Puppet Master (1989)

Episode 80, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd:  Hello and welcome to another episode of 2 Guys in a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, we’ve been doing a slew of requests lately. Haven’t we, Craig? Yep. And today’s request comes to us from loyal listener, Andrew. Thank you, Andrew, for suggesting 1989’s Puppet Master. Puppet Master, this one was a popular one.   I mean, you saw it on the shelf. I think it was in the consciousness of about every horror fan around the late eighties, early nineties. And, I swear that I had seen it before, but after watching it today, I think what I had seen was one of the 1,000,000,000 sequels to it instead. And I think what I had seen was, Puppet Master 3, Toulon’s Revenge because this one didn’t ring any bells. Craig, had you seen this one before? 

Craig:  I had, but I’m kind of in the same boat as you. I know that I’ve seen this one. There are a lot of memorable scenes that I remembered, but I do think that I saw the sequels more often. And I think that that may be because while I do really appreciate this movie for what it is, I think that with the sequels, they went a lot more madcap. And I think that that suited the material well, and and maybe that’s why we remember those a little bit more. But like you said, there I don’t know how many sequels there have been. I think at least 6, and they’re still making them. So, yeah.   It it’s been on the radar for a long time. The funny thing is, when I looked this up and saw that it was 1989, I was really surprised. I had thought that it had come out much earlier than that. To to find tapes on the shelf, and that just seemed like such a part of my video store experience was, you know, the puppet master and and all of its sequels. I I really had thought that it was, an older film than that. 

Todd:  Well, I guess they started cranking them out pretty quickly. When we’re doing this podcast, they’re you know, I are pretty die hard horror fans, but there’s still a lot of things that we don’t know and we learn as we go along. I was really interested to find out that the man who produced this and really takes a lot of credit for the series, whether it’s deserved or not, is a man named Charles Band. He started a low budget film studio back in the mid eighties called Empire Pictures and was responsible for a lot of putting out a lot of the movies that some of them many of them we’ve reviewed. One of them, sorority babes and the slimeball bowl a rama, and, Ghoulies, and a lot of these pictures that we know and love that are pretty notorious even though Empire Pictures folded because he sounds like a pretty interesting guy and maybe a little nuts. He he got flushed with cash with Ghoulies in one other film, and so, he went and he bought a 12th century castle, like, over in Romania or something, and decided that that was going to be the studio, kind of their base of operations. I think it was in Spain, actually. And, then started, you know, filming a lot of low budget horror movies.   And the guy’s heart was in the right place. He really saw a need, especially in the direct to video market he was to later find Mhmm. For these low budget horror films. And then we talked about that when we talked about David deCoteau and how they couldn’t really fill the demand fast enough. Well, this guy was the one doing it. And when Empire Pictures folded because he owed a bunch of people money, he started a new one called Full Moon Pictures and really picked up where he left off. And this film, I think, was the one that put Full Moon on the map and is the reason why we have so many sequels to it is because he was able to fund a lot of his other movies just from the sequels to Puppet Master. You know, which is really interesting.   You mentioned that the later ones are really madcap. And they they almost have to be, you know. I wasn’t really thrilled with this movie and part of that, I think, comes from the fact that you’re dealing with some pretty silly subject matter at least Oh, sure. Especially in the the hands of low budget film. You really run the risk of pure awfulness, really, when you’ve got little puppets, and you’re trying to make it convincing that little puppets are running around killing people. And in this movie, when they try to get really serious, and hardcore about it, it doesn’t really come off, I think, as well as the later films do when it seemed like they were maybe having a little more fun with it. 

Craig:  Yes. Yeah. I agree. I don’t know a whole lot about the producer except that I read that the director of this movie, David Schmoller, was not invited back, for any of the sequels. And he believes that that’s because, the producer Charles Band or Brand or whatever his name is, really wanted, ownership of this this franchise. You know, he didn’t want anybody else to be more associated with it than him. And I heard, or read rather that he had always kind of had a fascination with, dolls or toys or, you know, small inanimate objects, being animated and coming to life. And in fact, he had done a movie previous to this one called Dolls, which I remember really fondly.   In fact, I, you know, I whip that one out and watch it every once in a while. And and like this one, it’s it’s goofy and completely nonrealistic, but, a good story nonetheless. And the same thing can be said of this one, you know, it is low budget, but and to be fair, I I guess one could argue that this really kind of ushered in, lots of other movies like it. You know? Like, there was demonic toys, which is pretty terrible, but also entertaining. And child’s play came before it, and, I think maybe Dolly Dearest or something maybe came before it too. So yeah. I don’t know. I mean, I guess it’s just part of a a particular subgenre of horror.   It’s a little silly, but obviously it works. You know, there’s there’s an audience for it. I don’t know. You know, you say you weren’t particularly thrilled with it. I have to say I I kind of agree, but I I felt like the movie had a lot of potential, and maybe it just didn’t quite live up to the potential, whether that be due to budgetary restraints or or whatever. But the idea, I think, is you well, I don’t know if unique’s the right word, but clever. The way that the movie opens up, well, you know, there’s the title sequence and you see some puppets and and some kind of creepy imagery of puppets and whatnot. And then it goes to a shot of this really cool looking, hotel right on the seaside somewhere.   And it’s the Bodega Bay Inn, and it says it’s 1939. And you see right away what you’re gonna be dealing with, which is living puppets. There is some sort of Asian or Mongolian puppet that you see immediately looking out the window of this hotel, and he’s animated. He moves on his own. There is this old guy painting puppets, and this guy turns out to be Andre Toulon, who is played by William Hickey, who is really super recognizable to me. And I looked at I looked at his, IMDB page and I really didn’t remember a lot of the things that he was from, but the things that I did remember him from were really, really memorable to me. He played the Todd, crotchety uncle, in Christmas Vacation. He was also in the Tales from the Dark Side movie.   The cat episode. Yeah. Yes. Yes. And and he’s this little old guy, and and he he has a distinctive look too, but it’s really his voice. He’s he’s got kind of this strange voice that he talks in. That was not at all a good impression, but but he’s got this really distinctive voice. And I was glad to see him and a little bit sad, I didn’t remember that, he’s only in the movie for about the first, I don’t know, 5 or 10 minutes.   But, he’s there and he’s with his puppets. And then kind of the next shot that you get is this, what I thought really, was this great puppet POV shot Yeah. Of what is clearly this puppet running around outside the hotel, making its way into the hotel. And it’s a pretty standard POV shot. You know, it’s low to the ground because it’s a puppet, and it’s a little bit jerky. But what I really liked about it were there are are these it’s not sound effects, but you can just hear the puppet kind of breathing as it’s running around and making little noises. I I thought it was actually really cute. Yeah.   And and this puppet, that it ends up, knocking on Toulon’s door, and and Toulon lets it in. And and and he says 

Clip:  Hello? They’re coming. Don’t worry. Don’t worry. I’ll take care 

Todd:  of you. 

Craig:  And we see these 2 black trench coat guys, and when they speak you hear that they have German accents. And they’re making their way to Toulon’s room, and he is assuring the puppets a he takes a gun out and kills himself. And and that’s kind of the setup for the movie. To be really honest with you, I’m not really sure what was going on there. I’m not who sure who those German guys were, you know, why Toulon felt threatened by them. I’ve read that there are a couple of the Puppet Master sequels that, bridge the gap between part 1 and part 3, and and one of them is called, like, Puppet Master Axis of Evil or something like that. So so I I think that maybe we further on down the line in the series, get a little bit of explanation of what was going on with Toulon, but I’m not really sure here. But that that sets up, the whole movie and then it goes on from there.   And I I understand, I think, why you said you’re not a huge fan of it because the plot is is is really thin. I mean, it’s it’s it’s just a matter of getting a bunch of people together so that these puppets can kill them, which is fine, but it’s it’s it’s not necessarily the strongest writing, I would say. 

Todd:  Well, you know, you mentioned some really nice things about this. And I’ll have to say that this beginning portion of the movie really did capture my interest because it was different. The first thing really is is sympathy for the puppets. You know Yeah. I mean, right off the bat, like you said, we’re getting this puppet, you know, running across the ground, which is fantastic cinematography, and it went on 

Craig:  Yeah. 

Todd:  So long actually that you’re wondering how nobody notices this puppet running along the floor in this busy hotel. But matter of fact, it’s it’s really Todd, and you’re hearing, like you said, his breathing and his struggling. Right? You know, which kind of humanizes them in a way. You know, when when you think of puppets being brought to life, you don’t actually imagine them also breathing, and being quite, you know, that human. Sure. And you don’t really see that in the other movies either. So, that’s one element. But then, he cares about these dolls.   He’s painting them. And when he takes that one puppet who I don’t know. It’s the white faced guy with the hook. I’m sure he has a particular 

Craig:  name. I think they call him Blade. I think they call him Blade in the in the later sequels. Yeah. 

Todd:  Okay. So Blade, when he picks him up, you know, Blade looks like a pretty scary little puppet, but he puts him in the cabinet very tenderly. And he says to him, you know, I’m sorry that we didn’t have more time together. It’s such a shame. And and the puppet whimpers, you know 

Craig:  Yeah. 

Todd:  Before he puts it away. So that that was really pretty good, and different again, creating the sympathy for this puppet. It’s it’s an origin story for the evil puppet that’s really not about, a serial killer who died and then possessed this puppet or, you know, this horrible you don’t get the sense that Toulon is the bad guy. You get the sense that these guys are the bad guy. Toulon’s a victim, and he has this magical power that he’s able to imbue these puppets with life, really just by waving his hands over them, and saying a few words. We see that with the puppet a minute or 2, you know, before with a scrambling face. It’s whose face whips around, and then every time it kinda whips around, it has a different expression, which is really clever. I The design of these puppets is really neat.   So this Mhmm. Does have a lot of good things going for it, and I can tell, like you said, I think that it it’s enough material here to spawn a lot of sequels that are probably a lot better than this movie. But you’re right. The writing is terrible. I mean, even in the beginning I was kind of looking at my watch going, when are we gonna get to something? Because as soon as this happens, we we start hopping around the country. You know, we’re at Yale and this guy named Alex is having this dream. It’s a dream about a guy holding a gun to a girl’s head in this, kind of, white room. And then when he wake, you know, and then he wakes up and he looks down and there’s blood splotches coming out of his stomach, and he tears away his shirt.   And there are, like, leech like creatures on there. And then he wakes up again. He’s got this, like, dream within a dream within a dream thing Right. Which we see more than once. Yep. Yeah. And then boom, we’re at this gypsy fortune teller, like, the world’s worst cold reader, who is trying to tell these 2, people’s fortunes. Honestly, like, the writing is terrible.   Like, they’re asking these inane questions and her answers are so I mean, not only is she the world’s worst, cold reader, but they are the world’s most gullible people. And I and, obviously, this is played for comedy, but, you know, it’s hard to do comedy, and sometimes it doesn’t come across. And and in my case, this didn’t come across very well. 

Craig:  Yeah. And it is funny. And, I I had noticed, when the credits the opening credits were coming up on the screen that one of the last actor credits was, a special appearance by Barbara Barbara Crampton. She was the the female of the couple at this palm reading or or psychic reading or whatever it is. She’s very young. I mean, Barbara Crampton, we’ve watched several of the movies that she’s been in. I mean, she, has has been in the industry for a long time, has done lots of classic horror movies. The most recent one I think that we saw was, We’re Still Here, which is a a fairly modern movie, and and she’s older in that movie.   What are was was she in chopping mall? What else was she? 

Todd:  Was. That’s she’s kind of our lake. She’s our Kevin Bacon. Remember? 

Craig:  Yeah. Oh, man. 

Todd:  And and chopping what was also produced by Empire Pictures. So, you know, there again. 

Craig:  That makes sense. And you’re right. I mean, this scene is just so silly and and your left, or at least I was, kind of wondering, like, what is going on? Why are we meeting all these people? And eventually, the you know, we find out and it’s not like it doesn’t make any sense at all. It does make sense, you know, the all these people that we’re meeting have some sort of psychic ability, and that’s and and they’ve been connected in their past, and and that’s, how they’re all connected. But it is funny. I mean, the lines are so goofy. 

Clip:  Do you think Buddy Here’s ever gonna get a real job?   I see retail sales.   What? Retail sales? No, ma’am. I’m sorry. You better look again because buddy here, he flunked out of the 10th grade. I don’t see how it can be in retail sales.   Well, you see here, I see construction. I see you working as a foreman of a construction company in a retail store, kinda like an enormous shopping mall. You are gonna be a rich man. You are gonna build a shopping mall. Wow. Yes, sir. You are gonna be a rich man.   Oh, maybe I will marry him then. I sit   next to a very rich man. 

Craig:  I’m a gold mine. And then she’s like, the only the only other thing that I see is your grandmother. Sadly, she’s not going to be with us for very long. And the girl’s like, My grandmothers are already dead. And, the lady whose name is Dana, we find out later says, Oh, that’s right. I meant it’s his grandmother. Like it’s just so ridiculous and they’re so gullible and they believe everything. But, you know, that’s kind of how I feel about these types of people in general.   You know, like they they’re they’re still you know, these people are still out there making money scamming people. You know, they pick people out of their audience who probably they have investigated in the past anyway, and they give them these really generic, you know, cues like, I’m seeing an M. They’re like, Yes, my mother’s name is Marsha. 

Todd:  It’s 

Craig:  just the most so so it’s not like this is totally 

Todd:  out of the realm 

Craig:  of believability, but they do play it, for comedy and it is silly. Well But at the end of the scene, she gets some sort of vision, and and her vision is of the blade puppet who we’ve already seen, murdering a woman. And I couldn’t tell, at the beginning because I think that the that her visions are in black and white, and I was watching it on a computer screen without my glasses, so I couldn’t see very well. But but as it turns out, I think her vision was of herself getting murdered by this thing. And then, like you said, it moves on, and we meet, some some other people who are also experiencing strange phenomenon. 

Todd:  Now we’re New York City and, it’s this place called PENSA Research that we’re coming into an office building and there are these 2 scientists, I guess, who are doing some kind of research into phenomena, but their whole shtick seems to continuously revolve around sex and sexual fantasies. Mhmm. Frank and Carissa, and there’s a subject laying down with some electrodes on her as she’s sleeping or or closing her eyes or whatever, and they’re hooked up to a machine. And, he asks her, please, imagine your wildest sexual fantasy. And then Frank and Chris are sitting there very seriously and Frank’s like, oh, yeah. She’s and he just starts describing the scene that this woman must be imagining and he’s like, I’m surprised you’re not making this up. And Chris is like, no. And I think what makes all this really tedious for me, I see what they’re trying to do.   They’re trying to build up this sort of suspense. It’s it’s kind of like calling the Avengers together. Right? Like, independently of each other, all of these psychics are having these visions, and so it’s supposed to be like, woah. What’s this? What’s this? What’s this? But, these scenes are so long and plodding and quite honestly not that interesting that it kind of has the opposite effect. Again, I was kinda looking at my watch going, okay. Let’s let’s get to the action. Let’s I mean, there you run a risk at some point of piling on so much mystery without anything satisfying behind it that you’re just kinda throwing out your hands up in the air, and all you’re doing is waiting for later. Yep.   For for that resolution because you know it’s coming, so just let’s get to it already. And and even with fortune teller, Dana is a cold reading. But throughout the film, she’s really portrayed as maybe the most, in tune and powerful of the psychics. Like, she’s the one who really seems to know what’s going on more than anybody else. She’s the one who seems to be able to intuit the most and seems to have her head together. So when you’re alternately presenting her as this great psychic with all these powers who can have these visions and and really on a whim, then why is she cold reading in a carnival and getting it wrong all the time? You know, why isn’t she, like, using her powers there? So, there’s a little bit of disconnect there too that just seems really sloppy. Again, I I I I say it’s just probably the writing. They were trying to make a comedic scene out of her thing, but it just didn’t really gel with her character as we later find out, and it just made the scene even more silly. 

Craig:  Oh oh, yeah. Oh, I I totally agree. You know, who cares? I mean, you know, we’re not looking for Shakespeare, you know, but you’re right. It’s just a little clunky because later on, she also kinda plays this hard ass, hard as nails, kind of Southern gypsy psychic or whatever later on and that doesn’t really mesh with the the scene that we’re introduced with her. I think what happens is, they all realize that they are having these visions or whatever they are because they’re being called to this particular place by another psychic that they had known named Neil Gallagher. They go there and and it it ends up being that Bodega Bay Inn that we saw at the beginning. Eventually, what we find out is that all of these people, including Neil, the guy who has apparently called them there, they have some sort of history. They have worked together in the past.   They have kind of tried to join their collective psychic abilities for a purpose, which, you know, we’ll get to. But, the suggestion is that they kind of all have different psychic abilities and that, like you said, calling the Avengers together, putting them all together makes them more powerful. And Dana’s is just that she is psychic, basically. You know, she has visions of the future. Alex’s is that he has prophetic dreams. Carissa’s is that, Oh gosh, she’s got the whole dead zone thing, like where, she can touch things and and know their history. I never really understood what Frank’s abilities were. 

Todd:  Yeah. Me neither. Frank’s kind of a wild card in all this. Yeah. 

Craig:  But, he and Chris are a team, so they work together, whatever. So they show up at this hotel, and they’re expecting to meet their associate. I wouldn’t call him a friend because none of them seem to have a very positive outlook, when it comes to him. But they get there and they’re greeted by Megan Gallagher, Neil’s wife, and Teresa, who I guess is just her maid housekeeper or something like that. And they all ask where Neil is, and as it turns out, they’re led into a room where his body is on display. They’ve been called here because he is, deceased. And Neil had told his wife, Megan, that he wanted everybody, all of these people, to congregate before he was interred. And so now they’re all there and she says, okay, well we can bury him tomorrow or whatever.   It basically is just the setup for, Alright, now we’re all here. Bring on the puppets. But you are also absolutely right in that it takes too long to get there. I started watching this yesterday and I was having connectivity problems with my internet and so it kept freezing and I would have to wait 30 seconds to a minute for it to come back. And I eventually just got frustrated and turned it off at the 44 minute mark, which is the halfway point. And up to that point, really not 

Clip:  a lot had happened. Yeah. 

Craig:  Yeah. I I mean, they finally they finally got all of these people together, so it’s not like the story wasn’t moving along, but the good stuff, none of the the movie was half over and none of the good stuff had really even started yet. And that would be one criticism of maybe a few that, I have of this film is that, you know, maybe and that could just be they had this idea for this story, the plot line was pretty thin, they had to flesh it out to feature length. And, so the beginning is is pretty slow. Once everybody gets there and gets settled in, then things start to pick up a little bit and it becomes a little bit more 

Todd:  interesting. It’s funny too. They all get there, and, there is immediately some questions. Like, they seem a little skeptical that Neil would have married anybody, especially this person. Mhmm. So they’re a little skeptical of her. And then, as Megan leaves and kind of ushers them all out to go to their rooms, a few of them, Frank and Carissa and, Dana, asked to stay behind. And so they closed the Todd, the the door on that room with the body, and they gather around.   And Dana wants to make sure that Neil is actually dead because she thinks something is shifty about this whole thing and she takes this long pin. Was it out of her hair or something? I don’t know. 

Craig:  I think it was a hair pin. I’m not sure. 

Todd:  Yeah. And she’s, pushes it very slowly through, Frank’s body and he or Neil’s Todd, sorry. He doesn’t flinch or move or anything. So, she’s like, well, yeah, he’s definitely dead. And then, you know, we get these scenes of everybody kind of going off on their own Todd their own rooms. Dana has this dead dog, a stuffed dog that she has a special suitcase for and talks to and even, like, feeds dog food too. She’s obviously, you know, portrayed as this a little off kilter woman. But again Yeah.   Maybe the most together and streets of art of all of them. So 

Craig:  Right. 

Todd:  It’s a weird dichotomy. But the maid, Teresa, peers through the keyhole and is kind of shocked by that. Alex, has, looking through the postcards from the bodega inn in his room, and he he has a picture of a dining room, or a ballroom, suddenly has a vision, similar to the one before of the big white room and the guy and the girl, but this time the guy’s wearing a white mask and he’s he’s dancing with her around the room. And the guy says something, at some point, takes off the mask and says, you can’t save her, Alex. Mhmm. And then, Carissa goes into the elevator and has an image in a vision in the elevator. And Carissa’s thing again just seems to be all about sex. Like, she’s like, oh, there was a terrible, terrible rape that happened in this elevator.   We get this sort of unnecessary black and white flashback. I’m not sure if that was at all related to anything. 

Craig:  I think it was just trying to establish that Neil was a bad guy because Neil was the rape yeah. Neil was the rapist and it it not that it would make any difference, you know, what difference does it make who you Craig, but it it wasn’t his wife. So I I think that it was just trying to further cement that this Neil guy was a bad guy. 

Todd:  That’s right. And and she’s in bed in in their room, her and Frank’s room. She’s like 

Clip:  This is a movie star bed.   Not now, Carissa.   No. Really. 2 famous movie stars had a wild night in this bed. Come feel it. 

Todd:  Stop it. 

Clip:  This is business. We’re focusing on Gallagher. Remember?   You know I can’t help it, Frankie. 

Todd:  Oh my god. 

Craig:  It’s it’s it’s so silly, but it I have to say that those parts really kind of amused me, like, because you’re right. You know, she’s it’s not like this is a new idea. Like I I mentioned the dead zone before, you know. I I guess that this is a psychic phenomenon. Whether it be real or not, I don’t know. I don’t know if I believe in that stuff, but, there are some psychics who purport to be able to, you know, touch an object and be able to tell its whole history. But every time, you know, for her, every time it’s something sexual. And her her portrayal of what she experiences when she, I don’t know, has this psychic connection.   It’s just so funny because like you said, she’s just writhing around and moaning. I was kinda sitting here thinking, you know, if I had to choose one of their powers. 

Todd:  You wouldn’t be doing Todd readings at a carnival, would you? 

Clip:  That might not be the worst one. I mean, she seemed to really be enjoying it, so I 

Craig:  I don’t know. But, yeah, it it’s it’s it’s funny. 

Todd:  Yeah. And then it zooms in on on Neil’s body in in the midst of all of this, montage and slowly pans in, and this puppet comes out from under his body and jumps out of the coffin and scurries away. And it’s one we haven’t really seen yet. It was a little pinheaded guy. He looks like a a big wrestler. His head is really tiny, his body’s big and he has these, like, almost normal sized adult hands. And I have to say that the stop motion in this film is fantastic. It really is good.   It really comes across as high quality. It’s smooth. It’s way more smooth and realistic than the stop motion in a lot of things. And and it’s well, definitely better than basket case. Let’s put it that way. Yeah. But, you know, it and it also is judiciously used. Special effects wise, you know, this is used in in a in a really fluid way, so that there are times when, obviously, you know, somebody’s pushing a puppet around, and other times where they’re using stop motion.   But at times, it’s it’s almost hard to tell which is which Mhmm. Because I I I really have to give the special effects in this movie a lot of credit. Even though there doesn’t 

Craig:  Oh, yeah. 

Todd:  Turn out to be a lot of blood or gore, not a lot of money was invested into that, at least, in making these puppets seem like they’re realistically moving around. It was pretty good. It was pretty good. 

Craig:  I I really enjoy the puppets. Now, the one that you’re talking about now, I think that in future, installments, he’s referred to as Pinhead. He, you know, they did some stop motion with him, but like you said, he’s got what seemed to be, you know, kind of normal sized man hands and almost, a normal sized upper torso. They did some stop motion, but also there was a little person, a woman, who did a lot of his stuff and and she would just kind of hunker her head down in between her shoulders, and then she had that little pinhead sticking out, of of the top of its sweater. And then she would just kind of be blindly doing things, with her hands. And as as corny as that sounds, it reads pretty well. I mean, I think that the, the cinematography works pretty well. And, you know, these puppets, like you said, a lot of it is stop motion, but somehow, I feel like they really do a good job of imbuing these puppets with character.   I mean, they feel like characters. They don’t feel like just a doll that somebody is pushing around even though in some cases that is true. They do seem to kind of have, character and I like that. And I think that that may be part of the reason that the franchise was able to continue on Because I think it you know, these puppets, the ones that are in this movie, we’ve mentioned a few of them. I feel like the only ones that we haven’t mentioned that come in pretty soon, there’s a woman puppet who, Comes 

Todd:  out of nowhere. 

Craig:  Yeah. Who comes out of nowhere, and her deal is that she vomits leeches. And and, you know, she’s pretty cool. And then there’s another one. I don’t know what his name is, but I call him drill sergeant because he’s like a military guy with a with a drill on the top of his head. And I know that those characters stick around, at least most of them throughout the series. And they also They were cool, they were interesting, they were different from one another, they weren’t all the same, they had vastly different looks. The one that’s called Blade is I don’t even know how to describe him.   His his face is all white. He’s very, very angular. He looks more kind of like a sculpture or a a mannequin or or or something, more than a person. But then you’ve got the pinhead who aside from having his really small head has more and a really pointed head has kind of more human qualities. And then the female one is more human looking I guess. Jack Wolfson 

Todd:  Yeah. Kind of like a porcelain doll. 

Craig:  Yeah. Porcelain doll. And she’s kinda got a sexuality. I mean, she’s kinda looks like a cross between a porcelain doll and a a blow up doll. I real I like the puppets. You know, I I think that is a strength of the movie, and it’s it’s handled well. In fact, I wish we had gotten to see more of them. You know, I I wish that we hadn’t had to wait really until the movie was more than half over to kinda get to the action of them. 

Todd:  Yeah. And then we get this big dinner scene, which is almost obligatory. You’ve got all these people at the hotel. It’s that kind of movie. Right? 

Craig:  Right. Time for some exposition. 

Todd:  That’s right. And so they they expose. Expose, and, and it it kind of revolves around a confrontation between Megan and Dana. And, Dana is basically explains everything about Neil and about why they were all together. And it’s just like you said, they were all working, it seems like, particularly on trying to figure out this ancient Egyptian spell or method of imbuing things with life, and that led them all together in various different ways down this Todd, and I think to, you know, find Andre Toulon. But whether they knew of him, or whether it was only Neil that discovered him, or whatnot, in any case, they all kind of came to a dead end and disbanded, but Neil kept on the case. And we find out that Neil married Megan, and they were surprised that Neil would marry anybody because they just keep talking about how he’s such a despicable character. But Megan’s family owns that bodega Bay Hotel.   Basically, Dana explains to Megan. 

Clip:  There’s a question that’s been burned inside of me. Did it ever pass through your sweet, innocent little mind? Did your husband possibly married you for your money? 

Todd:  Megan gets really upset. She runs away, leaving the dinner table, and Alex comes after her and they’re trying to play up this sort of interest that Alex has in Megan throughout this. Even though it never really goes anywhere, it’s just like, I don’t know, Alex is this awkward guy. He’s this awkward university professor and I could never really tell if he’s playing it awkward because his character is supposed to be awkward or if his acting is just that bad. Every scene that he’s in and every line that comes out of his mouth just seems to be so painful. 

Craig:  I’m sorry. 

Clip:  I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He usually isn’t like this.   I’m so confused.   Who are you people?   Well, some would call us magicians. 

Craig:  Yeah. He’s flat. He is an actor. He’s really flat. 

Todd:  And you know, he’s not unaccomplished. I mean, this guy Paul LeMett was an American Graffiti. He was in a lot of TV and stuff during the era. I’d like to go back and see some of his other stuff because he seems like, if you look at his resume, he It’s it’s fairly impressive, but his performance in this movie in 1989 is just awful. And not that he’s given a lot of great material to work with. 

Craig:  That’s why it’s it could be the writing. Yeah. 

Todd:  And the directing too, you know. I mean, you put a lot of trust in your director as an actor, and if he’s if he’s directing you poorly, you know, a lot of that might not be your fault. That’s, I think, when he explains all the different characters. And I think just as much to cover up his poor delivery as anything else, there’s this Craig, like, very slow motion shot that goes from character to character as they’re eating at the dinner table, you know, where he explains each of them and their particular roles to play and how they’re all related. A really interesting touch. I mean, there are moments in flourishes in this movie, that are really clever. You know, the POV shot was really good. This slow motion bit was really good.   The flashbacks are kind of interesting and how they all end up kind of tying together. Mhmm. You just as a whole, I think it fits together in kind of a clumsy way, like a like a kid putting a a Lego set together. The colors are a little off here, and this piece doesn’t quite work there, but it’s it’s still a nice little creative work of art. 

Craig:  Sure. Sure. Yeah. It’s not terrible. I mean, we’re being pretty harsh on it. It’s not awful. It’s it’s not terribly made. And and there are, as you said, you know, some highlights and some some interesting things going on, but it’s just a little clunky and and it just continues to be clunky.   Because really now after Alex has explained to Dana, you know, why they had known each other and whatnot, then it’s just okay. Now let’s have a series of scenes of the puppets killing people. 

Todd:  And that doesn’t really even happen right away. You know, that’s part of why it’s so annoying. I think it’s because these people have all assembled. We’ve got we finally gotten our exposition. It was all dumped on us in one scene. Alright. Good. Let’s let’s move the plot forward.   And, again, it’s like after this big long argument and we all know why they’re there and they all know why they’re there and there’s all this big mystery, Everybody just wanders off to their rooms to just puddle around for a while. Right. And that goes on like that except for one kill, maybe 2 kills. Alright? After this. We’re almost an hour in. There are only 30 minutes left on that movie, and it is so freaking slow. 

Craig:  Yeah. And then they all just happen in quick succession, which is fine, but you just kinda wish that maybe it had started earlier or that maybe they had spread them out in a more interesting way. The first kill is, Teresa the maid is, tidying up in some sort of lounge or something. I don’t know. And there had been something really clunky before where the psychic Dana had said, you’re in danger. Stay away from the fireplace. And, of course, so she’s, you know, in the fireplace, like 

Todd:  Poke this fire in this empty room for nobody in particular. I’m still not sure why she lit that fire in this giant hotel. 

Craig:  Row, but okay. Yep. And, she hears some of the keys plunk on the piano, and she goes over there and there’s nobody there. And she goes back to the fire and she hears it again, she goes over there and still there’s nobody there. And then finally, Pinhead comes up behind her and kills her, it hits her in the head with a fireplace poker, and then it just really quickly cuts away from that. And we, we and all of the other characters hear Megan screaming, and she has fainted, and they come in the room. And the reason that she screamed and fainted is because her dead husband is now sitting what appears to be very comfortably, in a chair, in the foyer or something, eyes wide open and and of course they don’t know what’s going on and the oh gosh. What is her name? Dana says, oh, he’s definitely dead.   I checked. He definitely is. And they’re like, we bet Teresa did it because we can’t find her. Yeah. Yeah. I’m sure the maid pulled him out of the coffin and and set him up somewhere. I guess that makes a whole lot of sense. And then we get a scene of Carissa again, nude, writhing in the tub, talking about some lesbian love affair that had taken place in the tub. 

Todd:  Yeah. 

Craig:  And and and Frank is kinda wandering around, and then he he stops answering her. So she’s looking for him, and you know you’re just waiting for a jump scare, which you get. He jumps out at her with pantyhose on his face, totally for no explained reason. I guess he just wanted to share. I know. And and then, like, the pantyhose on the face, I can almost buy. Like, okay, like, if you’re trying to scare somebody, that might be kinda funny. But then they start making out while he’s still got the pantyhose on his face. 

Todd:  Where are the pantyhose? 

Clip:  And I’m like, that’s just gross. 

Craig:  Hey. To 

Todd:  each his own, I guess. 

Craig:  I well, his own can have that one. And then there’s a quick scene with Dana and Alex, and Dana’s like, We’re all in danger. He means to kill us all. And then it cuts back to Carissa and Frank and they’re in bed, and Frank is like speaking into one of those, you know, handheld tape recorders, and he’s, like, sexual experiment 517 a. And he’s like, we will be using various unannounced sex toys and implements, and, please record with all clarity. And and then, like, he turns it off, then he turns it back on. He’s like, oh, also file this under personal experiments or something like that. Like, it’s it’s so goofy.   I feel like it’s trying to be funny, but Yeah. It’s funny in the way that you roll your eyes. Like, that’s not funny. Like, like, what you’re trying to do. But it totally fell flat. The 2 of them are it’s it’s so hard for me to use family appropriate language because that’s not what I would say at all. They’re making love loudly, and everybody can hear them. We see, you know, these point of view shots of puppets running all around in the hallways and people kind of hear them, but nobody sees them.   Again, it’s one of those things where, like, the puppets will be standing, like, right next to their legs. Like, how could somebody how could somebody not see that? Yeah. Exactly. But they don’t. And then, so Carissa and Frank are having sex, and the door of their room comes open, and Craig is like, the door’s open. I think somebody’s in the room. And she’s got Frank tied up and blindfolded, and she gets off of him, another really funny part because like she’s on top of him. She’s wearing this like, sheer lace negligee, and you can totally tell that she’s nude underneath it.   But when she jumps off of him, she jumps off of him and, like, throws the blankets over his junk. But if you, like, if you’re watching it all, you can totally see that he is not nude. Like, he he totally has something on. So it it’s it’s not even particularly good editing. And and it’s also stupid because she thinks somebody else is in the room and he keeps saying like, untie me, untie me. And she’s like, no. Shh. 

Clip:  Oh my god. It’s it’s so stupid. 

Craig:  But she, she looks under the bed and at first she doesn’t see anything there. And then she looks again and she sees drill sergeant and drill sergeant kills her. And then he’s laying there like, What’s going on? What’s going on? And nothing happens for a while and he’s scared. But then he starts feeling like kissies on his body and like somebody’s suckling at his nipple and he’s like, Oh, that’s sexy. And we see that it is this female puppet. And I don’t know what they did here. Did you get the sense maybe I’m wrong, I got the sense that in some of these scenes, when the camera would be pulled back a little bit, it almost looked like there was some maybe some green screen go stuff going on and that maybe that maybe this puppet was actually portrayed by an actress I you know In some of the shots? 

Todd:  I got that sense too, in just some of the shots because you’re right. There’s Todd distinct kind of green screen where you can kinda tell that the foreground, has a little bit of a different, grain to it than the than the background. You know, back in the day, it’s called optical printing. And so you would kind of shoot your foreground, you know, maybe it’s, maybe it’s, in this case, it’s like a really close-up on Frank’s head and his body. And then Right. You would, shoot the background which would be, through that, which would be like a puppet dancing around or something or this this puppet. And you do that because maybe you need something full size, but you need to make it look like it’s miniature. So you’re shooting this this bigger puppet, but but because it’s in the background of this giant Frank’s body in front of it, it looks tiny.   But because of that, you’re getting a second generation on that foreground copy, right? So, you’re shooting that twice, but you’re shooting the background only once. So that foreground copy is gonna have a little more grain to it. It’s gonna look a little more unnatural and, you know, it’s hard to describe, but you’ll you know exactly what I’m talking about because you’ve seen the look on films. And you’re right, that it had that look, And I wondered that Todd if she was portrayed at some scenes by, an act an actress. And there’s a couple must be a couple different versions of this puppet too because the version that’s kind of kissing around on him looks very solid. But then, she starts, and this totally surprised me. She starts puking, like, puking up these giant leeches out of her mouth and they don’t fit. So, you know, her mouth is really small and so when she’s puking this up, it’s like the top of her head is kind of rubbery and it stretches in a very unnatural, but honestly, I thought it was good.   I thought it was a cool Oh, yeah. Kind of way to accommodate this giant leech that that plops out onto Frank, and suckles on him. Another great example, I think, of some really good, effects for for a movie that you wouldn’t expect to have, so many good effects. It’s, like, the best thing this movie has going for it, really. 

Craig:  Yes. Yeah. I read about that effect, and I read that, her mouth, was made of, like, foam latex or foam rubber. And so it was pliable and and stretchy. And and the way that it worked, I mean, we see her vomiting up. She vomits up several large leech like creatures onto him, and apparently that kills him. I guess these leeches have the power to drain him of his blood. But it is pretty it’s gross, and it it looks, pretty good when she’s doing that.   What I read was the puppet or the the device was designed so that she never actually really expelled a leech. It was part of of the interior of her and they would expel it about 3 quarters of the way, and then they would just do a cutaway. And and so that it would appear that that she had vomited it up fully, when in fact she never actually had that that leech that she she vomited up was actually connected, to the whole puppet and could only come 3 quarters of the way out. But it looks good. Yeah. And and and she does it several, she does it a couple more times throughout, and it looks good. 

Todd:  Now let’s just stop for a moment to take a minute to appreciate the utter bizarre utterly bizarre creativity involved in this puppet. I mean, so far, we’ve seen blade guy who runs around with kind of a knife. Okay. We’ve seen the pinhead man, right, who who has these big hands, who’s kind of a wrestler who can kinda punch and pummel and hit people. We’ve seen the drill sergeant, you know, who has a drill on the top of his head. Okay. Drills. That’s pretty standard horror stuff. 

Craig:  Sure. And 

Todd:  then out of nowhere is this little puppet who has the most bizarre superpower ever, which is vomiting these little leech like creatures onto people. It comes out of left field, but it also is maybe the worst of all the superpowers because it really requires your victim to be tied down or somehow incapacitated when you do this to them. 

Craig:  It is. It is creative and weird, and and that it leads to another question that I have about the writing of this movie, which I don’t wanna get to just yet because because, it really didn’t occur to me, and it doesn’t come up until closer to the end. But I wanna come back to that. So if I don’t, don’t let me forget. Okay. I’m intrigued. This just continues on with, you know, people continuing, to get killed. The leech lady kills Frank, and then Dana runs into Alex and and tries to proposition him, but he’s not interested.   So she goes in her room. And again, there’s dead Neil kind of witchy stuff around him and and thinks that she’s protected. Some kind of witchy stuff around him and and thinks that she’s protected. But then Pinhead attacks her. And this was a funny scene because he attacks her 3 times. Yes. And, like, he’s, like, punching her in the face. And every time that that he attacks her, she does exactly what you should do if you’re being attacked by a tiny toy.   You should grab it and pick it up and throw it. Like, that’s, you know, that’s with all these toy movies, one of the questions I have, like, seriously, how is this little tiny toy supposed to overpower a person? It doesn’t make any sense. And and and and three times she does that. Like, he’ll attack her, he’ll get a couple punches in, and then she’ll just grab him and throw him away. Yeah. And and she does that three times before Blade finally shows up and and cuts her throat and kills her. And then there is a scene where, Megan shows up to Alex’s door, and she bangs on the door, and he’s asleep. 

Todd:  This is the inception. Yeah. That’s what I’m gonna call this. 

Craig:  Oh, god. And it’s so funny because it really seems like seriously, I really feel like they were just trying to stretch for time. 

Todd:  Yeah. 

Craig:  And it was actually it was kind of annoying. Megan shows up at the door and she’s she’s like, come on, hurry. I wanna show you something. And, she she take she has this whole spiel about. 

Clip:  Neil used to spend hours up here. I don’t know what he was doing exactly, but he never let me come up and thought it was strange. He didn’t really mind it. I I came up here earlier, and I found something in here. Would you hold that, please? 

Craig:  Then it ends up being that room that he has dreamed about several times. And, the dream plays out exactly as it had before. Megan and the masked guy dance for far too long, and it and it’s it’s it’s terrible dancing. Like, one would think if you were gonna have a 3 minute dance scene with it, it might be a little bit more intricate, but it’s awful. And then it plays out exactly the same way as it had before where the guy takes off his mask. It’s Neil, and he says, you can’t save her, and he points the gun at his head. And then he wakes up. And, again, dream within a dream, he wakes up once, then he throws the covers off of him.   And although this was kind of an out of the blue scene, this one I actually found pretty jarring. All three of the heads of the other dead psychics are, like, decapitated and under his blanket. And one of them, I think Frank says something to him, and it’s such a quick shot, but it’s really it looks really good. It did. And it was really pretty spooky and gross. 

Todd:  That was I I honestly, that was the only part in the movie where I felt, like, a genuine twinge of fear. Yeah. Came out of nowhere. 

Craig:  It was actually and it lasts about a second. Yeah. And and then he he wakes up again. Again, another dream within a dream. But then, Megan is knocking on his door again, and it’s exactly the same. And they play out the exact same scene. Not only do they play out the exact same scene, but I am convinced that they used the exact same footage. 

Clip:  Yeah. Like 

Todd:  Exactly. And, and it and what’s problematic about this too is that Alex I mean, Alex knows that his superpower is that he can see into the future and he’s had these visions before. So why in each subsequent scene, he’s just going along with it and standing and watching every time? I don’t understand why he’s not, like, at least taking some agency or freaking out or or trying to stop, you know, what’s happening. He’s just perfectly content to let all these play out every single time, you know, the way that they do. Except the last time when he kind of interrupts her and just, like, predicts basically what she’s going to say. She’s like, oh, 

Craig:  how did 

Todd:  you know what I was gonna say? Well, I told you I was a bit of a magician, didn’t I? 

Craig:  It it it it really feels like they’re stretching for time, which at that point in the movie is a little bit frustrating. Like, seriously, come on. Like, just just wrap it up. Yeah. But but when she when she leads him upstairs, it turns out to not be that room. It’s a a kind of a it it it ends up being the room that Toulon, committed suicide in. As if we couldn’t have figured this out a 1000000 years ago, you know, it it becomes completely apparent that Neil had just married her because he wanted to be able to explore this hotel. And eventually, when he found what he needed to find, then he wasn’t concerned with her at all, and he just did his own thing.   But she find she shows, Alex, Toulon’s diary. And in Toulon’s diary, it talks about how he says, you know, I’ve done it. I’ve been able to imbue my, creations with life. And he it like, it talks about how what fondness and affection he has for them. But it says, but I worry about what could happen if they fell into the wrong hands. And now this is getting back to what I just said I wanted to get back to. Okay. So if what I am led to believe is that these puppets are not inherently bad and that for Toulon, you know, they were companions.   They were his work. They were his art, but they were not inherently bad. It’s only because they fell into the hands of Neil that they have been doing these murderous things at his bidding. Okay, that makes sense to me, but then why does one of them have a knife and a hook? Why does one of them have a drill for a head? Why does one of them vomit leeches on people? Like, I think I’ll make a cute little puppet to be my friend who just also happens to have the ability to vomit leeches on people. Like That’s a very good point. Make any Todd doesn’t make any sense. 

Todd:  No. You’re absolutely right about that. It’s rather convenient that they also Alright. Have very easy ways of murdering people. And it’s really a shame friend. It’s really a shame for that one puppet whose, whose face just changes expression. Like, he has nothing to do. 

Craig:  Right. Right. Except reaction to Todd. 

Todd:  And Oh, it’s 

Craig:  funny. And then it just really kind of wraps up really not quickly enough. No. It should’ve wrapped up more quickly. But they go downstairs, and Alex has a vision of all the other psychics in the dining room. As they go to the dining room and all the other psychics are there, but they’re all dead and, like, kinda gross. And the puppets are sitting on the table and around the room, and Neil shows up. Let me explain. 

Clip:  Metaphysically speaking, I killed myself. And using the techniques of the old puppet master, 

Craig:  I brought myself back to life. Why? That’s easy. I wanna live forever. 

Clip:  All life eventually ends in death, but for me, there is no end now. You mean, no natural end. 

Craig:  Neil is like, well, my entire body would have to be destroyed, and I’m super powerful now, and you don’t have that kind of power. And I feel like Neil kinda starts to beat up Alex a little bit, and then Megan tries to intervene, and he punches Megan. And we see these looks on the puppet’s faces like, what are we doing? 

Todd:  Yeah. See, this is what 

Craig:  like, this guy’s a bad guy. 

Todd:  I mean, if you’re gonna buy into the idea that, okay, he’s the master of the puppets, the puppets are gonna do the bidding of whoever their master is, then why do they turn on him so quickly? Like, oh, that was one too many people to kill, and now he’s out of control. Right. You know? 

Craig:  Oh, gosh. Yeah. It’s it’s silly, but, what ends up happening is that the puppets do turn on him, not before he, you know, he kinda beats the crap out of Alex, but, the puppets do turn on him, and, Pinhead gets him locked in the elevator, and then, Pinhead fights him for a little bit, but Neil’s like, I’m your master now, and he, like, tears Pinhead’s head off and throws it aside. And then Blade shows up and helps out. And, they all end up all the puppets or at least the main ones that we’ve seen, end up in the elevator. 

Todd:  Everything leading up to this is also like the world’s worst fight scene. Like, everything between him and Alex, the I mean, oh my gosh. It’s so bad. It’s so clunky. And, by the time he ends up locked in the elevator, you you again have that puppet physics problem. We’re supposed to believe that all these puppets are now holding him down, in the elevator and while, you know, Blade cuts him and she vomits a leech in his mouth and whatnot, where all this guy needs 

Craig:  to do is stand up. 

Todd:  You know, they’re not a 100, you know, 200 pound puppets that are holding him down. So it’s it’s you know, you just kinda have to roll with it. But what I can’t really roll with is then while the puppets are doing this, suddenly Alex runs to the elevator, and it’s like, no. No. Like and he’s trying to get in, and it’s like he’s trying to save Neil. 

Craig:  Like Yeah. And, like, and and, like, Megan is, like, crying, like, crying and doing the slow slide down the wall. Like, what is happening? Like, why do you care? Wouldn’t you be glad that this would be? Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s weird. And then that’s just I mean, that’s pretty much it. I mean, they kill him. They all do their own thing.   All the puppets do their own thing and and kill him. And then it just cuts to Megan saying goodbye to Alex, sending him off. And he’s like, oh, if you’re ever in the northeast, come see me. And she’s like, okay. We’ll see you later. And Yeah. See you later. Like, like, did they just bury all the bodies in the backyard and call it a day? Like like and and I’m wondering, like, where are the puppets? Like, what happened to the puppets? There’s no explanation of that, whatever.   We failed to mention that at some point, Teresa, the maid, like, shows up like she’s undead, like she’s helping Neil out. And she’s there for all of 15 seconds, and then you never see her again. And there’s never any explanation of where she went or what happened to her. And, the last scene is Megan. She’s got Dana’s, like, stuffed dog. And when I say stuffed, it’s like a dead dog stuffed, not like a stuffed animal. She’s got this dog and like she’s carrying it around and petting it and she’s walking up the stairs and all of a sudden the dog is alive again. Like, I guess maybe Megan learns the ancient Egyptian bring things back to life deal, like and then that’s just it.   That’s the end of the movie. 

Todd:  Like, between, you know, this traumatic incident and the day or 2 that it took, Alex to pack up and go, I I I don’t really understand that. It’s just a way, obviously, to just end this movie on one of those, oh Right. Kind of ironic notes or maybe set it up for a sequel. 

Craig:  But You know, I would say that overall, as as tough as we’ve been on this movie, overall, I really didn’t hate it. You know, I I thought that there were some good things going on. Yeah. I I liked the puppets. Not only did I like the puppetry and and the cinematography with the puppetry, but I liked the puppets were my favorite characters. I I I wish that I had gotten more with them, and I think I I really honestly don’t remember because it’s been so long. But if memory serves me at all, I think there’s a lot more focus on the puppets in in the future installments, and and that’s good because that was my favorite part of the movie. The rest of the characters were blah and, you know, not particularly like, well, and you don’t really care.   The cinematography wasn’t bad. The writing was pretty bad. The acting was okay. But 

Todd:  That’s generous. 

Craig:  For yeah, yeah. You know, and honestly, if if this movie had if I had seen that this movie was made in 1982, I think I would have been a lot more forgiving. You know, I just this was almost 1990, and, you know, so many advancements had been made by that time that you would maybe expect this to be a little bit better. I feel like this was just kind of riding on the coattails of those Yeah. Low budget, kind of goofy eighties movies. And, you know, we talked about them a millionth time. We love those movies. There’s nothing wrong with that, but, I I feel like this one was just a little bit late to the party.   By all accounts, it should have been better than it was. 

Todd:  You know, in comparing it, you know, you say that you didn’t hate it. That’s very high praise, Craig. I mean, in comparing it to, you know, even some of the other pictures that this guy’s doing and, I mean, I’m thinking, like, immediately, Sorority Babes and the Slimeball Bowl O Rama. Yeah. It’s it’s a way more competent movie than that. It’s a way more ambitious movie than that. The puppetry’s way better. I mean, everything about it should be better on paper.   But honestly, what it was lacking was fun. And for me Yeah. 

Craig:  In 

Todd:  a way. The movie, I think, was taking itself way too seriously. And because of it, it just couldn’t hold up to those expectations. Like you said, later on, I know I know in the later installments, and I’ve seen at least 1 or 2 of them, that they do seem to loosen up and and kind of acknowledge, you know, the the goofiness and maybe have a little bit more fun with it. And and sure, this movie sets all that up and made all those other films possible. So it’s it’s not a complete waste of time, but I just did not have fun watching this movie. I really did not. And like you said, I would have loved to have seen more of the puppets.   I would love to have seen the action move a lot quicker. I would have loved to have seen some halfway competent acting, but I could have even forgiven that if it had just been a little more fun. 

Craig:  Oh, yeah. I agree with you. It’s it’s not great. Yeah. Yeah. To to say that it’s good might be a stretch. But, like you said, you know, it it serves as the foundation for a series that has really found an audience and that really has been pretty popular. I haven’t seen the most recent entries, so I have no idea what they’re like.   I have no idea if they’re any Todd. But I do I mean, this is one of those movies from the eighties that although it wasn’t as popular as something like Nightmare on Elm Street or or Friday 13th or even Child’s Play, something like that, People know this movie. They’ve heard of it. They know about the franchise. 

Todd:  It’s no different. 

Craig:  So it is it’s it’s yeah. It’s it’s carved its own niche, and you gotta give it credit for that at least. 

Todd:  Well, there’s a reboot in the works. They’re filming it right now. 

Craig:  I heard that. 

Todd:  Yeah. But the producers of Transformers, it looks like they’re getting some pretty established people, involved in it. It’s gonna be called Puppet Master, the Little Reich. Uh-huh. Very interesting, but kind of following yeah. But it sounds interesting. It sounds a little meta because there’s, like, a recently divorced young man who discovers, like, a mint condition Blade doll and plans to sell it at a toy convention to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the infamous Toulon murders. And so, I mean, it sounds like maybe with today’s sensibilities and some bigger names and a bigger budget behind it, we could be in for some pretty interesting films, out of this franchise. 

Craig:  Yeah. It sounds kinda fun. 

Todd:  Well, thank you again for listening to another episode. If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend. You could find us on iTunes, Google Play, and on Stitcher. You can also find us in the social media sphere on Facebook where you could like our page, share that with a friend, and continue the conversation. Tell us what you whether or not you like this movie, maybe we’re completely wrong about it, and we’d love to hear your opinions and your thoughts. We’d like to thank Andrew again for, giving us the suggestion in the first place. Great movie to review. Until next time.   I’m Todd 

Craig:  And I’m Craig. 

Todd:  With 2 Guys and a Chainsaw.