12-17-2011, 05:14 AM
Caught this one on TCM On Demand tonight, hearing that it was the first film of Puppet Master FX wiz David Allen and could have inspired The Evil Dead to an extent. The trailer seemed somewhat creepy in a surreal, clunky '70s sort of way; alas, the movie failed to truly deliver.
It started out promising; shots of the inner workings of clocks, followed by a somewhat intense scene of our main character fleeing unseen evil forces. The pace slowed to an uneventful crawl shortly afterwards though, a fact "helped" by some very stilted acting. There was some effective setup, thanks in large part to a number of well-done setpieces (the castle which we never see inside of, the cabin which we never really see inside of, etc...), but the aforementioned factors really killed the whole mood. It screamed B-movie after a certain length of time.
As people have said before, the centerpiece of the film is the effects work. David Allen was no Ray Harryhausen at the time, but even the clunkier creatures were interesting to watch.
I'd give it a 5/10. Uneven, but average when balanced out.
It started out promising; shots of the inner workings of clocks, followed by a somewhat intense scene of our main character fleeing unseen evil forces. The pace slowed to an uneventful crawl shortly afterwards though, a fact "helped" by some very stilted acting. There was some effective setup, thanks in large part to a number of well-done setpieces (the castle which we never see inside of, the cabin which we never really see inside of, etc...), but the aforementioned factors really killed the whole mood. It screamed B-movie after a certain length of time.
As people have said before, the centerpiece of the film is the effects work. David Allen was no Ray Harryhausen at the time, but even the clunkier creatures were interesting to watch.
I'd give it a 5/10. Uneven, but average when balanced out.