Fifteenth Annual FMS Scarelicious October Movie Series: #8 Puppetmaster (1989)

Look at me, working my way through all these classics.  And 1989's Puppetmaster (also seen as Puppet Master) is a classic, campy start to a series that has over ten movies (really?!???).  I might check out II but I'm not going to venture too deep into the series because (1) it's ridiculous and (2) I suspect (but do not know for sure) that the newer movies have moved away practical effects.  Since the puppets are the best part, a switch to CGI will be a let-down.

We start in 1939 with a ghastly little puppet POV, running through the huge Bodega Bay Hotel (with the actual Mission Inn in Riverside, California, handling some of the location shots).  The puppet - skull-faced with a hook and an a wicked knife - makes its way to Andre Rulon's room.  Rulon, played by the iconic William Hickey, is the Puppetmaster, who can imbue inanimate objects - like puppets - with life due to some "Egyptian magic."  He tucks his living puppets away safely, hiding them in the walls of hotel, then offs himself just as two men with guns break into his room.  Dunno if those two guys were bad guys, or if Rulon himself was the bad guy.

In "present times" a/k/a 1989, four psychic friends (or, "friends") gather at the hotel.  They've all had disturbing visions compelling them to rejoin their now-dead fifth, Neil.  Alex is a professor at Yale who gets dreams of possible futures; Dana is a "white witch" and carnival huckster to make some cash; and Frank and Carissa are "researchers," most mostly seem interested in the intersection of s3x and psychic ability.  As it turns out, dead Neil found and released the animated puppets and the gang, plus Neil's nubile young wife, must fight for their lives.  SPOILER FOR OLD MOVIE: most of them don't make it.

As I mentioned above, the practical puppets are terrific, mostly filmed in stop-motion.  There's the ghastly skull guy, a pinheaded-strongman, "Drillhead," one whose face spins and, my personal favorite, a pretty girl puppet who vomits murderous leeches.  She's AWESOME.  Puppetmaster does seem a little short on story, and coherence, if I'm honest.  But I can totally see how it has claimed a cult following.