‘Master of Puppets’

Murderous toys from a cult classic are back for blood

These days, horror films can often be best enjoyed from the comfort of your favorite streaming site. And while “Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich,” the latest reimagining of the Charles Band classic, may end up on services like Shudder and others, it is a film best experienced in the theater with as many people as possible.

PM:TLR finds the possessed and murderous puppets under the clarion call of the mysterious Euro-creep Andre Toulon, portrayed by the always-unsettling Udo Kier. Toulon happens to have a hatred for much the same things that got Der Fuhrer all hot and bothered: any one who isn’t of pure “Aryan” heritage.

Thomas Lennon plays Edgar, recently divorced and forced to move home with the ‘rents. He soon finds an ominous, fedora-sporting puppet and decides to make some quick cash by selling it at an auction in a nearby town. What Edgar soon learns is that this puppet was part of the Toulon collection, and that there is a whole convention surrounding the mystery of this evil man and his puppets. What appears to be a random assemblage of like-minded collectors soon turns into a hunting ground for the bloodthirsty puppets.

If, by the end of the cold open—with the grisly yet devilishly comical dispatching of a young lesbian couple at the hands of the bewitched puppets—hasn’t gotten you hooked, then quite frankly, PM:TLR ain’t your bag. But if it is, then you’re in for a real treat. What follows is a bloody hoot of a film that will satisfy any fans of the genre.

PM:TLR is born from the brutal mind of S. Craig Zahler (“Bone Tomahawk,” “Brawl in Cellblock 99”) who has delivered some of the best pulp cinema in recent past, and ably directed by Swedish horror duo Tommy Wiklund and Sonny Laguna. But it’s the bloody-disgusting practical effects by Tulsa native Tate Steinsick that make PM:TLR worth the ticket price.

Steinsiek and his team relish in raising the bloody stakes with each graphic, deliriously-unhinged kill crammed into the brisk 84-minute runtime. (Disclosure: I worked on the film briefly as a camera operator.) Zahler and Steinsiek go to great lengths to make this film’s bloodbath—filled with outrageous, borderline-comical violence—so entertaining that it begs to be experienced with an audience that’s game. While the film’s content may not be for the faint of heart, it’s a delightful exercise in re-igniting a long dormant genre property.

PM:TLR will kick off the ninth installment of Circle Cinema’s Slumber Party, its annual movie marathon of themed kitsch and horror classics, on Saturday Aug. 18  with a special Q&A featuring Steinsiek and Preston Fassel (author of the first upcoming Fangoria Presents novel, “Our Lady of the Inferno.”)