Full Moon Entertainment's signature series has grown large with sequel excess, but it all started with its humble yet solid first entry. I remember being a die-hard puppet-head from the moment I saw this first film and was hoping that the series would evolve into something amazing, because I was aware of the sequels before watching the original. Sadly the series ebbed and flowed in the wrong directions, as most long-winded series eventually do. But here they offer us a fantastic setup and they get their hooks into their audience.

Andre Toulon (played by veteran William Hickey, the voice of Dr. Finklestein in The Nightmare Before Christmas), the puppet master himself, has taken up residence at the Bodega Bay Inn. Here he and is magically alive puppets live in obscurity, until Nazis come looking for him. He hides his puppets in the wall and shoots himself in the head before the bastards can get their hands on him or his pals. Years later, a team of paranormal investigators head to old Bodega Bay. Alex Whitaker (Paul Le Mat, American Graffiti) is our lead psychic and the most likable male in the cast. Megan (Robin Frates, Man's Best Friend), is the most likable female and the owner of the massive hotel.

The plot is best explained by Alex when he says to Megan: "Some would call us magicians. To some degree we all have unusual psychic powers. Your husband brought us together several years ago to try to help in his research. He and Frank (another psychic dude) began studying the ancient Egyptian methods of the occult and they found evidence that the Egyptians had developed a secret method of giving life to inanimate figurines. These secrets were passed on to a select few who knew and practiced magic. Dana (another psychic) makes her living telling fortunes. She used her powers to help your husband locate the last true alchemist of modern times, a famous puppet master of the 20s." Now you are all caught up on why the guys are there and when they arrive they find Neil, Megan's husband and their ex-friend, has committed suicide and Toulon's puppets are on the loose!

The psychics aren't sure why Neil killed himself, but they are planning to tear the house apart to find the secrets to animating life that they know Toulon has hidden in the house. So puppets Blade, Tunneler, Leech Woman, Pinhead and the useless Jester go about stalking and killing the greedy psychics while sweet-hearted Alex and Megan watch the slaughter. We get to see everything from puppets punching women like they forgot to cook dinner, leeches being vomited out of doll mouths, and various stabs and slices into human (and otherwise) flesh. In the end (spoiler alert) it turns out that Neil is alive and has used the reanimation secrets on himself...but the puppets aren't to thrilled with his cocky attitude. The film comes to a quick, yet brutal, conclusion that should have been drawn out a bit, but suffices all the same.

David Schmoeller (Tourist Trap) directs from a story by Charles Band and Kenneth J. Hall and a script by Joseph G. Collodi (Schmoeller in disguise for some reason). This 1989 movie set a pace for Full Moon productions that unfortunately fizzled out about a year or so later. The twist of using puppets within basically a slasher movie template is novel and works for the most part, even if the mini-stars of the show are kept hidden or in POV shots for most of the running time. But then that feeds into the template of the slasher film, too. The humans are basically fodder, and the second weak link in the film. Our hero Alex never really does anything but look surprised or blunder into situations (he also has prophetic nightmares that amount to nothing). Incidentally, the first weak link is the simple plot and pretty much every crazy thing that Alex tells Megan in my third paragraph. If a little more attention had been paid to what was happening in the plot and with the characters in between the puppet kills, this would have been a great chiller. As it stands, it unfortunately doesn't hold up very well if you're picky, but it's a solid entry for Full Moon.

- Jose Prendes