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) and a couple of
her friends including psychic Lauren (Teresa Hill) and the obnoxious
Cameron (Ash Adams) turn up to stay for the weekend with him. Susie
notices a strange puppet and Rick say's it's been there since he
moved in, then Lauren feels something evil about it and leads the
friends to a large chest in a forgotten storage room and several
other strange puppets inside it as well as the diary of German
toymaker and puppeteer Andre Toulon (Guy Rolfe) which describes a
green serum which can animate the puppets and 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 and sends
various little monsters out to get it and kill anyone who has learned
about it starting with Rick, his chums and 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 and continues the story with pretty much the same cast of actor's and character's. Event at only 75 minutes long not much actually happens, out of the four main teenage cast members only one is killed and I didn't like the fact that the Toulon puppets don't get to do anything and aren't used as the main threat which ends up falling to Sutek's little monsters which are forgettable and 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 and changed which doesn't help and the puppets which were once so cool and so deadly are turned into the hero's here and actually protect Rick and his mates from Sutek. The majority of the special effects are surprisingly good with simple yet very effective stop-motion animation and animatronic puppet effects used throughout, I just wish the puppets were meaner and 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 and there's some mild blood splatter but this feels like it was made for a PG rating and 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 and anywhere near as atmospheric. The cinematography is quite nice on occasion with some moody lighting and 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 and attractive cast, 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 and some nice special effects and one or two good moments but it's nowhere near as good as the first three and you can tell the producers are milking the franchise and 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 and reducing the gore and nudity to virtually zero probably say's it all really. If you are a purest and must watch every sequel in the series, then watch this. If your not, then you can stop after part 3 and skip to part 6. Just my opinion.
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 and continues the story with pretty much the same cast of actor's and character's. Event at only 75 minutes long not much actually happens, out of the four main teenage cast members only one is killed and I didn't like the fact that the Toulon puppets don't get to do anything and aren't used as the main threat which ends up falling to Sutek's little monsters which are forgettable and 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 and changed which doesn't help and the puppets which were once so cool and so deadly are turned into the hero's here and actually protect Rick and his mates from Sutek. The majority of the special effects are surprisingly good with simple yet very effective stop-motion animation and animatronic puppet effects used throughout, I just wish the puppets were meaner and 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 and there's some mild blood splatter but this feels like it was made for a PG rating and 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 and anywhere near as atmospheric. The cinematography is quite nice on occasion with some moody lighting and 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 and attractive cast, 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 and some nice special effects and one or two good moments but it's nowhere near as good as the first three and you can tell the producers are milking the franchise and 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 and reducing the gore and nudity to virtually zero probably say's it all really. If you are a purest and must watch every sequel in the series, then watch this. If your not, then you can stop after part 3 and skip to part 6. Just my opinion.
5.0/10
5.2/10
IMDB
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