Puppet Master: Doktor Death (2022) User Reviews

I can jump right in

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 8 April 2023]

The film opens with Max (Bill D. Russell) dying from a heart attack brought on by a dream with Doktor Death puppet images. As he is being wheeled out we are introduced to the April, the final girl (Jenny Boswell) who is a new caregiver at Shady Oaks Senior Living. While going through Max's belongings the caregivers find a doll/puppet which Flynn (Zach Zebrowski) takes. It isn't long before the doll shows up randomly in other rooms, killing folks and being able to go inside their bodies and control their movement like the humans are the puppets.

This film connects the retro puppet master film from WWII to whatever the next one is going to be. Like most "linkage" films it is not as good as the two films it will link.

Guide: F-word. No sex. Nudity (Emily Sue Bengtson)

Watchable...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 24 April 2023]

I must admit that I was actually harboring some expectations to the 2022 addition to the "Puppet Master" franchise. Why? Well, I figured that it was a pretty new movie, so perhaps they upped their game somewhat. I hadn't actually heard about "Puppet Master: Doktor Death" prior to watching it as part of a "Puppet Master" movie marathon.

Director Dave Parker managed to deliver a watchable movie, for sure. But "Puppet Master: Doktor Death" was hardly the pinnacle of the franchise. The storyline in this 2022 movie was adequate. There wasn't really anything outstanding to be experienced, but it made for a watchable enough movie.

And the movie just ended very abruptly. Sure, it is so the cards are dealt for a follow-up movie, of course. But a more satisfying ending would have been preferable.

I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list in "Puppet Master: Doktor Death". The acting performances in the movie were actually fair enough, especially in comparison as to what was performed in the "Axis" trilogy of the "Puppet Master" franchise.

Visually then "Puppet Master: Doktor Death" was quite okay. Nothing outstanding for a horror movie, sure. But the special effects served the movie well enough.

My rating of "Puppet Master: Doktor Death" lands on a four out of ten stars. There simply wasn't enough murderous dolls in the movie.

What Did I Just Watch?

[arfdawg-1 · 1/10 · 31 January 2023]

I'm a bit of a fan of the Puppet Master movies and can usually find something fun or intereting about all of them.

Except this one. It's a mess. AND messy. Not gory. Messy as in poorly conceived, realized and directed.

And the puppet becomes a full grown human puppet at one point, confusing the heck out of me.

But the part that really solidifed how bad this movie is was the fact that it literally looks like it was mde for under a thousand bucks.

It has a very strange look to it, almost as if all the sets are CGI and not really there. The color is all muted or filtered so that it's fake looking.

Hard to explain, but it was very unsettling and made the movie hard to concentrate on.

Better luck next time.

Should've stayed dead

[crjh-92952 · 1/10 · 28 March 2023]

I've been a fan of the puppet master franchise since I was a kid, and they've always been low budget and a little campy, which is half the charm.

Unfortunately this iteration takes this to the extreme and totally ruins what could've been a fun film to watch.

From the outset the camera work is shocking, jutters when panning across scene and hardly ever square on, leaving you struggling to focus. The music is pretty much constant in every scene which is really off putting, especially when it's just dialogue and no action.

The acting is absolutely terrible, I've seen better at the local amateur dramatic society and school performances, it's as if the just don't care.

The special effects are just as bad, nothing looking the slightest bit real and difficult to watch because of the quality.

This is one of the few films I wish I'd never have watched. Don't waste your time with this one, I'd burn all copies and erase it from existence.

Decent entry with gory kills and good make-up

[moviebuffmel90 · 7/10 · 29 October 2022]

Doktor Death comes in the line of Full Moon movies that try to achive Charles Band's theme of making his studio the "Marvel Comics" of the 1990s. Horror features that have a comic book tone with the prospect of future crossovers. The last movies that came out this year have been hit and miss. But with this latest spin off, I can make an exception.

The killer Doktor is let loose in a senior living home as working nurses try to figure out what's going on. This entry can be described best as the original movie but set in a nursing home. It offers a good amount of characters that sound interesting on paper. A painter that creates predicting art, a guy who binges on old VHS tapes of the Subspecies movies, a mute woman that knows what's going on and so forth. The only one that nearly ruins it is a pervy old rich man who aims to pinch the rumps on the workers. Thankfully, that doesn't get focused on and it does lead to a kill that was hilaious.

The gore effects are a mixed bag. Some of the kills are standard while others are a bit creative. There's a suspensful scene that involves a laundry room with the bedsheets hanging over and floating like ghosts. That's enough to tell me there is some effort for a low budget affair. The special effects with the killer doll refect the nature on how the kills are staged. As the movie goes on, they do get better. Especially for one particular moment that I can't give away which I thought was impressive.

As said before, this has been a hit and miss year for Full Moon Features. From giant women to fish creatures with jaw-boobs, Doktor Death really tries to bring back the old feel of what Full Moon did. It has a Creepshow vibe that is unique and doesn't go too dark with its premise. I can't say this is the best of the Puppet Master films, but its entertaining enough. How can I complain when we have a senior home that has issues of Fangoria?

On a side note, the movie ends on a cliffhanger that does suggest something. My prediction is that we will get a set of solo features on some of the puppets. We already have one on Blade, so why not? If this is the direction things will go, I'm open to it.

Dark, weird and what an ending!

[Whisper2Scream · 8/10 · 31 October 2022]

Loving some of these newer Full moon horror movies. The darker trippy stuff like Scream of the Blind Dead and It Knows you're Alone, William Butler's Baby Oopsie movies and the Resonator saga and now this New Puppet Master movie, which is honestly one of the best ones I've seen in years. It's a stand alone slasher movie and you don't have to have seen the others to get into it. This is what fans want not those sex comedies and credit director Dave Parker for delivering a serious and fast paced horror film, with soooooo much blood and an incredible and freaky ending. Watched this on Full Moon Features.

Fun!

[BandSAboutMovies · 7/10 · 20 December 2022]

Doktor Death comes from Retro Puppet Master and is the second Puppet Master spin-off after Blade the Iron Cross. It's strange that for some reason, this got to Tubi before I heard anything about it. Even weirder is that it's only an hour but a taunt and tense slasher with good direction by Dave Parker (The Dead Hate the Living!, The Hills Run Red).

This story takes place in the Shady Oaks Senior Living retirement home where a new nurse named April (Jenny Boswell) has shown up at the same time as a resident dies. As the staff looks through his things, they find a footlocker with Doktor Death inside it and before you can say Andre Toulon, that little guy is out and out killing everything in his path. Also, if you're a fan of AEW, The Bunny and The Blade are also in the cast briefly.

Parker is trying to make something great in a few days and this has the gore to back that up, as well as a surprise ending that makes me hope that this isn't the end of this story. It's shot in Charles Bands' Ohio house but it doesn't really need much to look like a nursing home. I was excited to see Melissa Moore show up as a psychic painter and man, how about that image of Doktor Death inside a body, using tendons to make someone walk around?

More hour long better quality Pupper Master movies! This was a blast.