PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH
Fantasia 2018 Film Festival Review
Review By Jeff Sanders
There is something to be said about any franchise that has flopped around (and this one has certainly done that) long enough to stem 10 plus sequels and still manages to spark interest with horror movie fans. And here we are, PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH is probably the best sequel so far. Not that this muck is great, but PUPPET MASTER was never a franchise that gave the full effort. The filmmakers exploit that intention to moderate success. In fact, this offering probably surpasses the Schmoeller’s original to some extent, but there is always something to be said about the first film to set the stage in a franchise, so I still feel that one has an edge.
This is one dumb movie, and the filmmakers Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund seem to know. The duo decidedly creates set pieces missing key elements of coverage and jump back and forth with characters and plot where some serious lapses of time and logistics have occurred, all intentional and their part and that of the film’s writer, S Craig Zahler. This is subversive stuff that horror movie fans will pick up on, and what may leave casual viewers perplexed at the inside joke. I personally loved this aspect. Other aspects, not so much. Zahler’s script is rightfully for a horror movie from a different time, like this franchise. The script starts in 1989, and the story’s heart stays there. This is film has some very Un-PC things going on in it. To be fair though, this is about Nazis, and Nazis were not very politically correct. The Reich are committing hate crimes in this picture. This is a serious topic that is being lampooned by a writer who has seen many horror films and knows of their history of shoehorning serious contemporary topics into their ludicrous premises. It’s a joke, a nasty one. I don’t love it, but I am not going to blow it out of proportion either. These filmmakers have no ill will, they are making a love letter to films that operate on insane, misguided logic that are chocked full of gore.
Did I mention gore? That’s what is going to attract most folks into sitting through this 90-minute assault of the senses. This movie sure has it, too much of it, actually. A few of the gags are in such bad taste, like the killing of a pregnant woman by way of puppet rape, that I found myself kind of being turned off by the obvious “edginess”. I can take a humor, even the darkest jokes, but is the joke even remotely funny, or subversive? No. Is the joke anything more than a teenager-ish provocation that makes the bros say, “OOH!” Unfortunately not. Other than a few misguided efforts like that, there are genuine moments of glee to behold onscreen as puppets slash, dash and crush heads with reckless abandon. There is even a death that doesn’t involve a puppet that I had to shake my head at with grin. In a movie like this, people are just going to Hades no matter what horse is gonna drag them there.
We have a mixed bag here for sure. Some elements of this film work, the cast, some great gags, a few killer scenes, like the title credit preface with Udo Kier that hits the tone in perfect throwback and wild subversion so well, that the rest of the film simply cannot stay level with it. Other elements, like the obvious provocation, are what weigh this movie down from being the fun, throwback that it wanted to be in that first scene where a crazy French-German Nazi, who carries around his own lemons for beverages, makes a bad impression on some young ladies. PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH is worth checking out for sure, just have some reservations, keep in mind that films sometimes ride that bad taste line a bit too close and start to slide in one direction.
Fantasia Film Festival is from July 12th – August 5th
