Triskaidekafiles is a love letter to cheesy cinema from the 80s and 90s, with the occasional dip into other eras. Hall Screenplay by Joseph G. SYNOPSIS: A group of psychic researchers are drawn to a hotel in California where you can check out any time you like, but the killer puppets on the loose may have something different to say about that.
The music is an original piece of score, the Puppet Master theme, and this song has always haunted my mind to this day. I'll randomly start humming it. It's so melodic, and peacefully haunting, it really sets up the mood. Even spaces fear the Puppet Master. The credits roll over extreme closeups of puppet doll heads. I swear, I diagnosed one of these things with tonsilitis. As they draw to a close, the movie brightens up to scenes of crashing waves on a beach, and a hotel looking over it from upon the bluffs.
We look in on a man putting some finishing touches on some puppet heads. This is Andre Toulon, played by frequent character actor, William Hickey. If the name doesn't ring a bell, you'd know him the instant you heard his voice. You must have seen him in something.
It's only a model As if Hickey playing with dolls isn't weird enough, he has one of them sitting and looking out the window, and holy crap! It moved! On its own! The puppets are alive, aaahhhh! And also, the puppet looks so very stereotypically Chinese, with the Fu Manchu mustache, and clothes. It's borderline racist.
Ahhh, the 30s. We jump away from Toulon and his dolls, to a POV shot zipping along the ground. It's very much borrowed from the Evil Dead movies. POV Man wanders the grounds of the inn, murmuring to itself, and trying to avoid being seen.
