Puppet Master 3 : Toulon's Revenge

Alternate titles : None.

Tagline : "When good puppets go bad!"

Puppet Master 3 : Toulon's Revenge This third film in the Puppet Master series takes a slightly different turn, being a prequel, set prior to the events of the previous films. Taking place in Berlin, during the early years of WW2, puppeteer Andre Toulon's shows attract the attention of the Nazi's, when they discover that his puppets are actually alive and want to know what is in the secret formula that he uses to animate them.

Seems that a certain Gestapo officer, Major Krauss (played by notorious horror baddie Richard Lynch), has an idea to use the formula for re-animating his dead soldiers and sending them back into battle (obviously been reading HP Lovecraft). But trying to apprehend Toulon (played in this film by Guy Rolfe) proves no easy task, as Krauss's soldiers are subsequently attacked by a number of Toulon's psychotic puppets.

When the Nazi's shoot his wife in revenge, he decides to start a little war of his own, and sends his killer puppets after Krauss and the other German officers (one of which played by James Bond regular Walt Gottell), producing some interesting kill scenes. I'm not exactly sure whether a bunch of 12" puppets would really be able to take down a squad of armed German soldiers, but it makes for entertaining enough viewing.

All the previous puppets are here, Tunneller, Pinhead, Blade, Leech Woman and even Jester strangely enough, which is odd considering Toulon only just finished building him at the start of Part 1. Plus there's a new one, Six-Shooter (a cowboy with six arms), though its not explained why he doesn't appear in the first 2 films, which are set afterwards, but I guess it's only a movie.

If you enjoyed the other Puppet Master films, then you should enjoy this. Certainly fun watching Nazi soldiers falling prey to killer puppets anyway.

Overall Marks : 6/10.

Terrifying Trivia

Alternate tag line "World War 2 has just gotten smaller".
The Six Shooter puppet was an amalgam of 2 ideas. The first being a cowboy puppet from the film "Dolls", which also had a lasso and revolver pistols. The second was a design that producer Charles Band had done for a 6 armed ninja for the first film.
The film's budget was $800,000.
Guy Rolfe also played the old doll maker in the Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna, Charles Band co-production "Dolls".
The scenes set in Nazi Germany were originally going to be filmed in Romania, but that idea was cancelled due to the political instability in the country at the time. They did consider shooting in Hungary, but with it being Winter, it would have been far too harsh. So instead it was filmed on the back lot of Universal studios.
Walt Gottell, who plays General Mueller, also played General Gogol in several of the James Bond films.
Herbert Lom was originally considered for a role in the movie, but was too expensive.
Filming was completed in just 18 days.
Aron Eisenberg who plays Peter, the young refugee, also played Nog the Ferengi in "Star Trek : Deep Space 9". He also starred in "Amityville 4 : The Evil Escapes".
Richard Lynch has played baddies in various horror, action and exploitation films over the years. His more notable credits include Ruggero Deodato's "Cut & Run", Rob Zombie's "Halloween", as well as films like "Scanner Cop" and "Laid to Rest".