‘Puppet Master II’ (1990) - Dave Allen.

Unlike many of the higher profile fright franchises including Halloween, The Exorcist, Scanners etc, Charles Band’s greatly anticipated follow-up to the belligerent, brand-making ‘Puppet Master’ steadfastly kept the audacious original’s quixotic quality and nutso integrity resolutely intact, but cannily increased the all important ‘WTF!’ quotient that makes luridly loopy independent horror such uniquely diverting entertainment.

In bravura director/Special Effects maestro Dave Allen’s diabolically delightful ‘Puppet Master II’ (1991) a disparate group of youthful psychic investigators, along with an eccentric, middle-aged hippy pseudo-mystic (Nita Talbot) combine their esoteric talents in the faintest hope of recording empirical evidence proving that the myriad disturbing rumours concerning the Bodega Bay Inn were more fact than myth!

Once the cumbrous equipment is set up the team’s misfortunes begin in earnest after a majestically bandaged Claude Rains-type menacingly introduces himself with exquisitely Gothic affectations as the invidious Inn’s current proprietor, giving them an ominous ‘what-not-to-do’ by resolutely banning the now decidedly tweaked researchers from his lofty private quarters. Not long after this especially awkward exchange ‘Puppet Master 2’ unleashes its ghoulish cavalcade of cartoonish devilry, as the beleaguered occupants of this horror-hounded hostelry are gruesomely set upon by Toulon’s fiendishly agile, ceaselessly vile, relentlessly imaginative, death-dealing automatons!

The mirthfully macabre sequel’s manifold strengths lie in its unrestrained generosity in upping the grisly, B-movie ante, in this insane instance having our mercurial miniature misfits: Leech Woman, Pin-Head, Jester et al. welcome the fire-breathing Torch; an incandescently impish, pint-sized, rakishly helmet-sporting, hellfire hottie who brings additional heat to this bedevilled crew of creepy clockwork killers, as they diabolically desecrate graves, lay sanguineous siege to nearby homesteads, luridly looting animal and anthropoidal skulls in their desperate, gut-churning quest to quickly harvest the requisite amount of much-coveted cerebral tissue which disgustingly formed the ‘active’ ingredient to the ensorcelled, livid green ‘Fluid’ that so morbidly maintained their sinister semblance of life!

Having a legendary Puppeteer expertly manipulate the film’s macabre narrative elements proved to be a remarkably prescient decision as master illusionist David Allen’s fiendishly entertaining ‘Puppet Master 2’ would soon become a Full Moon classic and his playful horror film’s exuberant eccentricity and the outrageous, grand guignol insanity of these diabolically disporting devil dolls remains undiminished and is surely destined to corrupt many more unsuspecting fright fans long into the future!