Puppet Master(1989)

 'Puppet Master' is the first in a surprisingly longlived franchise, 15 films in total with the most recent being from 2022. Low budget horror series was conceived for the direct to video market of the 1980's and thrived there. This first film was unexpectedly slow, the plot concerns a group of sometimes competitive psychics who converge on a sprawling old seaside hotel, in search of an ancient Egyptian scroll that had been used by an old puppet master to bring some creepy looking marionette's to life in the years before World War II. Those dolls are still conscious and when released from their hidding place proceed to kill. This killing spree dosen't start until around half way through the movie and is not as intense or creative as I'd anticipated. The practical effect tiny assaians are by far the highpoint and the draw here. Needless to say there are plenty of kinks that must get at least partially worked out in subsequent films, or perhaps the standards for direct to video horror are just that low. *1/2