Summer Of 84

(Frightfest Day 1)
Tonally falters between madcap and deadly serious without hitting either, resulting in a bland smudge of a movie that constantly yells clunky 80s references just in case the title hasn't hammered the point home.

The Ranger

(Frightfest Day 1)
Struggled with character development and so I struggled to give a shit.

Puppet Master: The Legacy

Selected edited "highlights" from the last seven movies carefully woven in to a new story about a woman searching for selected edited "highlights" from the last seven movies. Reminded me that 3 was definitely the best and made me a little bit sad every time one of the other six appeared.

Retro Puppet Master

Slivers of what could have been a good story exploring the origin of the titular Puppet Master and a whole new band of prototype puppets, ruined by cheap juddering puppet effects that still out act the human actors who appear to have all been told to destroy any accent of their choosing, some more than one and then preferably at the same time.

Suspicious Death Of A Minor [Morte sospetta di una minorenne/Too Young To Die]

A misguided tangle of Giallo, grim police thriller and light screwball comedy. Confusing on many levels.

Curse Of The Puppet Master

Money had clearly run out by this point, a remarkably amateurish effort arranged around insert shots of the puppets stolen from all the other movies. The upside of this is the frequent belches of hilarity found when mid scene everything will cut to a puppet skulking about in 1940s nazi Germany, the downside is that it's fucking shit.

Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter

Filmed back to back with part 4 and quite clearly originally intended as one movie, so a twenty minute montage of shit from the previous movie followed by an additional hour of shit that continues directly on from it. And most disappointing of all, no new puppet.

Puppet Master 4

Comedically poor tat chronicling the upset of a grand demon, from whom puppet master Toulon orginally stole the secret of giving life to the inanimate, and a bunch of scientists who are trying to embed artificial intelligence in robots but instead make friends with the usual homicidal puppets plus one extra that so far had been kept boxed away.

Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge

A much better entry that takes the tale back to the puppeteers time in nazi Germany as he uses the puppets to extract revenge against nazis that murdered his wife. I am aware that this feels like a much, much better entry than it probably is because I watched it directly after part 2 and even the shit I took after part 2 was golden in comparison.

Puppet Master II

Full of acting so shit that every time a puppet killed somebody you'd cheer because the film just got easier to get through.

Puppetmaster

Four living psychics and a dead one argue over who gets to know a long dead puppeteer's secret to giving inanimate objects life, something he already did to a bunch puppets who kill everybody.

Ant-Man And The Wasp

A much clumsier effort than its predecessor. There's still plenty of fun to be had and there's still plenty of cool splashed about but it's all awkwardly stitched together using a lot of bits that probably needed a bit more thought before being committed to film.

Tag [Riaru onigokko]

I'm not even going to dare attempt to tell you what the fuck this madness is all about, there's symbolism and analogies flying all over the shop alongside an extraordinary amount of Japanese schoolgirls meeting hideous fates. I enjoyed it immensely.

Caltiki, The Immortal Monster [Caltiki il mostro immortale]

Scientists awaken a pile of cow entrails that emit synth noises and absorbs human flesh whilst investigating an ancient mayan ruin. Should be tawdry B movie nonsense but Bava's ingenuity makes it shine, despite the fact that the ending is quite clearly a bunch of toy tanks burning a heap of bovine guts.

The Night Eats The World [La nuit a dévoré le monde]

A shift of focus from the usual zombie apocalypse carnage to an existential study of a lone survivor who decides to just sit it out. It turns out that surviving is boring, needs more carnage.