Where to watch The Puppet Masters
3 Stars
Strange aliens land in the Midwest, taking over people’s minds in order to spread their dominion. Sam Nivens and Andrew Nivens, aided by Mary Sefton, are part of a government agency who must stop the the aliens before the aliens get to them…
The Puppet Masters was the first of Robert A. Heinlein’s novels to get a big-screen adaptation during the 1990s. Most will recall the more popular and expensive Starship Troopers film while not realizing this ‘Body Snatchers’ type of story made it to theaters three years before Verhonean’s Bug Hunt satire did. The Puppet Masters is part X-Files, War of the Worlds, and The Thing, all packaged with good actors and lively action sequences.
The Puppet Masters, not to be confused with actor Abel Ferrara’s 1994 film Body Snatchers, is a solidly entertaining thriller with impressive special effects and stunt work. The movie has an epic scope while maintaining the focus on a small group of characters. Three writers are credited for the screenplay, and the snappy dialogue gives the characters humor, smarts, and internal logic that’s easy to follow. The Puppet Masters is a very entertaining science fiction thriller that has been overlooked for decades but is deserving of rediscovery by the Letterboxd generation.
Directed by: Stuart Orme
Written by: Robert A. Heinlein, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Eric Thal, Julie Warner