Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich

While a few flaws are present, the directors and screenwriter deliver a high energy bloodbath with several creepy scenes, excellent puppetry work, and a cast that shines brightly. It is well worth a watch, and I greatly look forward to a sequel.

By bringing in a strong screenwriter, hungry filmmakers with a vision, and a cast and crew who care deeply for the work... you get the recipe for a delightful and deranged modern-day exploitation film that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but somehow, asks you to take it more seriously than you might have otherwise.

The incessant bloodshed is delivered with imaginative aplomb in this witty reboot of the 90s trash franchise.

Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich almost works. The dialogue and performances are unusually good for this kind of material, and the gore effects are shocking. But the changes the filmmakers made to this franchise have unpleasant consequences, which dramatically reduce the film's entertainment value, and arguably rob these iconic puppets of the very characteristics that made them special.

While you don’t require familiarity with the dozen or so earlier titles to enjoy this one, you do require a sense of humor that’s easily triggered and a gag reflex that isn’t.

It all feels cheap and looks cheap, a far cry from what S. Craig Zahler can do when overseeing both a film's words as well as its images.

While it has a couple of appreciably goofy flourishes, the proudly crass horror-comedy Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich is sadly more boring than offensive despite its superficially controversial high-concept premise.