PUPPET MASTER 2 (1990): Retro Review

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Puppet_Master_2_Art

Puppet Master 2 Art

The frustration so many of us feel about sequels has always been connected to the idea that they are never as good as the original, which instantly makes us biased to what may occur. The error to this thinking is when an interesting concept comes along, we, as fans, end up doing comparisons rather than just taking it in as its own story and either enjoying it or not. This certainly applies to Puppet Master 2. The first Puppet Master film is unique and though not without its flaws it is fun and a worthy entry into the Horror-realm. Believe it or not, the same can be said for part two. I thought that I had seen this when I was a teenager watching Horror flicks on late night TV, yet nothing was familiar, so I must have missed it. Considering how many more of these I have to get through, I’m glad that at least this one wasn’t painful. I’d rather sit through sequels over “reboots” any day of the week, as they tend to at least come from some dimension of respect for the origin and love for the fans, rather than grabbing a character and cranking out a new story that pisses all over what made everything in the original great in the first place, in the name of the almighty dollar. Puppet Master 2, though an obvious attempt at increasing Charles Band’s net-worth, does have a good story. And to warn you, I’m going to do a tiny bit of spoiling, otherwise I won’t have much to say. Not enough to ruin it, but enough to bring on hallucinations.

Still_from_Puppet_Master_2

Still from Puppet Master 2

This film takes us further into the Andre Toulan reality, rather than bringing back the survivors of part one. We meet a new group of humans that have come to the Bodega Bay Hotel to try and figure out what happened to those characters, as Alex Whitaker is in a nut house and Megan Gallagher was found dead in the hotel. What happened to the dog? It seems that Toulan’s Puppets are not without purpose, as they dig up the corpse of their creator and reanimate him with the same fluid-magick that gives them life. Pretty darn convenient the hotel has a cemetery in the back, eh? The resurrected Puppet Master actually interacts with the investigators, though he is hiding his true appearance with wrappings and dark glasses, much like the Invisible Man. We do get to see under those wraps later on and he is far from invisible! Fans of grotesque make-up work will dig the effort. Those exchanges are pretty good and have just enough creepy in the mix to make it interesting. Yeah, his accent sucks and is all over the place in terms of national affliction. One sentence he sounds English, the next, Austrian. Oddly enough, he never really sounds German. But do you really care? The only drag to this piece of work is the lack of use of the Puppets! Yeah, they’re in it, but not used in the same way. Toulan creates a new puppet that has bullets for teeth and a blowtorch in place of a hand and it’s pretty much the star. I found that a weak move. Why was that necessary? Was this the

Still_from_Puppet_Master_2

Still from Puppet Master 2

work of the infamous butchers of cinema known as test-groups? They actually kill off two of the original puppets, as well, and that bummed me out. Considering the incredibly disturbing nature of one of the puppet’s abilities, I am left annoyed. This is unfortunate, since if one had never seen the first, they wouldn’t even know of its worth! It’s a much more sinister power than simply shooting fire, let’s put it that way. Okay, stay focused on this film. If one pays attention, you will see that the original puppets aren’t used that much. It’s all about Torch, folks. The others come across as spectators more than anything else. Yeah, Blade gets to do a bit of cutting, but Pinhead comes across as worthless and you can’t help but wonder what the hell the purpose of Jester is, even though he is given a decent chunk of screen time. This may just be the biggest problem with Puppet Master 2: we aren’t given the chance to be freaked out by the puppets as much as we would want. This switch of character development isn’t necessarily bad. After all, the title suggests Toulan should be the focus. I suppose if one stays intent on viewing this as its own piece of art, then it is a successful film, even as a sequel. As a fan of the first film, I’m left slightly let down that the puppets aren’t used more in part two. How many viewers of part one thought, “This is pretty good, I just wish they wouldn’t have used the puppets so much.”? I could see some, as everyone has to bitch about something. I know that the only thing I kept in my brain all these years was the memory of those scary little buggers, so I suppose this will be a genuine ‘To each their own’ situation. Puppet Master 2, as its own film, is pretty good. It’s creepy, fairly well written, shot well and is satisfying in its delivery. It’s true what is said about keeping your expectations low.

Stay tuned for the psychological reaction to viewing Part Three.

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Nathan Surface

Nathan Surface is an experimental musician, artist and writer. In 2006 he started Sephirotic Publishing and is the creator of Erotic Dismemberment Art-zine, Corrosive Altars Metal-zine and 24 Frames Cine-zine. He lives with his wife, two cats and thousands of books, films and albums.