When a simple backwoods puppeteer gets a hold of the puppets, through an auction no less, he become determined to figure out hoe to recreate the magic that makes the puppets live. His determination turns to obsession and his obsession to madness. He soon drags his young daughter as well as her talented lover into the mix. It this lover, a gifted sculptor named Robert, who the mad puppeteer determines to use to his own will. Even with the pushy local sheriff on his tail, the puppeteer still works to transfer Robert's soul into one of the puppets.
It is a fine story for a B-rated film; however, the story--no matter how well written--can't make up for poor acting and abysmal special effects. That's right, as far as production and performance goes, this is the worst of the series yet. Like I said, the story is fine and I definitely preferred it to the previous movie's trite and worn tale. Yet, the sixth installment of the series falls completely flat in the acting department.
As the film opens we are met with a list of credits displayed over rehashed footage from all the previous films. Already, before the movie had even started, I had judged the movie as lazy and cheap. It feels like the budget from the previous films was sliced to a quarter of its size and then handed to the creators of this installment. I took the opening footage as a bad sign for this movie.
However, I continued to watch. Unfortunately, the acting from the bulk of the cast was so atrocious that it became laughable, and even painful, to watch. The poorly written lines and stereotypical cast didn't help the actors any. The two worst of the group were Jane, the puppeteer's daughter, and Sheriff Garvey. Every time Jane came on the screen I wanted to poke my own eyes out. Most of her lines were spoken in a flat tone. When it felt like she should really be fighting back or screaming she was just nonchalantly reciting her required lines. I found it hard to care about her or her plight in life.
Now, there is a scene where Jane almost gets raped. I felt angry and sympathetic for her then but not because of her character development. It is just wrong for any person to get raped or disrespected. Usually, if there is rape in a film or book, I get mad. In addition, Whoever the rapist in the story is deserves to have his balls sawed off and his eyes gouged out. (Oops, did I give something away?)
The Sheriff's acting wasn't much better. He was a complete ham. He really played it up to be a bad guy. (Which this also doesn't make sense. Cops in horror films are always incompetent or are complete jerks, or both.) It felt like this actor was trying to pull of the same effect as the "Sheriff" from 2003's Texas Chainsaw Massacre. His performance ends up being more of a joke in this case. Instead of appearing as a bad-a he feels more like a nitwit. After sitting through the Sheriff's terrible acting for most of the film I was thrilled to death to finally see blade stab the crap out of his face.
The final thing that I will touch on is the rehashing of footage. There were so many shots of the puppets that were simply recycled images from the previous movies. This irritated me because it just speaks of the true spirit of this film. It shows that the creators were simply being cheap and lazy. Therefore, we are left with this film.
Summing it Up
Deaths: 4
Language: 5
Gore Factor: 3
Sex Factor: 1
Scare Factor: 1
Fun Factor: 2
Overall Rating: 1