Puppet Master 4 is set at the abandoned Bogeda Bay Inn where teenage boy genius Rick Meyers (Gordon Currie) is working on the Omega Project for the Biotech Institute which concerns the pursuit of artificial intelligence, Rick's girlfriend Susie (Chandra West) & a couple of her friends including psychic Lauren (Teresa Hill) & the obnoxious Cameron (Ash Adams) turn up to stay for the weekend with him. Susie notices a strange puppet & Rick say's it's been there since he moved in, then Lauren feels something evil about it & leads the friends to a large chest in a forgotten storage room & several other strange puppets inside it as well as the diary of German toymaker & puppeteer Andre Toulon (Guy Rolfe) which describes a green serum which can animate the puppets & give them life which by an odd coincidence is just the thing that Rick is working on. Meanwhile Sutek the ancient Eygptian God whom Toulon stole the reanimation secret from in the first place wants it back & sends various little monsters out to get it & kill anyone who has learned about it starting with Rick, his chums & Toulon's puppets...
Originally having the working title Puppet Master 4: The Demon this was directed by sequel specialist Jeff Burr whose other credits include Stepfather II (1989), Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990), Pumpinhead II: Blood Wings (1994) as well as the following Puppet Master sequel Puppet Master 5 (1994) which was actually made at the same time as Puppet Master 4 & continues the story with pretty much the same cast of actor's & character's (here in the UK ironically Puppet Master 5 was the only one never to be released on video or DVD so that means the only Puppet Master to follow on directly from the previous one storyline wise was never released!). I must admit that I am a huge fan of the first three Puppet Master flicks which I consider to be Full Moon's best films with some strong storytelling, neat special effects & gore & some memorable killer puppets each with their own distinct personality & implement's for killing but this is the point where that stops & the Puppet Master series starts to turn into a cheap horror franchise aimed at making money & selling replica dolls to the fans. Amazingly Puppet Master 4 has five credited on screen writers which I find astonishing, I mean it took five people to write this? While there are elements of the screenplay & plot that I like I have to say some of this sucks big time & some of the plot elements that are newly introduced like the Egyptian God Sutek, the laser fights & the scientific artificial intelligence angle are poor. Event at only 75 minutes long not much actually happens, out of the four main teenage cast members only one is killed & I didn't like the fact that the Toulon puppets don't get to do anything & aren't used as the main threat which ends up falling to Sutek's little monsters which are forgettable & don't have any particular stand out features.
A lot of the previous Puppet Master films continuity is forgotten about or ignored here as well, I mean where's Torch from Puppet Master II (1991) which this follows? Although having said that Torch does appear in Puppet Master 5. The character of Andre Toulon has been completely rewritten & changed which doesn't help & the puppets which were once so cool & so deadly are turned into the hero's here & actually protect Rick & his mates from Sutek. The majority of the special effects are surprisingly good with simple yet very effective stop-motion animation & animatronic puppet effects used throughout, I just wish the puppets were meaner & had been given more to do. The only really terrible effect is the awful rubber monster suit that is supposed to pass as Sutek the Demon God. The gore levels are low, someone has their finger cut off & there's some mild blood splatter but this feels like it was made for a PG rating & if there hadn't been some 'F' word swearing it would surely have gotten that PG rating.
Production wise Puppet Master 4 is pretty good, the wonderful location used for the Bodega Bay Inn scenes really help as I'm sure the production team would have struggled to build sets that were half as good & anywhere near as atmospheric. The cinematography is quite nice on occasion with some moody lighting & a power cut coupled with a good thunder storm going on outside with sporadic lightning flashes always helps the feel. The acting is alright by a fairly young & attractive cast (especially the two leading girls who are hot!) most of whom return for the next one Puppet Master 5.
Puppet Master 4 has a few good points like the return of the puppets & some nice special effects & one or two good moments but it's nowhere near as good as the first three & you can tell the producers are milking the franchise & see it as a money making exercise rather than anything else, or maybe I'm just being too cynical? Splitting what would have sat happily as one long film into two 70 odd minute ones along with turning the once killer puppets into the good guy's & reducing the gore & nudity to virtually zero probably say's it all really.
Originally having the working title Puppet Master 4: The Demon this was directed by sequel specialist Jeff Burr whose other credits include Stepfather II (1989), Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990), Pumpinhead II: Blood Wings (1994) as well as the following Puppet Master sequel Puppet Master 5 (1994) which was actually made at the same time as Puppet Master 4 & continues the story with pretty much the same cast of actor's & character's (here in the UK ironically Puppet Master 5 was the only one never to be released on video or DVD so that means the only Puppet Master to follow on directly from the previous one storyline wise was never released!). I must admit that I am a huge fan of the first three Puppet Master flicks which I consider to be Full Moon's best films with some strong storytelling, neat special effects & gore & some memorable killer puppets each with their own distinct personality & implement's for killing but this is the point where that stops & the Puppet Master series starts to turn into a cheap horror franchise aimed at making money & selling replica dolls to the fans. Amazingly Puppet Master 4 has five credited on screen writers which I find astonishing, I mean it took five people to write this? While there are elements of the screenplay & plot that I like I have to say some of this sucks big time & some of the plot elements that are newly introduced like the Egyptian God Sutek, the laser fights & the scientific artificial intelligence angle are poor. Event at only 75 minutes long not much actually happens, out of the four main teenage cast members only one is killed & I didn't like the fact that the Toulon puppets don't get to do anything & aren't used as the main threat which ends up falling to Sutek's little monsters which are forgettable & don't have any particular stand out features.
A lot of the previous Puppet Master films continuity is forgotten about or ignored here as well, I mean where's Torch from Puppet Master II (1991) which this follows? Although having said that Torch does appear in Puppet Master 5. The character of Andre Toulon has been completely rewritten & changed which doesn't help & the puppets which were once so cool & so deadly are turned into the hero's here & actually protect Rick & his mates from Sutek. The majority of the special effects are surprisingly good with simple yet very effective stop-motion animation & animatronic puppet effects used throughout, I just wish the puppets were meaner & had been given more to do. The only really terrible effect is the awful rubber monster suit that is supposed to pass as Sutek the Demon God. The gore levels are low, someone has their finger cut off & there's some mild blood splatter but this feels like it was made for a PG rating & if there hadn't been some 'F' word swearing it would surely have gotten that PG rating.
Production wise Puppet Master 4 is pretty good, the wonderful location used for the Bodega Bay Inn scenes really help as I'm sure the production team would have struggled to build sets that were half as good & anywhere near as atmospheric. The cinematography is quite nice on occasion with some moody lighting & a power cut coupled with a good thunder storm going on outside with sporadic lightning flashes always helps the feel. The acting is alright by a fairly young & attractive cast (especially the two leading girls who are hot!) most of whom return for the next one Puppet Master 5.
Puppet Master 4 has a few good points like the return of the puppets & some nice special effects & one or two good moments but it's nowhere near as good as the first three & you can tell the producers are milking the franchise & see it as a money making exercise rather than anything else, or maybe I'm just being too cynical? Splitting what would have sat happily as one long film into two 70 odd minute ones along with turning the once killer puppets into the good guy's & reducing the gore & nudity to virtually zero probably say's it all really.