If you've been following the series thus far, you may remember that Part 3 was a prequel.
Well, just when you thought the series couldn't get any more muddled up continuity wise, the film makers decided to make this 7th film into another prequel, set even further back in the
past, to fill in some more of the backstory.
The start of the film takes place just after the events of Part 3, showing Puppet Master Andre Toulon (Guy Rolfe reprising his role) heading out of Nazi Germany. Hiding out inside a disused hotel near the Swiss border, he proceeds to recount the tale to his puppets as to how he discovered the ancient magic spells that brought his earlier puppets to life.
The film then flashes back to France at the turn if the 20th century, where a young Andre Toulon (Greg Sestero), who runs a magic show in Paris, befriends an Egyptian man named Afzel (Jack Donner). Having taken him in, he discovers that Afzel is actually some ancient sorcerer, and he decides to repay Andre's kindness by showing him how to animate his puppets by magic.
Unfortunately, Afzel stole these magic secrets from the Egytian god Sutekh, and he is not best pleased about this. Having raised some rather sinister characters to go after him, they end up not only killing Afzel, but all the people involved in young Andre's puppet theatre, as well as kidnapping his new girlfriend Ilsa (Brigitta Dau). Culminating in a rather amusing end battle, as Andre animates his crude wooden puppets and sends them to take down these 3 undead mummies/zombies whilst they're on board a steam train.
If you've missed parts 4-6 you might be wondering what has been going on in the other films, with the intro to this 7th film, picking up just after part 3 (although its now apparently 1944, which I think must be a mistake as part 3 was set in 1941). Also, this tale seems to go against the already established back story from Part 2.
But if you can skip over the discontinuity and dodgy French accents this, like the other films, is still a pretty entertaining movie. I thought the older, much cruder versions of his puppets, looked cool, and I loved the hilariously corny scene where Sutekh brings these 3 mummies back to life, who looked like extras from an Abbot and Costello film.
Anyway, its all good fun. Give it a watch!
