Puppet Master: Axis Of Evil (2010)

Here is, as expected, a film in the Puppet Master series that finally plays around with the chronology established in the earlier movies, in an attempt to shake things up a bit and move forward, yet also step backward slightly at the same time (I WILL explain in a moment).

On the plus side, this is not another crudely-assembled mix of footage from the other movies. To be fair, it would be hard to do that again, so soon after the eighth instalment in this series. You also get Nazis, and who doesn't enjoy seeing Nazis get their just desserts. On the downside, it's another film that decides the story is best set in the past, and also assumes that nobody will remember when Toulon was said to have killed himself, as shown at the very start of the first movie.

David DeCoteau is once again back in the director's chair, working this time from a script by Domonic Muir (credited as August White). The two work together to provide fans with occasional moments of fun mired in a plot that consistently tries to play certain elements out more seriously than it should.

Here's the quick summary. Levi Fiehler plays Danny Coogan, a young man unable to do his bit during the war, due to a leg injury. He's helping his uncle at the Bodega Bay Inn on the night that Toulon kills himself to finally stop being pursued by Nazis. Because he had spent some time with Toulon, Danny knows about the puppets. He whisks them away. This all leads to Danny realising that Nazis are in his home town, attempting to infiltrate a factory that his girlfriend (Beth, played by Jenna Gallagher) works in. The Nazis are working with a Japanese criminal (Ozu, played by Ada Chao) and Danny realises he can do his bit for the war effort by putting a stop to their plans, with the help of his puppet pals.

There are a couple of good puppet scenes here, including the creation of a new little guy (Ninja), and this is certainly a huge step up from the previous film. Having said that, Puppet Master: Legacy was such a low bar that almost anything would have been a huge step up. So it's a shame that those involved with this one thought that the best way to revive the series would be to create a tale of wartime intrigue and thrills, while forgetting to include enough of both.

The cast are okay. Fiehler is a bit of a uncharismatic lead, making it impossible to figure out how his character ended up with such an apparently lovely girlfriend. Gallagher does a bit better in her role, despite not being given enough screentime, and Chao does what is required of her as one of the main villains. Aaron Riber is fine as Klaus, the other main villain, most at ease when he gets to run through the expected broad "act like a Nazi" bag of tricks.

DeCoteau doesn't do a terrible job, and the general look of the movie makes it feel as if a bit more care has been taken with it than was taken with the past few films, but neither he nor Muir push the material in a direction that allows for fun to take precedence over the plotting, scheming, and attempted melodrama.

It's a step in the right direction, but it's not a return to form. And I'm not sure that will ever happen now, considering how far along the series has now gone.

4/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy a decent little set here.

Retro Puppet Master (1999)

As you are all aware, this is the Puppet Master movie in which a young Toulon is played by Greg Sestero, working with a horrible French accent. Wait, are you telling me that you were NOT aware of that? You didn't know that one of the stars of The Room was, at one point, Toulon AKA the Puppet Master? Well, to be fair, neither did I. Somehow, nobody told me about this, even as they knew I would be making my way through every instalment in this series. Seeing him piqued my interest, which then started to slide downhill fast when I realised that it wasn't just the influence of Tommy Wiseau that had shaped his performance in The Room.

Things start off with the elderly Toulon (Guy Rolfe appearing once again) talking to his puppets. He offers to tell them a tale about the very first time he made them live. And then things move back to show viewers the young Toulon (Sestero), a woman who falls for him (Ilsa, played by Brigitta Dau, who I am assuming is AKA Elsa, Toulon's wife we last saw played by Sarah Douglas in the third movie), and a sorcerer named Afzel (Jack Donner). Afzel is being pursued by servants of Sutekh, three mummies who have been ordered to kill him, and anyone else who gets hold of the secret of life. Knowing he needs to pass along the knowledge, Afzel teaches Toulon.

Once again pairing up director David DeCoteau and writer Neal Marshall Stevens, this seventh Puppet Master movie feels like a step up from the sixth, in some ways, yet also feels like a step down. It's good that we're back with the elements that feel more ingrained in the series (Toulon, the scenes that focus on the actual puppets, even the minions sent out to do the bidding of Sutekh), but setting it in Paris at the start of the 20th century causes a number of issues.

The biggest issue is the downright painful accent being attempted by Sestero, who is awful in the main role. His acting style is just too big and obvious, more fitting for a Troma movie (or some of the Full Moon Features that are more broadly comedic), but the accent is the final nail in the coffin. It will make you want to rip your ears off, stuff them in a croissant, and have them transported to Paris to be soothed by the accent of someone who is actually French. Dau is a bit better in her role, which allows her to be imperilled in time for the finale, and Donner has fun with his supporting role. Stephen Blackehart also has fun, portraying the leader of the mummified trio.

None of the main sequences work as well as they could, the editing is too clumsy (probably trying to cover up any shortcomings) and, as is often the case with prequels, the threat is greatly reduced because we know the overall outcome. And a small part of you may want to see some harm come to Sestero, if only to stop him speaking for a few minutes.

Having said that, the retro design of the puppets is a nice way to mix things up slightly, and having some mummies after our hero allows for some better fights than any that involved the small minions featured in the 4th and 5th movies. But that's not enough to make up for how bad Sestero is.

4/10

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Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge (1991)

Uh oh. I must admit that I was worried when this film started. The third film in the Puppet Master series is a prequel (and not the only one, from what I have gathered). I could already envision the reworked character backstories, the use of footage that had been cut from the previous two movies, and a general feeling of something lacklustre. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. This sees the series at three for three, with all of them reaching the same level of quality - almost unheard of when it comes to Full Moon Features, in my experience.

Guy Rolfe is the actor portraying Toulon this time around, a man who enjoys spending his time entertaining children with his impressive puppets. But there's something about them, something that imbues them with life, and that is of interest to the Nazis. Before you can say "heil who?", Major Kraus (Richard Lynch) has marched in to tell Toulon that his life is pretty much over.

As potentially tricky as this could have been, risks are minimised by using the more experienced hands of David DeCoteau, on directorial duties, and C. Courtney Joyner, writer of the enjoyable Prison and even more enjoyable Class Of 1999, and that clearly pays off. Taking this step back allows viewers to enjoy everything they know about the series, dig a bit further into the background lore, and not find the material already too familiar and boring.

The cast also help, with the majority of the runtime focusing on Rolfe and Lynch in a basic good vs evil battle. Rolfe is a very good Toulon, sympathetic and easy to root for as he puts his talented puppets to deadly use, and Lynch is entertainingly irredeemable as the main villain. Sarah Douglas is good to see in a small role, Ian Abercrombie, Kristopher Logan, Aron Eisenberg, and Walter Gotell all do decent work, and the beautiful Michelle Bauer is onscreen just long enough to add some gratuitous nudity and remind you of the power of Bauer.

As well as some of the puppets already seen in previous movies, the main addition here is a six-armed gunslinger, and it's worth mentioning that the work on him is some of the best seen in the series so far. All of the Puppet Master movies, from the few I have now seen, have impressed me with their work involving the actual puppets, but this is a real high point (a standard I hope the series maintains).

Part of me wants to pick out some more positives, part of me wants to stop before everyone suspects me of completely overselling the thing. Without the context of any future instalments to go by, I will just say that I recommend anyone picking up a box set of these first three films, especially if you find them going for a cheap enough price.

7/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy a decent little set here.

Screaming In High Heels: The Rise And Fall Of The Scream Queen Era (2011)

There are some good reasons why the '80s are looked back on with such fondness by horror fans. The home video boon led to a seismic shift in business models and consumer appetite (as seems to have happened again recently with the many digital services we can now try), practical effects were gloriously gloopy, and discovering real gems was a much harder task before the internet exploded, this making each positive discovery much more rewarding.

Three other reasons justifying our fondness for the decade can be found here, and they are Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens, and Michelle Bauer. Okay, they may not appeal to the full demographic who watched many of their movies, but each woman had a way to capture the affections of most fans.

Jason Paul Collum brings together the three ladies to discuss their experiences (how they started in the business, memorable anecdotes and such). They're not actually together onscreen, but they cover similar ground, with each lady receiving the same amount of screentime, roughly. And then we get input from the likes of Fred Olen Ray and David DeCoteau, waxing lyrical about the decade that allowed them to become such prolific directors, and the women who helped them sell their titles.

There are also plenty clips to keep us amused, and some of the stuff on display here is ridiculous. Yet I won't deny that I would, and perhaps will, watch pretty much anything with these scream queens involved. Titles and ideas were created for the sole purpose of shoehorning these actresses into some roles, and I couldn't care one bit when it leads to the likes of Evil Toons, Sorority Babes In The Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, and many more movies that are every bit as enjoyable as they sound.

Quigley, Stevens and Bauer approach their careers, and status, with a certain pragmatism that never leads to them looking down on the genre that made them such hot property, although it didn't necessarily make them rich. They don't claim to be experts on horror, but they do provide a view of how the scream queen phenomenon grew and grew, and how the bubble was filled up until it burst, thanks to their insider perspective.

The term didn't only apply to horror actresses in the '80s, of course, but that's certainly when it gained a popularity, and it's when companies decided to recruit more and more women specifically to mould into that role, which inevitably led to a decline in quality of the "stars" given convention time to meet and greet (and often get money from) fans. As these three ladies discuss that situation, it's hard to disagree with their disappointment. Yes, it could seem bitchy and toxic, but it doesn't.

As is the way with everything, something was seen to be popular, and was then exploited to the point that the market became oversaturated and people started to suffer, in terms of quality and in terms of finances. Thankfully, the original, and best, will always outlast the many copycats who come and go, and Quigley, Stevens and Bauer remain firm fan favourites while so many other names have been forgotten, consigned to the VHS bargain bin of history.

P.S. If you want to help Linnea Quigley out of a bad spot then please visit here and do what you can.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Screaming-High-Heels-Brinke-Stevens/dp/B008A0RGMC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413577759&sr=8-1&keywords=screaming+in+high+heels

Sorority Babes In The Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1988)

AKA The Imp.

I know that Sorority Babes In The Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama is pretty awful, I really do. I shouldn't enjoy it as much as I do. Most sane people would give this a low rating and warn other people to stay well away from it. Well, I'm not sane and part of me will always love this bonkers film, due in no small part to some great '80s scream queens.

The plot is laughable, but I'll describe it anyway. A bunch of boys and girls end up in a bowling alley at night. It's one of those initiation type of deals, all being overseen by the sadistic Babs (Robin Stille). The whole night soon becomes a fight for survival, however, when a bowling trophy is knocked over that releases a mischievous imp. The imp pretends to grant wishes, but all it really wants to do is collect some souls and cause some havoc.

I'm not going to pretend that I enjoyed the script by Sergei Hasenecz, which is full of horrible one-liners and generally risible dialogue, but it does have its tongue in cheek throughout, which is a big plus. Some of the laughs may be unintentional, but a lot of them are deliberate. Well, I like to think so.

The direction by David DeCoteau is fine for the material. He's not going to be troubling Scorsese any time soon, but he gets from one scene to the next with the camera pointing in the right direction, the set having just enough light to make out everything (just), and an attempt to keep things moving briskly enough that the complete lack of logic doesn't sink the whole thing.

Andras Jones gets the lead male role, and he's lucky enough to get plenty of screentime with the lovely Linnea Quigley, playing a thief who ends up caught up in the whole imp-centric scenario. As if that wasn't enough onscreen goodness, male horror fans also get to enjoy the presence of Michelle Bauer and Brinke Stevens, with the former particularly memorable when affected by the dark magic of the imp. There are other people in the movie, including Hal Havins, Kathi O'Brecht, John Stuart Wildman and Carla Baron, but it's Quigley and Bauer who make the biggest impression. Oh, not including the legendary George 'Buck' Flower, who has a few amusing scenes as the janitor, and one person who knows the background of the imp.

I expect most people to either dislike this one or just dismiss it, but I'll always have a place for it in my schlock-loving heart.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Sorority-Babes-Slimeball-Bowl-O-Rama/dp/B00ARWWUYA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392384661&sr=8-1&keywords=sorority+babes+in+the+slimeball+bowl-o-rama