Is Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich a Hidden Treasure or Dumpster Fire?
Distributed By: Cinestate / August 17, 2018
When Edgar (Thomas Lennon) decides to sell a nefarious looking puppet at a convention, all hell breaks loose when the puppets come alive and go on a killing spree.
Jimbo’s Take 
(4 / 5)
The original Puppetmaster premiered on home video in 1989 via a distribution deal with Paramount. In that version the puppets responded to the will of their master. And in the 10 sequels that followed (and still going) the puppets could be good or bad depending on which master “pulls the strings.” Today you can find the original series on blu-ray or various streaming services.
But you don’t have to go to the original source material to understand and enjoy Puppet Master: The Little Reich. This is a whole new monster, rebooted and jolted into new life with a ton of familiar faces. This time Udo Kier plays puppet master Andre Toulon. In this iteration Toulon and his puppets are Nazis so there’s little chance we’ll see the good side of these little demons.
The cast also includes Thomas Lennon, Barbara Crampton, Michael Pare, Charlyn Yi, and many, many others.
But how is the movie?
Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich is far from a perfect entry. However, the filmmakers know how to give this new breed of puppets legs from the get-go. And they start by giving the audience exactly what we want – blood. Buckets of it.
The movie is low on plot and explanation, but that’s not the focus here. At least not yet. Instead we are given everything else we require. Lots of puppets, lots of dead bodies, lots of blood, lots of bare breasts. The violence is excessive to the point of comedy.
The deaths are cruel! I don’t even dare describe some of the most offensive murders. I simply don’t want to spoil the shock and awe. But I defy you to keep your jaw from hitting the floor. It’s as if the filmmakers are daring us to rebel. They push a couple of deaths well beyond the point of proper taste and wait for us to respond.
And we respond with applause because we’re happy that someone has taken a stale franchise and done something daring and bold with it. Not everyone will approve, but this movie isn’t for them.
Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich is not a perfect entry. It’s not even my favorite Puppet Master of them all. However, if the filmmakers live up to their promise of a sequel, then I trust that they’ll fill in many of the narrative gaps with the next one.
And any of you still yearning for Charles Band’s puppets can rest easy. He’s already said he has no intention of abandoning his original puppet troupe. But hopefully he’s paying attention because the bar has been raised significantly.
Hidden Treasure/Dumpster Fire?
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Jimbo Ranks his Favs:
- Puppet Master
- Puppet Master 2
- Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich
- Puppet Master 3
- Puppet Master 4
- Puppet Master 5
- Puppet Master: The Legacy (Part 8 – This is a clip show of the first 5 films, but still better than the “originals” below)
- Retro Puppet Master (Part 7)
- Curse of the Puppet Master (Part 6)
- Puppet Master: Axis of Evil (Part 9)
- Puppet Master: Axis Termination (Part 11)
- Puppet Master X: Axis Rising (Part 10)
