Puppet Master (1989)

Puppet Master (1989) is the first film of the very successful franchise wherein unique, dangerous dolls take on a type of life thanks to an Egyptian immortality spell and seek out psychics gathered by one of their own for a diabolical plan and to keep the secret of the spell hidden. The world is introduced to the slashing Blade, the drilling Tunneler, strangler strongman Pinhead, and others as they gruesomely dispatch their victims in this evil toy horror story. The film is pre-CGI, instead using stop-animation and other practical special effects in-camera to animate the malevolent toys. A bit dated, slow and predictable by today''s standards, Puppet Master still stands as a disturbing example of the possessed or cursed objects in cinema which would include such memorable menaces as Chucky, the clown doll in Poltergeist, the maniacal small Zuni fetish statue in Trilogy of Terror, etc.

Erik M.