If you've read my previous reviews, you'll know that many of the Puppet Master
films don't exactly follow straight on from each other, which has created a bit of confusion over the years. Even for the most die-hard fans of the series.
So, it was with this in mind the film makers tried to make a film that would tie all the previous movies together and fill in the blanks between stories. Well, that was what they said anyway. In reality, what we have is a collection of clips from all the previous movies, loosely spun around a new story, which basically amounts to a half-dozen or so new scenes.
The plot this time centres around some rather unsavoury female character named Maclain (Kate Orsini), who, like so many bad guys before her, is trying to discover the secrets behind how Andre Toulon brought his puppets to life.
Breaking into the old Bodega Bay Inn (the hotel where most of the previous films took place), she forces the old man who's running the place, Eric Weiss (Jacob Witkin), to tell him everything he knows about Andre Toulon and his puppets. What follows is basically a recap of all the events of the previous films, in approximate chronological order (remember that some of the previous films were prequels), starting with the previous movie, "Retro Puppet Master", and working its way up to the last of the modern day sequels, "Curse of the Puppet Master".
Whilst it does tie up one or two loose ends, like what has happened to young Rick from parts 4 & 5, it doesn't explain the glaring disparity of Toulon's chatracter in Part 2 compared to the other movies, the 2 different back stories established in Parts 3 & 6, how the puppets ended up back in the hotel after Part 6, the messed up timeline where Toulon supposedly shoots himself in either 1939 or 1941 depending on the film, yet the intro to part 7 somehow takes place in 1944 (???).
In fact, you could argue that this film creates more questions than it answers as it doesn't exactly explain how this Eric Weiss became the next puppet master, or how the Bodega Bay Inn manages to pay its bills for that matter, considering it always seems empty and closed in almost every film it features in. Clocking in at just over 1hr 10mins, this is not only the shortest of all the films, but is also the weakest, being comprised almost entirely of clips from the previous films.
It has been claimed that Full Moon Pictures were having financial difficulties at the time, and that this release was just hastily slapped together to turn a fast buck. But either way, unless you are a die hard fan of the series I would be inclined to give this one a miss.
