Director: Charles Band
Year: 2017
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
With their former owners dead, the puppets are given to the military to determine how they move about, drawing attention from a deranged Nazi commandant and his assistant looking to control their own puppets and forcing the two sides to utilize their resources in order to stop the other.
Review:
This here was a rather decent enough entry. One of the film's few positives here is the way this one dives into the concluding chapter of the storyline present, making this a rather strong outing. The fact that the dolls are given straight to the military in order to continue their research on how they work and what their orders are going to be for the majority of the film is all given out in the first opening minutes here, wasting no time and getting this plotline going. This quick-moving story enables the far-reaching elements such as clairvoyance and dream premonitions to emerge as quite logical in this universe, introducing the concept of the dueling group of mystics battling to keep themselves secret from each other or the highly enjoyable series of interactions that play up the need to complete the dolls in their own spaces.
This setup allows the film to have some rather fun cheesy action with this mix of magic and sorcery. The idea of watching the Nazi's conduct their experiments, including them going through the test subjects in their chambers to the experiments with the captured dolls as well as the daughter, offer up some truly enjoyable supernatural-themed action as the ability to control and manipulate everyone around them to do their bidding. Not only do we see their own soldiers and subordinates being controlled in some rather tense scenes in the compound but the encounter at the refinery allows for a much more chilling demonstration of their powers when mixed together with the puppet action here in the finale. With the gunplay coming into play with the puppets alongside the rest of the battles against the controllers, there's a lot to like here from the kinetic action and fine bloodshed with the dolls in play to hold it up rather nicely.
That said, there are a few minor flaws to be had here. The main issue to be had is the lack of obvious puppet action since there's way too much time spent elsewhere with this one. There's way too much emphasis on the mysticism between the scientist and his daughter attempting to explain their powers that really just keep going on in stilted English full of gibberish and nonsensical megalomanical threats rather than putting the puppets to work. By having both sides gravitate towards speechifying as well as the overwhelming need for standing around letting their powers take center stage rather than focusing on all-out puppet action, the film takes on more of a fantasy vibe more than any other entry in the series which might be somewhat detrimental. The other factor is the cheap-looking special effects for the puppets, who look for very CGI-based and don't really have much realism in their few scenes. Beyond this, there isn't much else to this one.
Overview: **/5
Despite having some solid aspects to enjoy here with the way this one goes, this introduces a few rather odd elements into the franchise that are not only detrimental but also rather troubling. Really only give this one a look if you're a hardcore fan of the genre or the franchise, while those that don't enjoy anything about the previous entries in the series should avoid this one wholly.
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