The Puppet-Man (2023) - Movie Review
What do you get when you take a great shooting location, a flimsy script, and a group of nobody actors and then attempt to make a high-concept supernatural horror film?
A nonsensical, but gloriously violent take on a concept obviously inspired by one of the all-time great genre films, Hereditary—but that lacks any of the atmosphere, scares, or gravitas of that film.
Let’s discuss.
The Puppetman is a 2023 supernatural horror film brought to us by writer/director Brandon Christensen and writers Ryan Christensen and Matt Manjourides. I can’t fault you if you don’t know those names. Manjourides is a producer who is most known for his work behind the scenes on The Last Drive In with Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder. The Christensen brothers are mainly known for a string of mediocre Shudder exclusives like 2019’s Z and 2017’s Still/Born.
Also, what have we previously discussed when there’s more than 2 writers on a film? Expect the worst.
The filmmakers claim this film was inspired by the 1969 song Puppetman written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. If anyone believes that after watching the movie, they should probably report to their nearest mental health facility.
It’s bullshit.
The film focuses on Michal, a troubled woman nearing the end of her college education. Alongside her roommate and mutual friends, they decide to party their week away in their empty dorm. When it’s revealed that Michal’s father is a famous murderer set to be executed at the end of said week, strange things begin to happen. Michal wakes in the common room of her dorm, unaware of how she got there. When she finds out that her roommate has been recording her odd behavior and sleep walking, it triggers an invisible force to begin taking out the students one by one. An invisible force is compelling people to suicide in horrible ways and neither to police nor a psychic investigator have any answers. Will Michal be able to solve the mystery surrounding the Puppet Man before he pulls her strings?
This film is obviously a rip-off of Hereditary.
It has a family unit whose past is tied to an ancient cult. The oldest child of said family experiencing violent hallucinations, sleepwalking, and visions of violence. An invisible hand that is coordinating the violence and mayhem. And the ending, which is an absolute clusterfuck that the filmmakers obviously thought was slick.
News Flash: It wasn’t.
Being a copycat isn’t a negative thing in and of itself. The slasher genre is full of movies that are riffs on previous entries into the genre.
Hell, Friday the 13th is an almost scene for scene ripoff of Mario Bava’s 1971 classic, A Bay of Blood. Even though Sean S. Cunningham claims otherwise.
Ps. He’s a liar, which the courts have proved and upheld on other matters.
I love Friday the 13th, even with its derivative nature. Why? Because it's a fun, tightly wound thriller with a fantastic twist ending.
The Puppetman could have been the same thing if the writer had focused more on the serial killer angle or thrown it aside all together. The film starts with a brutal and quite striking cold open and then just gradually fractures into half baked plot threads and an unsatisfying ending that answers none of the questions posed throughout the film.
The bottom line is that this film just doesn’t make sense.
For horror to function properly and for a horror film to build tension, you need rules. You need to know what the guidelines are. This film never clarifies what the invisible monster’s limits are. In some scenes, Michal has to be physically present for the creature to kill. In other scenes, it has an omnipresence that lacks any limits whatsoever.
I mean for Christsakes, it kills 2 people in 2 locations at the same time while Michal is far away.
As a viewer, you’re either absolutely confused or completely frustrated. Things just happen and you’re expected to just ignore it and never ask for an explanation.
At one point, it’s obvious that a plot existed where Michal’s roommate stalked her and maneuvered herself into position of being Michal’s roommate in order to write a paper about her and investigate her role in the murder of her other. However, this is tossed aside in a strange scene where Michal finds this information and then immediately disregards it as if it’s no big deal.
However, it’s hard to really be on either side because all of the characters are terrible, 2 dimensional stereotypes who drop terrible one liners, which the filmmakers emphasize with laugh breaks to end scenes. However, none of the humor is good because none of the characters talk like actual human beings.
The special effects are surprisingly passable and the film is shot beautifully around the gorgeous setting on campus of Buffalo State University. The soundtrack is fantastic and tries to carry the film, but music is not atmosphere nor does it help with the bowel movement of a script.
This movie is just wasted potential. Too many writers, too many ideas, and it could have been great if they’d just stuck to one plot instead of this scattershot nonesense.
If you want to punish yourself, this film is streaming exclusively on Shudder.
