The film’s best attribute is its puppet effects, but their impact is lost in an unnecessarily complicated and poorly explained plot. So much time is spent on an unnecessary psychic aspect of the story that our main character is barely a character at all.

This is low-budget horror done right.

While the climax unfolds in an impressive combo of upsetting dentistry, medieval medicine and orthopedic brutality, this is all over the place tonally in a way a first installment should not feel and suffers from leaving the most boring characters alive.

I think the principle sin that Puppet Master commits is that it takes itself too seriously. The dialog and story make very little sense, but they keep at it. When the script falters and becomes boring, they keep shoving it down your throat.