The Puppet Masters

Year: 1994

Director: Stuart Orme

Written by: Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio, David S. Goyer

Threat: Aliens

Weapon of Choice: Disease

Based upon: novel - The Puppet Masters - Robert A. Heinlein

IMDb page: IMDb link

      The Puppet Masters

Other movies in this series:
None

The tyranist's thoughts
What is it about alien invasion movies that scares us so much? Or me at least? I really think that if I knew the people around me may not be who they are, I would probably go insane. But Donald Sutherland isn't insane and he makes this kind of movie all the time.
So aliens are invading and a special government agency is trying to stop them, but not very successfully. For the first half of the movie just about anyone who comes within a few feet of the aliens is taken over. Then, of course, there are thousands of them and it's time to fight back.
I like the core idea for the aliens in this one is pretty cool. I like the way they attache themselves. The production itself is top-notch as well. All in all, it's a pleasure to watch. The action is pretty good and the story interesting. You shouldn't have too hard a time telling who has been taken over, but that would be it's only real downfall.

Total Skulls: 3

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise skull
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene skull
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare skull
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood hits camera
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?