Dave Parker’s sequel/spin off from the “Puppet Master” movie series is probably one of the most undercooked movies to come from the “Puppet Master” movie series, to date. In a time where Full Moon seems to be celebrating the flagship series, it’s sad to see movies like “Doktor Death” simply come out of the gates not trying to tell a story at all, or even respect the mythology of its predecessors.
In this sequel/spin off to “Retro Puppet Master,” we meet a young girl who is hired to work at a nursing home. While there she doesn’t realize that one of their residents is in possession of the dread Doktor Death puppet. Without any of the helpers realizing, Doktor Death goes on a rampage murdering residents and nurses, and April is trying to figure out why. At only an hour in length, it’s surprising how little narrative there is.
April just shows up to the old folks home, there’s no back story, and no exposition. Doktor Death is at the elderly home inexplicably and suddenly decides to start massacring patient for–reasons? I’m not too sure. Along the way there’s a ton of filler and padding to the narrative, while our titular puppet does very little but walk around and commit off screen murders. It’s a far cry from the stop motion and slick puppetry we used to get in previous films in the series. There’s not a lot that happens in “Doktor Death” even with one of its easiest to film characters on screen.
The movie feels like one big prologue to a larger feature film as the bit “twist” in the climax indicates. It feels like the first half of a script for a larger film was written, and they just decided to rush it in to production and release this saga of Doktor Death in to segments, or something. I’m not sure about the mind set behind it, I just know that it’s a pretty piss poor spin off film, and I can’t picture a solo series for this late stage series character.
Now Streaming on Tubi.