The Puppetman
The holiday season on campus, everyone is wrapped up in warm jackets and wearing cosy hats, planning to go home as soon as classes finish except for those who have no family or don’t get along with them, Michal falling somewhere between the two, her mother dead having been murdered by her father David when Michal was just the child they kept locked in a cage, seeing all but remembering little of the traumatic events.
Her father always maintaining that he was controlled by someone else, “the puppetman killer” is back in the news cycle with his execution scheduled for the coming week, the stress on Michal probably contributing to her sleepwalking, her roommate Charlie secretly keeping a video diary of her strange behaviour which causes an argument between the two which culminates in Charlie walking backwards off a balcony, almost as though someone else were controlling her.
A film which holds its big twist for the hour mark despite having telegraphed it in the opening scene then hinted at it again repeatedly every few minutes, The Puppetman is directed by Brandon Christensen from a script co-written with Ryan Christensen and Matt Manjourides, starring Alyson Gorske as Michal, shifting her personality from terror and confusion to cruelty and confident power depending on who is in the driver’s seat.
Supported by Angel Prater as Charlie, Zachary Le Vey as David, Caryn Richman as well intentioned but out of her depth medium Ruby and Bone Tomahawk’s Michael Paré as Detective Al Rosen, familiar with her father’s case and now investigating the sudden rash of deaths around Michal herself, the ensemble make the best of the script which scrambles to make something new out of familiar ideas but is hampered by turgid pacing and clumsy foreshadowing.
Haunted by crows which batter against her window and give her no peace, Michal attends a séance with her contracting circle of friends where they are told by Ruby without Michal’s knowledge of the Cult of Dolos who seek to birth a demon into human form through their rituals, but despite a few moments of invention and an effort to make the deaths at least unusual The Puppetman never breaks free of the strings which tie it to its many obvious predecessors.
What it is not restricted by, however, is logic: despite campus being largely deserted multiple unexplained deaths within the space of a few days should have triggered an immediate lockdown, although in a town where the deaths of four policemen in a single incident in the actual station doesn’t trigger an immediate manhunt for the person of interest caught on camera perhaps like the victims of the Puppetman it is easier to just surrender and accept the inevitable.
The Puppetman will be available on Shudder from Friday 13th October
