somehow back in Europe, and somehow still alive, despite the fact, that he commit suicide in Bodega Bay, CA in 1939 in the opening of the first movie. While, this might look like, a continuous of the first movie's flashback, in reality, this 3rd movie is not. It's a prequel. It's just the Full Moon Entertainment Writers, goofing up with the chronology, and not caring, about explaining it. Whether by accident or design, in the end, they got their WWII movie with puppets. Anyways, when the members of the Nazi Party, notice that the anti-Nazi, Toulon has the ability to animate his puppets without strings. Dr. Hess (Ian Abercrombie) and Major Kraus (Richard Lynch) are ordered to bring him in by General Mueller (Walter Gotell), leading to Toulon going on the run, while, also seeking revenge for the death of his beloved, wife, Elsa (Sarah Douglas). Without spoiling the movie, too much, I have to say, despite the chronology timeline mistake, Puppet Master III is by far, the most developed movie within the Puppet Master franchise. Not only, does this film essentially, tells some of the origin of the puppets, but the film is full of depth and emotion. You really do feel something for the human characters, unlike the other films that was full of unrealistic psychics & parapsychologists. I have to say, I like this version of Andre Toulon. Guy Rolfe does a decent job, making the character more engaging and sympathetic character than William Hickey and Steve Welles's versions. In their defensive, Hickey's scenes in the first movie, were kinda short to develop anything, and Welles's character was written as the bad guy; however I found Hickey to be, a little too old for the part & for Welles, I just didn't like, his 'Invisible Man', style of acting. The supporting cast was just as good as Rolfe, with Richard Lynch commanding the scenes with his film presence. He really look the part. He always found a way to draw your full attention. Still, his character does do, a lot of stupid decisions throughout the film that will make you question, if his character is really a Major, and not a private. Another thing, I like, about this film, is how this film isn't a rethread of the first 2 movies, with the puppets, just randomly killing innocent people. In this, they had reasons to target the Nazis, as many of the puppet souls, were once people that were victims by them. I like the fact, that they made the Puppets into good guys, since after all, they are appealing. Once again, you got Blade, whom looks like a small version of the Fisherman hook killer from 1997's, 'I Know What You Did Last Summer', whom sadly, in this film, get little screen time. I was deeply surprised, by this movie, that Blade was in fact, a boy. I always thought of the puppet as a female. It also get weirder, when you find out that this puppet has the soul of Dr. Hess in it. Blade looks and acts, nothing like Dr. Hess, at all. The only thing, I can see, is that, both, like to cut people. Even with that, it's a bit of a stretch. One thing, I glad, this movie brought back, is Leech Woman. I always hate, the filmmakers of Puppet Master 2, for trying to kill her character. She's by far, one of the most memorable puppets, Toulon has around. It's also cool to see the Conehead lookalike, muscle man mixed with Addams Family Uncle Fester who punch and strangles people, Pinhead, and the Tunneler that has a drill on his head that drills into people. One puppet that I can care less about is Jester. He's pretty much, useless for most of the series. I honestly, don't know, why, he's there. The same, goes to Djinn whom appearance is a bit jarring. He somewhat disappears, after this film. Anyways, this brings up, another issue. This time, with the new puppet, the fun-looking, Six-Shooter cowboy puppet who was made, just for this film. I get that, he's technically in-story, one of the oldest puppets, that Toulon's owns, but what happen to him, since this film. He didn't appear in the first movie, nor the 2nd. Somehow, in the 4th movie, he reappearance. It's very odd. Anyways, the action scenes with them are quite enjoyable, but I never bought the struggle between man Vs puppets. I just can't see, how people in these film, can't overpower them. Anyways, most of their stop motion movement was always fantastic and creepy, however there are some scenes in this film, that the effects needed some work. Director David DeCoteau does a lot with the little amount of money, he got. Surprising, the set design is pretty good. He manage to recreate Nazi Germany quite convincingly on the Universal backlot for a rather modest budget. Still one thing, this movie really goes, over the top with, is the graphic nudity. Did we really need that much, rather, fan service breast shots? Anyways, I might be a bit biased on that, since big boobs are some of my favorite's things to see. Overall: Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge is a step-up from the other two films, however, it's also marks the highest of highs for this film franchise, as the next couple of films, will not get any better. In the end, this is as good as it gets.

Puppet Master III (1991) ** 1/2 (out of 4) The third film in the Full Moon series is a prequel to the first two and takes place during WW2 as Andre Toulon (Guy Rolfe) is captured by the Nazies after doing a spoof of Hitler. They eventually murder his wife and want him to tell them how to bring life to the dead but instead he and his puppets set out for revenge. For a direct-to-video release I think most people are going to be shocked at how serious the majority of this film is. You're certainly not going to confuse this with SCHINDLER'S LIST but for a cheap, low-budget horror film the thing has quite a bit to say. I was really surprised to see how much drama the movie tries to build up and this includes stuff early on between Toulon and his wife but we even get another subplot about a man and his son hiding from the Nazies. With that said, the majority of the running time this here is just a revenge flick and a pretty good one at that. I thought what really carried the movie was the very strong performance by Rolfe who fits the role very nicely. You really have no problem believing that he's this brilliant man who brought life to these puppets but the character also works when he simply wants to kill those responsible for the death of his wife. I also enjoyed the way the screenplay introduces the puppets this time out and that includes the creation of Blade as well as a new puppet, a six-armed cowboy who of course has a gun in each arm. The death scenes this time are fairly creative, although we get a couple typical gun deaths there's one very memorable sequence early on dealing with a man trying to be brought back to life by the Germans. The gore level isn't all that high but we do get some nudity and brief sexual situations to add to the R-rating. The film was shot for around $800,000 and it certainly looks it in spots. I think it's fair to say that you never once get the feeling that you're watching something that takes place in the 1940s and it's also fair to say that the costumes, sets and locations are all silly looking. However, with such a low-budget the special effects are actually pretty good as it's clear the studio was getting better making the puppets appear to be real. PUPPET MASTER III is certainly the best of the first three movies and it tackles a subject that not too many horror films have dealt with in a serious way.

Some PM fans say PM 2 is the best and some say PM 3 is the best, PM 2 was a good entry in the series but it got a little too weird towards the ending. But PM 3 is a great entry in the series for so many reasons. For one thing it's the most serious and emotional, second of all, it actually shows the origins of Blade and Leech Woman, that's right, this is a prequel to the original PM.Most of the acting is great, Guy Rolfe is perfect for the role as the amazing Andre Toulon. Richard Lynch is bad ass as the main villain Gestapo Major Krauss, one of the best b movie villains ever. The only bad thing about this film is that Blade is barley in it.

The third entry of the straight-to-video series in producer Charles Band's Full Moon's "Puppet Master" goes for a prequel set-up in outlining the origins of Andre Toulon and his animated puppets in the backdrop of a war-torn Berlin through the Nazis uprise in WW2.During WW2 the Nazis led by Dr. Hess are conducting experiments on life and death, which involves reviving their dead to increase their manpower. However Hess is having trouble controlling his test subjects and the animation doesn't last for long. But Andre Toulon and his life-like puppets capture his eyes, but also that of the Gestapo's Major Krauss who sees Toulon and his puppet show negative propaganda against Nazi regime. They raid his theatre and in the process Toulon's wife is murdered by Krauss. Toulon manages to escape custody and then seeks revenge with the help of his puppets while on the run from the Gestapo."Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge" is a straightforward (puppeteer of revenge), but effective low-budget b-picture that's a tad more ambitious and constructively complete in its narrative's vision than its formulaic, but playful predecessors. I would tag it as the best of the lot, so far. There's excellent performances stemming from the likes of Guy Rolfe (who sympathetically fills the role as Toulon), Ian Abercrombie and a suitably nasty, cold hearted villain turn by Richard Lynch as Nazi Major Krauss. Rolfe and Lynch simply standout, giving it a little more professionalism and class. What also makes their acting noticeable is that they have a better than average script, which is suggestively tailored and tightly projected in letting the plot evolve and giving space to provide a back-story to the puppets (especially that of Leech woman and Blade). Director David DeCoteau's compact handling is quickly paced and uses the obvious back-lot sets quite well where he crafts lasting tension, seamless excitement and atmospheric imagery of the artistically etched puppets (which once again are expertly engineered and brought across) as they gleefully hand out violently nasty and bloody attacks on the Nazis. Richard Band's recycled score is still as racy, but consisting of an edgy kick within the darker moments.