Recently divorced Edgar Easton (Thomas Lennon) returns to his home town to his pleasant mother and needlessly nasty father. He has the uncommon good luck to meet the once pleasant and attractive girl in town Ashley Summers (Jenny Pelicer), who likes him for no reason we’re ever given. In a mostly ignored subplot, Edgar’s brother had died as a child, and he happened to have a creepy puppet made by long-dead Nazi psychopath Andre Toulon (Udo Kier). Edgar, Ashley, and his Jewish boss Markowitz (Nelson Franklin) head to a convention/auction of puppets made by Toulon to sell the puppet. The convention is filled with Jews, lesbians, and other minorities oppressed by Nazis. To no ones surprise, the toys become mobile and go on a killing spree, mainly of people we have never seen before. Detective Brown (Michael ParĂ©) is called in, but heâs an idiot, and his only help comes from ex-cop Carol Doreski (Barbara Crampton), who killed Toulon years ago.
Puppet Master didnât need a reboot, nor did they need to change Toulon and his puppets from Nazi fighters to Nazis, nor take away the puppetsâ personalities, but it could still have been fun. Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich isnât fun. It isnât anything because it wants to be so many things, and thatâs the problem. It seems like a cult flick, with lots of gratuitous blood and tits. But then it tries to be a light comedy. Then it attempts to be a serious statement on Nazism. Then it switches to try its luck at real horror. And these donât fit together. The murders are mean spirited, which kills the comedy. The silly moments kill the horror. And everything kills the message.
A film directed, shot, and lit this poorly needs something strong to overcome those flaws, or it needs to dive into them as â70s euro-cult often did. But here, during the big dramatic death (should this film have a big dramatic scene?), I canât see the characters’ faces well enough to know what they are supposed to be feeling. And I need to see their faces. Or maybe drama wasn’t the way to go. Maybe if your film is about killer Nazi puppets, you should go for zany fun because… killer Nazi puppets!
I assume there was rewrites going on during filming as the filmâs structure is odd. Why do we spend time with Edgerâs terrible father or in his home town when it doesnât connect to the rest of the story? Why not just start with everyone arriving at the convention? Why do some characters get long intros while others get nothing? They could have saved some money by cutting those unnecessary scenes and sets and characters, and used it to buy a light or two.
As for the ending, it doesnât have one. It ends with a âTo be continuedâŠâ notice.
Charles Band made far too many Puppet Master films, and most of them werenât very good. But Band made films that could be enjoyed on some level. Now with others taking over the franchise, theyâve made something that is just ugly.