Starring: Thomas Lennon, Jenny Pellicer, Nelson Franklin, Charlyne Yi, Michael Paré, Barbara Crampton, Udo Kier and Skeeta Jenkins.

Directed by Tommy Wiklund and Sonny Laguna

Fangoria, in cinemas now

When Edgar takes along his dead brother’s puppet to a convention/auction he finds himself in a battle to survive against the forces of living Nazi marionettes.

Before you ask, no, I haven’t seen the previously 12 entries in this series of horror movies. I saw one or two back in the 90s, and it’s amazing to think it’s been 30 years since we first met the diminutive assassins in the Charles Band cheapo series. This movie is being pushed as a reboot, the first ‘Fangoria Presents’ production from the horror comic, and it’s a perfect fit for that brand. Many an hour I spent in my youth poring over the bloody stills in Fangoria of FX shots from new horror movies, and this production feels like a live-action Fango!

Writer S. Craig Zahler gave us the bloody cannibal movie Bone Tomahawk, which was remarkably tame compared to this gorefest. The promotional material declares that there’s 21 scenes of graphic puppet violence, and that’s something they’re clearly proud of. The puppets wield flamethrowers, spikes, hooks, drills and blades as they eviscerated the delegates at the convention.

One puppet enters a pregnant woman and delivers her baby in an improvised Caesarian section. It’s very strong stuff, and I would say that it’s fun, except that there’s a nasty edge to it. One ‘gag’ sees a Jewish character throwing Junior Fuhrer – a crawling baby with Hitler’s head – into a gas oven to the line of ‘See how you like it!’ Yes, it’s that sort of film, where subtlety is never expected, and taboos exist to be broken. ‘I can’t let this happen to us again,’ cries Markowitz. ‘I’ve got about six million reasons why.’

Reanimator’s Barbara Crampton has a decent role as a ballsy security officer, horror legend Udo Kier is in the prologue as original creator Toulon, it’s always great to see Michael Pare (Moon 44, The Philadelphia Experiment) and there’s even a thumping retro score by Italian splatter maestro Fabio Frizzi.

Verdict: Unashamedly made to a clear formula for a specific audience, Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich will not be to everybody’s (bad) taste, but it is glossy, gory, slimy fun with no pretensions to high art and delivers some wild moments. The ‘To Be Continued…’ title over the unresolved ending also threatens that there’s more to come. 7/10

Nick Joy