Watch Puppet Master 3 in Black and White
Before I go any further in this review I have to thank Ian West on Letterboxd. Often when I start a movie and the opening credits are rolling over a black screen I check some letterboxd reviews as they are often comical, especially when it comes to movies like Puppet Master 3 and the top review is one from Ian saying he decided to watch it in black and white, so I did too.
Thank you Ian, this is the best way to watch Puppet Master 3: Toulon’s Revenge. A simple TV settings change and this film goes from a random title in my collection to an annual watch, maybe this article can convince you to try it out for yourself.
If you haven't seen the first two films, don’t worry, you're not missing much. The original film follows a group of psychics in a hotel who are killed by living puppets made by a dude named Andre Toulon, a Jewish puppeteer who figured out how to reanimate things who was hunted by the Nazis. The second movie is the same thing except there are paranormal investigators instead of psychics and Toulon is there too pretending to be the invisible man. Seriously, he is all wrapped in bandages hanging out with some 20-somethings and no one is suspicious. The third film is a prequel and it covers everything that happened to Toulon in Nazi Germany during World War 2 that led to him being a crazy bandaged dude with crazy killer puppets.
In case you’ve missed most of popular culture for the last 40 or so years, the Nazis were big into the occult and in the Puppet Master universe, they were trying to find a way to reanimate dead bodies to use them as human shields in front of living soldiers which has to be about the stupidest idea for reanimating bodies that I can think of. Their main mad scientist, Dr. Hess is trying his hardest to perfect the serum and even though he is able to bring them back from the dead, they are super violent which doesn’t seem like a problem if you are sending them to the front lines of war. This other Nazi, Stein, heads to a puppet show because he is also a puppeteer and when he sees Andre Toulon’s show which openly mocks Hitler, Stein confronts Toulon, threatening him not to talk bad about Hitler. He spies on Toulon and his wife and sees that the puppets move on their own after being injected with a strange solution and reports this all back to his commander Kraus. The next evening Kraus comes back with a band of soldiers and takes Toulon into custody and when his wife resists and even spits on Kraus, they shoot her dead. With the help of his puppets Toulon escapes, builds a new lady puppet that pukes leeches on people and injects his wife’s life essence into it to bring it to life, then sets out for revenge on Kraus, Stein and Hess.
It’s a pretty good revenge plot; it's only hampered by the fact that it’s an early ‘90s, direct-to-video sequel of a D level horror movie about killer puppets. Fortunately, all these issues are addressed when you open the settings of your TV and turn the color all the way down.
The most notable thing in black and white is the atmosphere. With the color off it doesn’t seem like a cheap ‘90s movie trying to look like the 1940’s, it feels like you are watching an old movie from the 1940’s. The technology is old, the sets are old looking, everyone is driving old cars and I know this is just a trick of the mind, but it works. It also helps to feel like an older film because the movie is light on cursing, overt on screen violence and even nudity is to a minimum. You may be able to convince someone with no previous knowledge that it actually is an old movie, hell, you might even convince yourself.
A common tactic for low budget horror movies to increase the spooky factor is to ensure most of the scenes are at night and that there is almost always a fog machine rolling just off screen. Puppet Master 3 is no different but this low budget creepy atmosphere trick in a black and white setting works perfectly with the lighting of the film. In full glorious color a Nazi jeep parked in front of a building under a street light with fog rolling in might look cheap, but in black and white it looks elegant, like Casablanca.
That’s right, Puppet Master 3: Toulon’s Revenge in black and white is the horror Casablanca.
Overall, the film without color feels less like a sleazy ‘90s VHS and more like a fancy Noir film that would get a fancy introduction on TCM by Ben Mankiewicz or something. Puppet Master 3 is more than a schlocky horror film about killer puppets, it’s the story of an artist silenced by a totalitarian regime and since he stood up for freedom and simply did not keep his mouth shut they murdered his wife. They tried to take his freedom from him but his art was too powerful and in the end they all fell and his art lived on and on.
Puppet Master 3: Toulon’s Revenge is almost always streaming on Tubi, check it out asap but make sure to turn the color off first.
