Spoilers would’ve been scared of an actual puppet.

When you step outside the mainstream, and to be clear I mean the costly high-production big-studio features, I am looking at the imagination of filmmakers to use their budget more than the shiny gloss. You can get good results without high production and the weight of the film does rest more heavily onto the performers. It’s not without its flaws, but I believe it does result in a feature worth more than the sum of its parts.

(Credit: Shudder)

The Puppetman (2023) is directed by Brandon Christensen who wrote it with Ryan Christensen and Matt Manjourides. Michal (Alyson Gorske) is the only child of the man they call “The Puppetman” (Zachary Le Vey), a man who killed his wife and was convicted for murder despite his insistence that his body was taken over and his actions were not his own. Now, while his father is on death row awaiting the date of his execution, Michal is trying to cope with a lot of mixed feelings when she finds out she’s been sleepwalking at night. What’s more, her friend and roommate Charlie (Angel Prater) has been recording her on video. As she joins her friends Danny (Kio Cyr), Jo (Anna Telfer) and Glenn (Cameron Wong) things seem to settle down. That is, until an unexplainable death/suicide in their friend group starts making Michal suspect that there might be some truth to her father’s claims.

There’s no way of reviewing this without letting you know what the actual threat is. We’ve got an intangible antagonist capable of controlling one’s body and forcing them to harm its host. Now, this can look realistic or cheesy. The way the film sells you this idea is by pure actor performance, face features strained, muscles tight, jerky sudden movements. This works better in some situations than others, as having one person injured themselves does not seem particularly inventive. Possession films have done this for years. However, having the character reluctantly trying to resist their own movements as the central crux of each kill is a risk. It can come up cheesy, and it does require some degree of suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience.

It works better on some scenes better than others. Some special effects are milder, but to be honest as the film progresses the strain is more on the individual performance of Alyson Gorske as Michal. It also saves its most over the top scenes for the last half which makes it entertaining, IF you have been sold on the premise. For some audiences expecting a special-effects-based-creature-feature this is not going to work at all. The actual ending is a little predictable for my taste, but it does fit the story.

Recommended with reservations. Yes, the production values are smaller and that will keep a lot of audiences expecting a big budget mainstream horror flick far away. However, as a sleeper smaller film it manages some very concepts. Now, it is true it does expect you to meet it halfway. There’s something to be said about being generous with your suspension of disbelief. However, if or when you do, it does managed to pull quite a few strings and have an engaging story. Worth a watch in my opinion if you’re up for it.

That will do for now.