Full Moon attempts to spin their flagship series into a new direction with this seventh entry that tells the backstory of Andre Toulan (played modern day by Guy Rolfe and in flashbacks by Greg Sestero) and how he came to possess the powers to animate puppets.

Seems he was a puppeteer by trade and is given the gift by a man being chased by the undead henchman of an Egyptian demon and soon he's bringing back his fellow puppeteer friends (who were killed by the henchmen) as puppets to get revenge and save the woman he loves.

While it's ambitious in premise, this just doesn't work because not only is it pretty uninteresting on a whole, the effects are fairly weak, the acting pretty bland (Sestero is a tepid lead and given some really bad "period" costumes), there's some stale dialogue and one really lame finale set on a train.

It does have decent production values and tries to bring a classy dramatic edge to the series (and who are they trying to kid?); but it's just entirely dull with not enough puppet action (their first assault is poorly staged, as are all action sequences here) to please fans - add in the fact they've toned down the series to a PG-13 level as well.

Followed by Puppet Master: The Legacy.

Directed By: Joseph Tennent.
Written By: Benjamin Carr.

Starring: Greg Sestero, Brigitta Dau, Jack Donner, Stephan Blackehart.