Curse of the Puppet Master
Tags: violence, murder

Plot synopsis:
The film begins at The House of Marvels, a doll museum, with Andre’ Toulon's puppets in a cage, watching their current master, a man named Dr. Magrew (George Peck), stuffing something into a crate. Before leaving, he promises the puppets that things will be different next time. He drives into the woods, where he puts down the crate and douses it with gasoline, then sets it on fire. From inside the crate, faint screaming can be heard. The next morning, Dr. Magrew's daughter, Jane (Emily Harrison), has just returned home from college. She asks her father about Matt, his assistant. Her father tells her that Matt left, since his father was ill. He and Jane decide to drive into town to take their minds off things. Robert "Tank" Winsley (Josh Green), a very tall but meek young man, works at the gas station in town. He passes his time by carving small wooden statues. He is frequently harassed by bully Joey Carp (Michael D. Guerin). Jane and Dr. Magrew arrive and tell Joey to get lost. Jane finds one of the statues that Robert was carving and complements him on it, then shows it to her father. Dr. Magrew introduces himself and Jane to Robert, and offers Robert a job helping him with the Marvel show. Robert accepts and they drive back to the house.
Upon arriving, they introduce Robert to Toulon's puppets, which amaze him, since they're alive. At dinner, Magrew reveals that he bought the puppets at an auction years ago, and that he tried to make a living puppet just like Toulons', but has never been successful. He asks Robert if he'll help him carve the puppet, to which he agrees. The next day, during the show, the town sheriff, Sheriff Garvey (Robert Donavan) and Deputy Wayburn (Jason-Shane Scott) arrive. They tell Magrew that Matt is missing, and they wonder if Magrew's seen him since he left. He insists that he has not, but they do not quite believe him. That night, Magrew gives Robert the wood and the blueprints for the puppet. Robert does not understand how the puppet will live. Magrew tells him the way to make a dead thing live is: "You put your soul into it". Robert begins carving and works non-stop. At dinner a few nights later, Magrew reveals that Matt did carving for him as well. While Matt's work had quality, Robert's work has perfection, which is what he wants to make. He uses Blade as an example: "He never tires, never hungers, knows no fear, tells no lies, feels no pain, knows no secrets. And what is man except a being at war with himself? But not Blade. He has no hidden motives, no secret self. He is purely and perfectly what he is. In fact, I think the world would be a better place if we were all like him."
That night, Robert wakes up and finds that his legs have turned into carved, wooden legs, like a puppet. But this ends up being a nightmare. While Robert carves the puppet, Jane thinks he is working too hard and while trying to get his attention, causes him to cut himself. She bandages the cut on his hand for him, and asks him about himself. He reveals that he is an orphan, and he has never been smart enough to go to college. Jane tells him that his hands can do things that people with brains only imagine being able to do. They both develop feelings for one another and kiss. Later that night, Robert has another nightmare, but this time, his entire body (minus his head) is wooden, complete with inner clockwork gears. The next day, Jane, thinking that Robert is working too hard, convinces him to take a break. They drive to the woods, and Jane tells him about a beautiful clearing in the woods she found as a little girl. On the way, they stumble upon the half-burnt box that Dr. Magrew burned at the film's beginning.
Robert reaches in and pulls out a carved wooden hand, much like a puppet hand. He tries to show it to Jane, but she is walking away. Meanwhile, Joey and his friends are in the woods when Jane arrives. Joey begins to harass her and steps in her way, blocking her. She continuously shoves him to the point where he is angry, and he sexually harasses her. Robert arrives and tells Joey to leave her alone. Joey ignores Robert and threatens to rape Jane. Finally, Robert snaps and throws Joey onto the hood of his car and begins choking him. Jane pulls him off, and they drive back to the house. At the house, Robert confesses that when he was choking Joey, it had nothing to do with him or Jane. He felt like he was choking all the things that ever plagued him in his life. Dr. Magrew tells Robert that he is at war with himself: "There's another self inside, a true or more natural self. A creature of violence, with no fear, no conscience. A killer. You spend your whole life battling the self that lives inside. And what happened today, though just for a moment, you lost that battle. The real you, the true you, came out." Robert does not know if he is right or not, but he would "rather die than have it come out again."
Later that night, Joey comes to the "House of Marvels" to beat Robert up, but then decides to try to rape Jane again. As Jane sees him and tells him to get out, Pinhead, who was in the room, jumps at Joey and starts choking him, but Joey pulls him off and then starts squashing him with his foot, breaking off his left hand, and breaks his right arm. Dr. Magrew and Tank show up, but Joey makes a run for it. Dr. Magrew, who wants revenge, takes Blade and Tunneler to Joey's house, and sends them to kill him. Joey, who's lifting weights, gets his forehead slashed by Blade, and gets his crotch drilled by Tunneler. Back at the house, Robert shows up at Jane's room and shows her that he fixed Pinhead, Jane thanks Robert, then they start to kiss, she then tells him that he can stay if he likes, then they kiss again. As Dr. Magrew comes back, he sees Robert coming out of Jane's room, and then decides to talk to Jane, and is then surprised when he sees that Pinhead's fixed, but then he starts going crazy when Jane says she loves Robert, and tells her that he does not want to see her get hurt, and then leaves. Five days later, Friday, Jane finds Robert very sick, and then has her father call the doctor, but he really does not, he just fakes it. Then he tells Jane that he has to go pick up a stuffed mermaid oddity for the "House of Marvels"at the post office at the edge of town, and tricks Jane into offers to picking it up for him, while Dr. Magrew waits for the non-coming doctor to come. Back at Joey's house, the medical examiner (William Knight) believes that Joey's death was intentional. Sheriff Garvey starts to ask one of Joey's friends, named Art (Marc Newburger), when was the last time they saw Joey and who else was there, and he says last Sunday in the woods, and Mr. Magrew's daughter was there. Hearing the name Magrew, Sheriff Garvey and Deputy Wayburn decide to give Dr. Magrew a little visit. But as Garvey and Wayburn arrive at the House of Marvels, Six Shooter throws a rope around Wayburn's neck and Pinhead pulls the rope, causing him to fall and gets his head tunneled by Tunneler, killing him. At the same time, Blade slashes Garvey's leg, making him fall and drop his gun, and then he and Jester start slashing his face, with Magrew laughing as he watches them kill. Meanwhile at the post office, Jane keeps asking the shipping agent (Patrick Thomas) if he is sure what her father ordered is not there, so the agent calls Tommy Berke (J.R. Bookwalter) to ask him will it come in, but Tommy says that Magrew has not bought anything from him in the past six months.
Hearing this, Jane decides to go back to the woods to see what that burned box was. She sees that it's one of Matt's carved puppets, then it starts to speak: "Jane!" for help in Matt's voice. She then realizes that her father's going to do the same thing to Robert, so she quickly drives back to the House. Meanwhile, at the house, Dr. Magrew puts Robert's soul into the puppet, named Tank, he especially made for Robert via electricity, and it finally works this time, but the puppets are angry because they did not want him to kill Robert, so Blade slashes Magrew's legs, hand, and face, Tunneler drills through his leg, and Pinhead hits him with a metal cane. As Jane arrives at the house, she finds her father nearly dead, bleeding to death, with him pointing at Tank, saying "I did it". Suddenly, the Tank Puppet starts to move and points its arm at Dr. Magrew. The arm shoots out a bolt of electricity, and electrocutes Dr. Magrew straight between the eyes. The film ends with a shot of Dr. Magrew screaming before death, and Jane screaming in horrified terror.

Review: Why they're willing to (initially) kill for him isn't clear.George Peck's off-key performance is another problem:  he acts like a thirty-year old in bad aging makeup.
Jester and Leech Woman are relegated to the background as always, Blaze is missing (despite, as noted, his appearance in the opening credits), and the only new puppet we get is the new TV/Tank puppet, which appears for about 30 seconds at the end of the movie.Definitely the weakest entry in the Puppet Master series.
I found David DeCoteau's sequel somewhat a step-down in quality (which at times looked very second-rate), but probably a little more enjoyable if a tad creative in its story (despite a silly script, unintentionally humorous plotting and an abrupt ending).
"Curse of the Puppet Master" is a very good entry into the series.
Al I'm saying is don't make more Puppet Master movies because after part 4 if was boring, stupid, and pointless..
Even with the finale slamming the door on you; this mild horror movie is still fun to watch.Peck is less animated than the puppets.
Curse of the Puppet Master takes a very different turn from the rest of the series, which for many is a bad thing - I have to agree as it does not fit chronologically anywhere in the original story...Another notable thing that may upset many fans is the amount of footage from previous movies that has been used to cut down on the budget...
Sadly, where this is done it is VERY noticeable and it does ruin the immersion in the story.With that said, it is far from a terrible film but has marked a new direction which has upset long standing fans...
My guess is they could not get a good enough script for a true Sequel or the cast were not willing to come back after Puppet Master V.Either way, this is a new story arc in itself.A doctor has now taken possession of Andre Toulon's puppets and seeks to recreate the work that his predecessor had done, but the opening scenes suggest all is not well.While the change of story arc is unwelcome (If you wanted to fit this movie in Chronologically, it would appear somewhere early on as Leech is still alive...) the overall quality is good and the acting is actually better than some of the rest.Joss Green who pays 'Tank' is brilliant in his role, which makes it surprising that he has not had more roles overall - He has the potential for great things...
(I was going to skip this one)This movie is a stand alone movie in the series, is not connected to the last two movies or the others,Is brand new master and this as a New plot, A scientist attempts to master the art of transferring people's souls into puppets.I didn't think it was too bad but i liked the Idea of the plot, it's brought some freshness to the series, it felt like the Puppet as some of Creep factor back.There were some very bloody moment in this, which was not bad, I felt same as all the other in this series, another Average movieThe acting was not that good at all from some of the cast and some were bearable5 out of 10.
The Puppet Master series is comprised of really awful movies featuring really cool puppets.
The series' best entry was part three ("Toulon's Revenge"), but the following two installments were undeniably terrible, so it should've come as no surprise that I hated this, the most recent film and sixth part of the series.Despite the fact that this is directed by the same guy who directed part three (the best) and was edited by J.R. Bookwalter (I've never seen it, but apparently his film "The Dead Next Door" is pretty good) it is really, really boring.
I guess the only good part of the movie was inspired by America's Funniest Home Videos).Worst of all, the puppets hardly ever make an appearance, and when they do they are obviously being held up by just-out-of-the-frame stage hands.
I was also disappointed that Torch, one of the cooler puppets, was not in the film, even though he appeared in the credit sequence (which was a montage of footage from the previous movies).In short: Don't see this movie.
A little random entry in the Puppet Master series with a 'gentle giant' gas station attendant Robert 'Tank' being offered a job for Dr. Magrew mirroring the work of Andre Toulon.
George Peck who plays Magrew is fairly similar to the original Puppet Master (William Hickey).
Anyway, Magrew daughter, pretty Jane (Emily Harrison) falls in love with Tank while Magrew wants to use him not only in recreating the dolls of Toulon but also more literally in his quest to create a range of 'perfect human puppets'.
Of course Jane wouldn't want Tank to be used in this way and perhaps neither do our lovable puppet friends...Well made film, directed by David DeCoteau.
From my opinion the "Retro Puppet Master" is very-very lame and I barely have any interesting to watch "Curse of the Puppet Master", but I give it a try and I surprised that it still could amuse me in a fun-watch.The plot tells us about a puppet-artist, Dr. Magrew (George Peck) hired Robert 'Tank' Winsley (Josh Green) to work to him.
Things are getting worse when some murders is committed.Despite the slow pace it has, "Curse of the Puppet Master" manage to make us as the audiences to keep seating on our seat just want to know how is the end.
In general, "Curse of the Puppet Master" is a little horror flick, but definitely worth to watch.6/10.
I love the Puppet Master series, partially because the little dudes always kill off the bad guys.
Returning home from college, a student and her father bring a local sculptor to work for them in their museum that houses a special group of puppets yet when he becomes implicated in a series of murders around town they recruit the puppets to put an end to the danger.There's some good stuff here that really helps the film.
As is usual, the short time means that it plays cruel tricks on the pacing, as the police investigations with the friends, the first dinnertime meal and the scene in the postal office go on for too long to beat a simple idea to death, but there's the ending, which just comes out of nowhere and then it's over, when it should've been stretched out a little more.
It's kinda new for the Puppet Master series maybe, but yeah been there done that.
The entire film we see the scientist (George Peck) have Robert (Josh Green) cut and carve little wood blocks, but we actually never see the end result.This is the film that rebooted the franchise, which still continues to this day.
The plot is more solid than the other Puppet Master films, and I enjoyed this film more than the previous installments.
George Peck was also rather good as the scientist.Pity the film had such an abrupt ending....
i haven't seen any other movies in this series but i'm sure they are somewhat better.
at least waist your time on those or good horror movies like Clownhouse by Victor Salva.Rated R for Some Strong Violence/Gore and for Some Language.
The puppets role is once again down played, so with bad human acting, it kills the movie.
Curse of the Puppet Master (1998) ** (out of 4) Four years after the previous film, Charles Band and Full Moon decided to bring their puppets back and this sixth installment tries to be its own picture and not just connect to the previous.
This time out Dr. Magrew (George Peck) and his daughter (Emily Harrison) hire a slow-witted man (Josh Green) to help them build our beloved puppets.
CURSE OF THE PUPPET MASTER is considered by fans of the series to be the absolute worst but perhaps since I'm not a fan I could see it differently.
Yes, this is an ultra low-budget film that doesn't have too much action in it and yes it's clear that the attempt to try and take the series into a new direction didn't work all that great but I thought it was rather refreshing seeing something different and not just a stretch of the storyline that was the first five films.
I know fans were outraged that their beloved puppets were put in a new format but I still think it was a good decision and especially after the last two flicks..
They hire a guy named Robert (Josh Green) to work the show and carve some new puppets for Magrew.
CURSE OF THE PUPPTER MASTER finds the series back in the hands of David DeCoteau, who previously made the good part III.
Very Good Addition To The Puppet Master Series.
This guy also directed: Leather Jacket (A GAY) Love Story (1997),Creepozoids (1987) starring porn star Ashlyn Gere and Ancient Evil: Scream of the Mummy (1999).Now for a director that directed the best 3rd part of the Puppet Master Series P.M.3-Toulon's Revenge, this film should have been far better.David should go and visit a shrink to get his head straight - that's the only answer.
The worst film in the Puppet Master series is also one of the worst films I have ever seen.
Speaking of continuity, 90% of the puppet footage is from the previous five Puppet Master films!
The puppets are the only cool thing these movies have going for them, and these guys did do a nice job before, but they must not had much of a budget for this one.
The Puppet Master Series Continues To Stink.
A scientist (George Peck) attempts to master the art of transferring people's souls into puppets.With the film directed by David DeCouteau and edited by J.
After the torture of plodding through through parts 4 and 5 (I kid you not it must have taken about 6 separate attempts for me to make it all the way through both those films) the sixth film is the series is actually a lot of fun and, thankfully, a change in direction.What I like about the stronger Puppet Master films is that rather than simply present a film about puppets killing people, there's often a lot more happening.
Colourful characters, or set amidst a Nazi uprising, there have definitely been factors that make this straight-to-video series a little more sophisticated than you would expect.This film is not the strongest of the series, but still we're given some nice story elements that keep us watching- the shy Robert taken in by Dr. Magrew, who runs a showroom of oddities, a man who seems to have dark secrets that go beyond the living puppets he now owns.I enjoyed this film, it took the action away from Bogada Hotel, and it doesn't follow continuity with the previous 2 films (thankfully!) It brought a sense of fun, tension and mystery back to Puppet Master.Of course it's not perfect.
I do not remember the name of this film but, if you take "Curse" and change the puppets into snakes...It is a copy of another movie.
I am a die hard puppet master fan and it saddens me to say that the acting and and plot were better in the other film.
Curse is probably the loosest movie if you're following the Puppet Master series chronologically being somewhere jumbled up between the original and the second movie.
There weren't enough puppet scenes either seemingly they recycled some old footage they didn't use for previous films in this one to save a few bucks.
As far as it goes with the other Puppet Master films I saw it's pretty much on par for the course, not terrible but not good by any means..
"Curse of the Puppet Master" is the first truly "bad" film in the series...
From director David Decoteau (under an alias for some reason in the credits) comes the sixth movie in the "Puppet Master" franchise- "Curse of the Puppet Master." And to me, this is the first film in the series that was an all-in-all bad movie.
The first two films were fun little creepy horror movies that were easily accessible and had some nifty special effects.
The third movie (also directed by Decoteau) was actually a decent revenge tale telling the origins of the story in Nazi Germany and had a lot of cool (albeit low budget) moments.
It lacks back-story, is extremely rushed and feels a lot cheaper than the previous movies.The evil Dr. Magrew (George Peck in a delightfully hammy performance) has somehow taken possession of Andre Toulon's magical puppets, and uses them in his "House of Marvels" tourist attraction.
And this film is very bad at hiding the fact that most of the puppet footage is re-used.
You will recognize shots from the previous movies constantly, and its very distracting.This film also has a ton of continuity problems from the cheap budget- you can tell the didn't have time to shoot all of the footage they needed.
It was atrociously bad editing.)The biggest problem, though, is the lack of explanation of the story- the film makes no effort to connect itself to prior entries with no explanation of what happened to characters from the previous films.
The story needed a lot more work than the screenwriters gave it.This is the first truly awful movie in the series.
While a few of the entries after this one (particularly the more light-hearted and fun "Retro Puppet Master") were actually decent, starting from this movie onward, the series fell in a big, bad way.
First off, I am catching up on my horror movies and have been watching the Puppet Master series over the past couple of days.
Why did Charles Band stop working on the Puppet Master series, what happened to the promised Puppet Wars?
As for the curse of the Puppet Master, it takes forever to get going, you barely see any of the puppets in the movie, it's mostly about Tank.
Curse of the Puppet Master: Half of a Good Show, then Crash!.
Full Moon had things going so well for Puppet Master; Puppet Master 5, I thought, was a satisfying B-budget film with loads of fun to offer.
This, I believe, is to blame for the tragedy that is Curse of the Puppet Master.It has been said that a good thriller is like a roller coaster; you're taken on a ride that excites you, has several surprises up its sleeve, and doesn't slow until it stops.
For the first 50 minutes of this 80-minute-long movie, you think that this film is going to be a step up for Full Moon.
Lazy, to be sure, but it soon becomes clear that this is better than the alternative; when we are forced to see new footage of the puppets, we are shown renditions that look like Barbie dolls being worked by hand.
If they had been better made, this could have been the best entry in the Puppet Master franchise.
CURSE OF THE PUPPET MASTER 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 3.5Despite what everyone is saying,this movie is pretty good.
The puppets find a new master in feisty mad scientist Dr. Magrew (well played by George Peck), who's doing sadistic experiments with humans by transferring their souls into puppets.
Curse of the Puppet Master is set in a small American town where the ever so slightly dim Robert 'Tank' Winsley (Josh Green) works as a lowly gas station attendant for $30 a week, that is until curio collector & owner of a museum of oddities Dr. Magrew (George Peck) & his lovely young daughter Jane (Emily Harrison) stop for gas.
The first three Puppet Master films were really good & I think they are all great although Puppet Master 4 (1993) & Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter (1994) were pretty bad apart from some impressive stop-motion animation effects & the nicely atmospheric Bogeda Bay Inn setting which are both absent here from Curse of the Puppet Master as the ambitions of the filmmakers & the budget gets increasingly lower with each new entry into the franchise.
To be honest it's a lame story which is supposed to unfold as some sort of mystery but it's pretty predictable & the single worst aspect of Curse of the Puppet Master is that it relegates the killer puppets to no more than bit parts who do virtually nothing the entire film.
There's no explanation of why the puppets obey Magrew or why they suddenly turn on him at the end & like the previous two films they are nowhere evil enough.
Another thing is while Magrew makes Robert carve a puppet out of wood the puppet Magrew uses at the end is actually made out of metal is some awful looking tank like creation with a couple laser guns for arms.
The ending is awful too & is one of those occasions where the film just literally stops dead & your left thinking 'is that it?' or 'what happened?' or 'did my DVD player just skip a chapter?'.The puppet special effects are the worst of the series so far too, there's a few seconds of stop-motion by the vast majority of the effects work is simple poorly operated rod puppets which look still & have very limited movement.
The acting is forgettable from no-one I have ever heard of before.Curse of the Puppet Master is worse than the five previous Puppet Master films & to be honest they should have stopped making them after Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge while the series was on a high.
The only Puppet Master film I have left to watch in the series now is Retro Puppet Master (1999) which I can't say I am particularly looking forward too..
The threads all move along to their conclusions.END OF SPOILERSI can't say how this movie compares to the others in the Puppet Master series, but on a stand-alone basis it was entertaining enough.