Fourths Of July: PUPPET MASTER 4 (1993)

Relatively speaking, the success of genre mash-up films is a fairly new phenomenon. It wasn’t until maybe the last twenty years or so when movies that blurred the lines between classification were written off. I believe that this is due to generations of cinema fans that knew what they wanted and were happy to have strict guidelines.

Such attitudes changed as new groups of enthusiasts grew up with their own love of cinema. Exciting events occurred as filmmakers that grew up loving various types of movies started making their own films and crossing streams of those influences. I think a perfect example of this would be the films of Guillermo del Toro. I can’t think of any other filmmaker that has seamlessly combined so many genres and made it work so well.

Unfortunately, some of these efforts were made in a time period when they just weren’t fully appreciated. Either they were too late, getting lumped in with 1980s’ bargain bin fare. Or they were too early, never achieving cult status of other 1990s’ indie darlings. Case in point: 1993’s PUPPET MASTER 4.

I remember how excited I was when PUPPET MASTER 4 was released. I was fifteen years old and utterly in love with the first three films. When I rented part four, to say that I was disappointed is an understatement. This was not what I had signed up for. Demons, robots, interdimensional portals…Ugh! It was a weird mish-mash of fantasy, sci-fi, action, and horror. I wanted a straight horror movie and I didn’t get it.

So, in the past thirty or so years I’ve stood by the fact that the first three PUPPET MASTER movies are master works and the rest are garbage. In order to write this piece, I went back and rewatched the fourth entry and was pleasantly surprised.

Now that I’m older, and had expectations to enjoy said rubbish, I was able to appreciate it free from any expectations of sole genre trappings I may have had.

In PUPPET MASTER 4, a group of demons realize that a bunch of scientists are getting close to discovering their secret to bringing life to inanimate objects. So the demons send small totems of themselves through an interdimensional portal to kill off said scientists.

The only problem is one of the scientists lives in a house where the living murderous puppets (Blade, Six-Shooter, Tunneler, PinHead, and Jester) reside. With the help of a new friend (Gordon Currie), they resurrect their master Andre Toulon (Guy Rolfe) as a Frankenstein-style doll that shoots lasers and is now called “The Decapitron.”

If after reading the brief synopsis of PUPPET MASTER 4 you think to yourself, “holy shit that sounds bonkers”—you’d be one hundred percent correct. As insane as the concept is, it still works. If this film were to come out now, it would be hailed as an instant cult classic. Not in the “it’s -so-bad-it’s-good” sort of way, either. It does a great job of expanding the original mythos and doing so in genre-blending, non-conventional ways that surprise without alienating.

Sure, there are still certain things I still can’t get over with this film. For instance; where’s Leech Woman? She was always one of my favorites.

Also, why does the leader of the demons have huge, gross nipples. They’re so unpleasant that they actually take me out of the movie.

My only other gripe is that, apart from the puppets and the totems, the special effects aren’t that…“special.”

I would love to see what could have been done with a bigger budget. Hopefully one day, us Full Moon Fanatics will get an updated “when bad puppets go good” PUPPET MASTER movie. For now, though, I’d advise genre films fans to go back and give it another gander. It’s a bit dated, but way better than I remember.