The history of movies with murderous dolls and puppets is a long one, with a wealth of great titles. Way before Chucky or Annabelle hit the scene with their massively popular franchises, titles like 1936’s The Devil-Doll and 1945’s Dead of Night were bringing stories of mean ol’ dummies to the silver screen and, subsequently, into the psyches of viewers. The concept of a living doll preying on hapless victims is pretty frightening, but it’s also a rather funny one. We’ve all watched a killer puppet movie and thought to ourselves, “There’s no way he’d get me. I’d just punt that little creep across the room.” The new film Puppet Killer, directed by Lisa Ovies, embraces that inherent humor in the premise and gives viewers a tasteless and fun horror parody about a cute puppet on a gory massacre.
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A young boy, Jamie, is irresponsibly (and rather humorously) raised on a diet of violent horror films and given a puppet named Simon by his horror-obsessed mother. After losing his mother to illness and his stepmother in a violent incident that he attributes to his childhood puppet, Jamie grows into a young man (Aleks Paunovic) tormented by his horrific past. He and a close group of friends decide to have a weekend of partying and fun at Jamie’s childhood home, the site of the gruesome happenings of the beginning of the film. One by one the friends are brutally slaughtered by an unseen force. Is the killer one of the attendees, or is Simon the puppet back for a little more fun and games?
Where Puppet Killer excels is in it’s comedy. This film, if you hadn’t gathered, is a full-blown parody. Characters, as is custom in many horror movies, are cast glaringly out of their intended ages, the violence is over-the-top, and the jokes/funny dialogue is non-stop. There is zero subtlety at play here, Puppet Killer relishes in it’s immaturity. Thankfully, the cast does a great job of carrying the running jokes and delivering the silly gags. I would compare the brand of comedy in this film to the Scary Movie series, albeit a bit less slapstick.
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Puppet Killer is also charmingly self-aware. It features a number of horror franchise in-jokes and references that are quite funny. There’s also a pair of actors introduced midway who are well known faces in the horror community. I won’t give it away, but horror fans will instantly recognize the duo. It’s quite clear that this was a movie made for and by fans of the genre.
Puppet Killer has a lot to offer as a horror parody. It’s indulgently silly, lovingly pokes fun at the horror genre, is swiftly-paced, and has a decent amount of well-done gory splatter FX. Heck, the film even manages to wedge in a Christmas theme and imagery, so you can add it to your holiday horror line-up. If you’re looking for a funny horror comedy/parody from a crew that clearly loves the genre, I’d say Puppet Killer deserves a spot on your watch list.
The film arrives on Digital on November 29th via Central City Media.
