The Puppetman (2023) User Reviews

This movie offers a few engaging scenes and a solid concept but struggles with execution

[kevin_robbins · 4/10 · 24 October 2023]

I recently viewed The Puppetman (2023) on Shudder. The plot revolves around a man who, under the influence of a malevolent entity, is compelled to commit a heinous act in front of his daughter, leading to his execution. Years later, his orphaned daughter, now a high school student, faces the entity as it possesses her friends, coercing them into committing gruesome acts. Will she become another victim, or can she find a way to stop the entity?

Directed by Brandon Christensen (Superhost), the film features Alyson Gorske (Jungle Run), Kio Cyr (Give Me an A), Zachary Le Vey (Run Hide Fight(, Michael Paré (Gone) and Angel Prater (Amy's F it List).

The Puppetman had the potential to be a standout horror film. The opening scene was well-crafted and effectively set the movie's tone. Unfortunately, it didn't maintain the quality of kill scenes after the beginning. While there were some entertaining fire and a shootout scenes, there was also a terrible seance that was awkward. The acting was good enough, but the ending was disappointing and felt like a copout.

In summary, this movie offers a few engaging scenes and a solid concept but struggles with execution. I would rate this a 4/10 and suggest considering other options.

It could've been scarier.

[MovieNerdGalReviews · 4/10 · 30 October 2023]

I got the chance to see this film on Shudder last night and I had really high hopes from it after watching the first 10 minutes. Unfortunately, it took a downward spiral pretty fast.

The Puppetman, is a story about a mysterious entity possessing a body and forcing the victims to commit suicide via mind control.

Now, this idea isn't very original and has been done before however, I believe that it still had the potential to deliver some original great scares.

The problem though, the story line is pretty much uninspiring and the acting is monotonous. From the beginning till the end, the movie doesn't even really surprise you and the scary scenes that are supposed to be scary aren't satisfying enough.

The acting is okay and the cinematography is just bland which makes the movie even more uninteresting. If you're in the mood for something scary, this isn't the best option for you but if you want something watchable, I'd say give it a chance.

The film will not cause vivid impressions, but it will not be a disappointment either

[Democrit · 5/10 · 23 October 2023]

This is a story about a simple obsession with an ancient cult consisting of three people: parents and a child - this is the whole cult. The purpose of the demon is not clear, but he is very evil and manipulates everyone indiscriminately - in fact, demons cannot subdue everyone, no matter how evil they may be, even they obey "demonic laws", well, the authors did not try to understand the mythology, but the film is not about that.\n\PS It's simple, but with "taste", about students who are unlucky. I haven't seen Michael Peer in a normal movie for a long time, this is a pleasant exception, although he doesn't have much to play, but he looked good. The film will not cause vivid impressions, but it will not be a disappointment, such a mystical story is not bad.

OK, but could have used a tighter script

[HorrorFilmHellion · 4/10 · 19 October 2023]

The newest Shudder exclusive entry as of today- I appreciate the network but lately has been hit or miss. Found the idea and set up on this one to be good, and intriguing. Unfortunately, the script seemed a bit uneven and fragmented and about a quarter way in just stammered along until it got closer towards the end. Good effort, but character motivations were questionable (including the entity's) and a couple characters in general didn't gel well with the over-all plot (which by the time it was said and done, I thought seemed a bit thin). Once it finally got to the reveal, it was a decent twist, and a decent death or two were included along the way.

This is a surprisingly good one!

[mskog-21638 · 6/10 · 13 October 2023]

A nice breath of fresh air (yeah I know that term has been beaten to death..).

Good story, some blood and gore, decent acting, a few twists, nice photo and music/ambience. A bit lowbudget I think, but if thats the case they did a good job!

Its not a 10, as I think it has just a few too many minor plotholes/logical issues. But its not a 3 or 4 either.

I settled at a 6, and I think thats fair :) (Im sure I will will see some 7's later on)

Its up there with the movie "it follows" I think, which I also like.

Ok.. so they want more characters for this review? Jeez. Ok then..

Oh nevermind I think this is enough!

So yeah, a decent horror movie. A bit slow at the start maybe, but I thibk its worth to keep going.

Well done guys!

6/10.

Did a Puppet Write this Thing?

[arfdawg-1 · 1/10 · 21 October 2023]

Another Shudder bomb. It's just really poorly written and realized. Filled with jump scares that simply arent scary and an attrocious script.

I was pretty bored most of the time. A lot of it makes no sense whatsoever.

People pay good money to get Shudder. You'd think maybe they'd put some money into these original movies. But nooooo.

This one is tedious. It's slow as mollasses. And the acting stinks.

Plus the script is all over the place. It's so convoluted you will wonder what you are watching and why.

Not sure how I got through the entire movie. I was soooo tempted to bail.

Please Shudder: do better.

An average entry to the 2023 horror genre.

[Mavors · 6/10 · 17 October 2023]

The Puppetman is a horror movie directed by Brandon Christensen. The movie tells the story of Michal, the daughter of a convicted killer on death row who always maintained his innocence and claimed that an evil force controlled his body as he slaughtered his victims. Michal begins to suspect that there may be some truth to her father's claim when those around her begin to die in brutal ways. She must try and break the curse of The Puppetman before all her loved ones are killed.

Well, the Puppetman is a 2023 horror flick with a decent story, some blood and gore, decent acting, a few twists, nice photo and music/ambience and with a new spin on the occult and possession horror. But it falls short and fails to stand out, mainly because of the many clichés and its disjointed narrative. The plot holes are many, and towards the end the movie becomes even more nonsensical.

However the effects are well made, and some of the story line feels fresh. In my opinion, this one is just a little bit above average.

It's worth watching if you're into new entries in horror movies with some blood and gore, but don't expect too much.

Final score: 5.5.

Velveeta

[justincorylindsey · 2/10 · 22 October 2023]

This movie is absolutely terrible. It's incredibly poorly written and executed. Maybe it was a budget thing, who knows. The acting is very rough to put up with. There's just a ton of a scenes of a girl who is seemingly spaced out and her friend saying, " are you okay? ". Not to mention they make Michal out to be some scary, powerfully possessed chick that everyone should fear, but her friend Charlie was an awful friend and the real bad one ... and a weirdo if you ask me. Her whole friend group seems terrible. Overall it's just incredibly cheesy and corny. That psychic medium? Just rename her Velveeta because holy cow it's pure, unadulterated cheese.

Decent, well shot horror.

[dweston-38669 · 31 October 2023]

The previous horror I saw on this Halloween day was 'The Bell Keeper' a very very standard horror that was forgettable-my second film today was way better.

Whilst, like the film I saw last night A Suitable Flesh, the story of body swapping isn't original this contains a pace that builds up it's characters who are a group of friends ; so their dilemma is more real than the group of young people in the aforementioned ' The Bell Keeper'.

This reminded me of the friends in the best horror I've seen in last 20 years-It Follows. They seemed, at first at least, to care about each other.

And like that classic film the photography here by Clayton Moore, is cold, wintry and atmospheric making it several rungs higher than the low budget horrors I've seen lately.

It contains some effective kill scenes like a woman burning herself alive and a set of weights dropped onto a weightlifter's head.

Young scriptwriters take note.

[veritybingo · 6/10 · 26 October 2023]

Refreshing and impressively written entry in the urban myth genre.

The dialogue has a naturalistic feel that really helps sell the narrative, proving that when you are immersed into an environment of believable characters, you can suspend disbelief and be effectively unnerved by what are essentially highly unlikely scenarios.

There are definite tropes here, but it doesn't feel like it's going through the checklist.

This film and its script never tries to be trendy, clever, pompous or pretentious.

It doesn't go for gimmicky jump scares or try to hit quotas other films go for to appease attention deficient audiences. It's not the most terrifying movie in existence, but fans of older, slow burning fare should definitely check it out.

Awesome Idea!

[alexherbert-20573 · 8/10 · 20 October 2023]

I think this film deserves closer to a 6.5 or even a 7 to be honest, I thought it was pretty great and had a fresh idea. I did have hopes for a different ending though, see if you catch what I mean. The actors and actresses were pretty good and the main character was cast really well, i hope they can do another one because I'd be interested in seeing it. The way it was shot and sets were good too. I dont know why others gave this the review they did but if you're like me and always check IMDB before watching a flick, I hope you see my review here and watch the movie, I think it could have somewhat of a cult following.

It Wasn't Me

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 5 November 2023]

In the opening scene, we watch David (Zachary Le Vey) murder his wife Patricia (Kathryn Schneider). He claims it was not him, but someone controlling his body. He kept his daughter locked up in a cage. Years later in November 2022, grown-up Mical (Alyson Gorske) is away at college. She shares a dorm room with Charlie (Angel Prater) who secretly films Charlie sleepwalking. When Charlie gets angry, people around her die in mysterious ways, unable to control their own actions.

There is more going on behind the scenes that we don't discover until late. It was an okay film on the dark side.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Not quite there yet not unsuccessful

[Howling_at_the_Moon_Reviews · 5/10 · 18 October 2023]

This movie actually had a lot more potential than I was expecting. Unfortunately, it suffered from some amateurish issues but was still intriguing and entertaining.

I found the concept for this to be quite interesting and I think that's where the majority of the potential was. It let itself down in the end with pretty vague and ambiguous final moments. I was pretty surprised and impressed through the beginning but it started to go down hill after the rooftop scene. And I realized what I thought to be good acting primarily revolved around the brunette roommate and it kind of fell apart in that regard without her. She was quite good and the blonde had some moments as well. The actual storytelling here felt a little lazy and the script was really not great. There were however some pretty cool and gnarly deaths that I appreciated.

Overall it definitely has an indie vibe to it in its imperfections but it's actually pretty decent. Had the potential to be great but didn't quite get there. 4.5 rounding up to a 5, would recommend.

Cold opening, generic start but the payoff was worth it

[aronharde · 6/10 · 5 November 2023]

The Puppetman starts off with a decently scary and pretty tragic opening scene. This immediately got my attention and I was hooked to the plot but after some time the movie falls into rather generic territory. I mean it wasn't bad but it was just nothing spectacular or even new, we have seen similar things in other horror movies and when an old character turned up who knows more about what's going on and is trying to hold some kind of séance I was fed up.

But shortly after that the movie makes a sharp turn and as soon as the characters are getting threatened by the evil my interest was awoken again. You have some gruesome death scenes that really surprised me and that I genuinely enjoyed. Also the movie has some twists and turns that I really didn't expect and I loved where the movie was going with its plot. It got unpredictable and brutal real quick.

This is no masterpiece and I doubt that people will say it's the best horror movie of the year but after some time the movie really goes into the right direction and I really enjoyed it in the end. [5,9/10]

Straight To Shudder...For Obvious Reasons.

[meddlecore · 2/10 · 24 October 2023]

Low budget.

Amateurish.

Mediocre.

It's no wonder this one went straight to Shudder.

The Puppetman focuses on the daughter of a serial killer, who claims a demonic force had taken control of his body, when committing the crimes he was deemed responsible for.

Which include killing his own wife.

She, however, starts to believe her father's claims, when she starts to undertake bizarre actions, herself, while sleepwalking.

A psychic reinforces the idea that she has inherited the curse that inflicted her father.

So...when her friends start dying, under mysterious circumstances...she can't help but feel somewhat responsible.

The whole thing has a vibe akin to the recent film Nefarious (though, it's not nearly as preachy).

Only with subpar acting.

A poorly written story.

An incredibly mediocre plot.

And way too much drama (while lacking a fair balance of horror).

You know a film is bad, when they spend a majority of time on character development...and you still don't even care about them.

Not to mention the fact they have paid shills to pad it's rating with fake reviews.

A sad and desperate act, to fraudulently prop up a film which has, quite literally, no redeeming qualities.

Sure, you have to give them credit for trying, and all.

But, when all is said and done...the whole thing is just bad.

Especially the ending.

Take my advice, and just pass this one by.

I watched it, so you don't have to.

2 out of 10.

Disjointed Fun

[therealjaysmoke · 7/10 · 21 October 2023]

There was something about this movie that I loved but I can't pinpoint exactly what it is. It actually got me watching it a second time. With that being said, the story itself was quite all over the place. Not enough explanation of what the evil entity is and how it even came to being. And to say it's an horror movie would be a disservice to actual horror movies like The Conjuring. It's more of a thriller if you ask me, there was no jump scares and it wasn't scary at all. Just bloody and gory, which I kinda appreciated.

Towards the ending is where everything kinda just fell apart, which is very typical of such movies. But all in all, it was worth the time.

So very, very boring...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 30 January 2024]

Of course I hadn't heard about the 2023 movie titled "The Puppetman" prior to sitting down to watch it. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon it here in 2024 by random chance, and with it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I had to check it out.

Now, I said I was 'fortunate enough' above, which might be an overstatement, because I found the storyline in "The Puppetman" to be rather dull, slow paced and mundane. Writers Brandon Christensen, Ryan Christensen and Matt Manjourides put together a script and storyline that failed to entertain me. And it was a very, very generic attempt at a horror movie, cashing in on stereotypical horror tropes.

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, which was actually something that worked well in favor of the movie, despite of it being a rather dull viewing experience. The acting performances in the movie were fair enough, taking into consideration that the actors and actresses virtually had nothing worthwhile to work with.

Visually then you're not in for any grand treat here. The movie doesn't make much use of special effects, for better or worse.

"The Puppetman" was a massive swing and a miss in terms of entertaining me, and this is definitely not a horror movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. Nor is it a movie that I will recommend to horror fans, because it just simply isn't worth spending 96 minutes on watching.

My rating of director Brandon Christensen's 2023 horror movie "The Puppetman" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

Successful & effective low budget horror, seriously underrated in IMDb

[kastrino · 7/10 · 29 January 2024]

I quite enjoyed this one, a low budget variation on a common horror theme that we see more and more nowadays, especially after the success of titles such as SMILE which seems to be a clear influence for this movie. It begins with almost disjointed laying- down of the basic plot premises in a way that the mystery remains as long a possible, reaching a good climax and ending all the way enriched with some really stand- out gore and violence moments. Most of the reviews here at IMDb adopt a very unfair in my eyes critical approach to the movie, but for me it was a fresh and interesting indie horror that may not be perfect, but it clearly stands out from the vast majority of modern horror fare. Recommended for horror hounds.

Worth the watch, but lacks key elements

[sub780lime · 5/10 · 7 November 2023]

The biggest issue you can have with an all powerful entity is that they are all powerful. There are no limits to the villain's abilities, no protections, no balance. The acting isn't terrible, though some of the kids are flat. The script is just a bit loose overall. The protagonist is too much of a passive participant all the way through.

The paralysis demon is not a bad concept. It can illicit the right feelings in an audience. We've all had those waking dreams or woken up while briefly not being able to move. If done right, it can be a frightful viewing experience. This only gets halfway there, unfortunately.

I just finished watching it and I was actually blown away

[manuelasaez · 8/10 · 14 October 2023]

I'm not gonna lie, 30 minutes in, I was going to turn the movie off. After a great intro sequence, the movie falls into spending way to much time getting to know the characters, which (let's be real) is usually the dullest part of any movie. But just when i was about to call it quits, the editing team flipped a switch and allowed the action to finally start, and when it started, I literally went from 0-60 and didn't let off the gas for a minute.

The movies plot was actually easy to grasp at first, and the farther along you get through the movie, the more complex it becomes. It starts out being about a killer who is facing death row, and evolves into a movie about cults and demonic possession and chosen ones and blood pacts, although much different from the ones most of us are used to. By the end, it was a completely different movie than how it began.

While the acting is competent from the majority of the cast, their likeability is all over the place. You feel sympathy for some, and completely despise others, but when their time comes, a few of them die in truly gruesome ways. (I mean, as a lifter, one of the deaths was a gym nightmare visualized. I actually cringed watching it, and I'll probably have nightmares about it tonight.) The special effects worked well and weren't overdone, and you won't see any overused possession tropes anywhere in this movie. But you really don't find out exactly what's truly transpiring until about 45-1 hour into the movie, so stick with it. I promise, it's a story worth investing your time into.

Coming off of a year with so much horror, and a lot of it being utter TRASH (I'm looking directly at everything associated with Blumhouse this year), this movie was a great little surprise that actually made me really glad I sat down to watch it. I'm a pretty difficult to please critic of horror, as it's my favorite genre and I really have no tolerance for low effort additions to the genre, but the people responsible for this film really understood the mission, and achieved it with flying colors. I really can't wait to see what's next from the two guys responsible.

If you liked movies like Netflix's Eli and SMILE (my favorite horror movie of the year), I really think this will be right up your alley. It's slow to get going and could have used some more editing, but once it gets going, it really becomes a hell of a ride (no pun intended). A truly solid and commendable effort for everyone involved.

indie horror

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 26 October 2023]

Michal (Alyson Gorske) is a college girl with a troubled past. As a girl, she was cowering in a dark room while her father brutally murdered her mother in their kitchen. Her father claimed that he didn't control his own body. No one believed him and he is now imprisoned on death row.

This one has a few good kills. It's an interesting opening and good concept for a small indie horror. It doesn't need a whole lot other than some good gore. I really like the idea of not in control of one's body. There is a big reveal but it's not done well enough. There should be red herrings. There should be a mysterious monster figure doing the puppeteering. The reveal could have been a big shocking unmasking. I watched the trailer after the movie and it basically shows everything. Modern trailers are horrible in that way. This has some good stuff although it could be better.

Nonsensical

[WolfGoddess77 · 2/10 · 14 January 2024]

By the time I finished this movie, I was more confused than I was satisfied. The plot seems simple enough; a girl has a demon or some other entity inside of her that can control people's actions, usually ending in their death.

We find out that the main character's parents tried to summon the thing, and it winds up inhabiting the main character. It seems like the parents start resenting her for this, I think, maybe because it didn't choose them? The entity makes her father kill her mother, and her father is put on death row, claiming that it wasn't him.

Okay, why did they try to summon it? What was their goal? Why did it matter that it used the main character as the host, and not them? They knew what this thing was, and they're upset anyway.

The main character finally comes to the conclusion that the thing just wants to be left alone. But that can't be true, because it's always making her do things that would draw attention to her. Does it have to kill to survive? Otherwise, why wouldn't it just behave itself so no one would know it was there?

What a waste of an hour and a half. A tepid horror movie, at best.

[4.8] The wicked control

[cjonesas · 5/10 · 11 February 2024]

Besides some minuscule good horror visual effects scenes with better realistic blood and texture, that's a bland horror movie having nothing to root for besides some average cliched semi-predictable acting. It just flows for over one hour and thirty minutes, basically turning in circle, not giving us the big fat "meat" that we crave for and holds only on acting atmosphere and visual special effects.

Even the ending was hollow and unmemorable.

• Screenplay/storyline/plots: 4
• Development: 7
• Realism: 3.5
• Entertainment: 3.5
• Acting: 6
• Filming/photography/cinematography: 6.5
• VFX: 8.5
• Music/score/sound: 5.5
• Depth: 3.5
• Logic: 2.5
• Flow: 4
• Horror/thriller: 5
• Ending: 2.5.

Reasonably entertaining, with some well done gore

[johannes2000-1 · 7/10 · 25 February 2024]

Sure, it's not the best horror movie ever, but I still was reasonably entertained. There's a definite creepy atmosphere, there's some serious violence and gore, and the acting is not bad at all. It's just the story that's a bit shaky. I always hope to find some logic in horror flicks that are based on demonic entities that take possession of people, but here they made the why's and how's pretty hard to follow. Especially the end where the heroine comes up with an elaborate scheme to trick the demon (or whatever it's supposed to be) turned out extremely complicated and incomprehensible. But that's maybe my too simple brain. And I was a bit disappointed that the evil entity was never materialized, it maybe could have lifted the movie up to a slightly higher level.

Moves way too slow for the story it's telling.

[umaeva · 4/10 · 17 March 2024]

It's a bit of a meh movie. The pacing was just way too off in my opinion. The main character had this weird intensity to her sleepwalking and birds, yet no emotion attached to her childhood and fostered upbringing so was really hard to get on her side.

Plus the fact that all 3 female lead characters (out of 5 = 3F + 2M) had androgynous names felt forced: Michal (pronounced Michael), Charlie and Jo. Not only does it create confusion at the start when they're referring to people that aren't in the room, it feels like pandering whilst trying to teach us a lesson on gender norms. It takes you completely out of the movie and it was the first thing others said when I was asking what they though of the movie. We get it, names are not gender specific! Problem is an 90min movie is not life and not a book, so it doesn't work well having all your female characters named that way.