After what looks like a UFO lands in small field in Iowa, strange things begin to happen in a nearby town. A group from a secret government agency, led by Andrew Nivens (Donald Sutherland), moves in to investigate the scene. Nivens’ son, Sam (Eric Thal), who is also in the agency, joins Mary Sefton (Julie Warner), a NASA scientist, in examining the scene of the landing. Immediately, they find the townsfolk acting strangely but, before they can come up with an effective battle plan, they find that an alien presence has infected one of their members and is about to infect a lot more of them.
I’d heard a lot of good things about this movie and, being as it was Halloween night, I figured I’d finally sit down and watch it. Donald Sutherland is always entertaining and it took me almost the entire movie to remember where I’d seen Julie Warner before. (Turns out it was in Doc Hollywood with Michael J. Fox.) I must say that while it starts out being quite good, The Puppet Masters fizzles towards the end.
As it turns out, Donald Sutherland is entertaining here as the “great agent/lousy father” character. Eric Thal, who played Samson in the 1996 TV movie, Samson & Delilah, isn’t that great as his son, but he serves his purpose. Julie Warner’s Mary isn’t given much to do, except for the inevitable sequences where she requires rescuing. She’s the movie’s only woman, so I guess the script just had to put her in danger. Other actors of great talent, like Yaphet Kotto (Alien), Richard Belzer (TV’s Homicide), and Keith David (There’s Something About Mary) wander in, provide some good moments and either disappear or fade into the background.
The best thing about The Puppet Masters is the concept behind the aliens, which is slowly revealed as the film moves along. The methods they use to collect their victims and communicate with each other are unique and very cool. Unfortunately, I can’t get into much detail because I’d spoil the movie for those that do want to see it.
This film is a strange blend of War of the Worlds and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (which, in its 1978 remake, also featured Donald Sutherland.) The screenplay was based on a novel by Robert Heinlein, which unfortunately I didn’t read. I will venture a guess and say that this movie’s script resembles the original only slightly. (The additional three writing credits under Heinlein’s name lends credence to my theory as well, I’m sure.) Still, it has that old “Is this movie about aliens or communism?” feel to it, which more than likely was in the original book. I could be wrong.
Why did I give the movie three stars? Well, it starts off with a promising cast, a great setup and a wonderful idea, only to drop the ball and degenerate into a second-rate film with a lot of predictable moments and a rather weak ending. It becomes a bad film rather than being a completely bad film from the start. If the script hadn’t petered out two-thirds of the way through, The Puppet Masters might have been a classic science fiction/horror film.
3.0 out of 5.0 stars
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