Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (dir. Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund, 2018)
More sequels should have Barbara Crampton explain in detail what happened previously in the franchise, so that I can just watch the semi-ironic reboot version and not worry about the rest. It would be great if she could have a role in the film, but that’s not strictly necessary. I just need her to answer a few questions I might have.
Who’s the Wishmaster? What’s Ragu’s deal in those Subspecies movies? When did the Witchcraft series turn into softcore erotica? How many Mega Sharks are there in the ocean? Leprechaun 4: In Space: why?
Of course, Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich takes place in its own timeline and Crampton’s deadpan spiel only covers the backstory of this new universe.
We meet the new version of Andre Toulon in 1989, recast here as a Nazi-allied occultist who created murder puppets for money and is now played by Udo Kier, who they could only get for two days. He’s killed quickly, but entombed in his sinister mausoleum that just might facilitate his resurrection.
Cut to Dallas, Texas, in the present day. Our protagonist is a middle aged, recently divorced comic book writer/clerk named Edgar (Thomas Lennon). He’s come back to his childhood home to stay with his parents while trying to get back on his feet. In his deceased brother’s room, he finds a Toulon puppet that he recognizes as worth selling at an upcoming convention, commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of Toulon’s death. Together with his new, wildly out-of-his-league girlfriend Ashley (Jenny Pellicer) and his abrasive boss Markowitz (Nelson Franklin [1]), they travel to this convention where the puppets inevitable come to life to murder everyone in extremely gory and unpleasant ways.
The script is somewhat improbably written by S. Craig Zahler, better known for Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Cell Block 99. It ranges from funny (“This is grindcore. You heard about it your whole life. This is it”) to yet more evidence that I probably don’t want to dive too far into Zahler’s politics if I want to keep enjoying his work. The cast acquit themselves well considering they’re in a Nazi puppet movie. This is possibly the only time Thomas Lennon will ever be in a straightforward sex scene, so if that’s a selling point, why not watch the twelfth Puppet Master film?
[1] Until now, I did not realize that the guy from the party in Scott Pilgrim versus the World and Roger Furlong’s long suffering congressional aide Will on Veep were played by the same actor.
October 28, 2018
oliveresque 