Shadow Puppets

source: Shadow Puppets

I enjoyed it. The basic concept is simple, of course: let's make a version of 'Cube' that is more down to earth/without the math, try even to give nice explanations for the apparently supernatural, get a few familiar faces since there are only 8 roles to be cast, and then give the picture a rusty, blood splattered look - thus it will appeal not only to the sci-fi audience, but also to the horror fans. Fair enough for a genre movie which wants to make a bit of money. 'Shadow Puppets' surely creates an atmosphere of uneasiness when none of the characters remembers who he/she is, and information is revealed only much later. It's none of the "it's Halloween again" flicks that keeps the audience awake only with a killing every five minutes, actually I think nobody at all was killed in the first half. So this may be worth checking out if you are not into horror in the first place, but also some more psychological thrillers.

Man I was hoping for so much more here. I am a die hard Buffy fan and eagerly anticipated a featured role for Marsters. Tony Todd in my view is one of the great actors working today in any genre, and Jolene was one of the bright spots of a dreary Enterprise. Not to mention I love the basic premise, and am a big fan of Cube. Sadly Shadow Puppets mostly falls into the average category. The acting is good, and there is a twist at the end that may surprise you. I believe the majority of the budget was spent on assembling the cast. I was okay with the generic smoke monster, it was what it was, and it was probably better to do something simple instead of a poor CGI creature. The film is never really that scary or suspenseful and there aren't any clever kills or gore moments so that may hurt it in the eyes of those looking for a Saw or Cube. Because of the cast I was hoping for more, but if it were Lorenzo Lamas and Shannon Tweed headlining my review would be less critical. Still it's a "slightly" above average film with a good cast.

Worthless little film about a group of people who wake up with amnesia and trapped in an underground prison. They're also attacked by shadow creatures. There's really not much more to it, this movie is sincerely dreadful James Marsters gives his all in a vain attempt to save this crappy little, predictable, Boeing little film. Meanwhile, This, unbelievable as it may seem, is not Tony Todd's worst film with Shadow in the title. Seriously, the guy really needs a better agent and fast. Eye Candy: Natasha Alam shows T&A, Jolene Blalock offers quick butt My grade: D-

Honestly, one of the worst movies I've seen in years. Credit to James Marsters for being the only one in the movie who was even slightly believable. Jolene Blalock was especially bad in this film. The rest of the cast was pretty damn terrible as well, including horror vet Tony Todd. As for the premise, it was obvious from moment one that Marsters would be revealed as the "bad guy." The way the shadow monster was used was also terribly inconsistent from one scene to another. It's supposed to be afraid of and vulnerable to light, but first manifests on camera in a brightly lit medical lab, and later manifest in a brightly lit pool. Too many plot holes, inconsistencies, and downright terrible lines, combined with largely phoned-in awful performances by the cast, and horrendous directing combine to make this movie one of the least frightening, un-entertaining pieces of film fluff in recent years.

I didn't know anything about this movie before I started watching it. As it turned out, I was happy to find a well made thriller. Obviously it didn't have the Titanic (1997) budget but the filmmakers managed to achieve the necessary mood with what they had. The only disappointment was the evil spirit itself who looks like Disney's The Phantom Blot. In _The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)_ (qv) Jonathan Shields says that a good scary movie only needs haunting music, shadows that move in the darkness and so on, not a man dressed in a monkey suit. The menacing evil being should have kept to the shadows, up front it doesn't look very frightening. It has been claimed that this movie is a rip off of other movies. I haven't seen any of them so I'm judging this movie on its own merits - 8/10.

Could have been great, writing and directing destroyed this movie. Oh, I need to bring the network up to turn the power off... What's a network asks the writer? Someone break out the dictionary... a network is two or more computers says dictionary. So we have to wait until the second computer is running to bring that little network up, to turn the power off? Whats the function of that second computer? The writer should have consulted with at least one technical person. Idiot. Where is the front door of this hospital? Is this the worst sunrise scene ever filmed? Unfortunately, the first 15 minutes of the film were incredible, but dies a fast death from there.

...Than watch another minute of this movie. Wtf are they thinking? Even IF this gets semi-entertaining by the end... The dialog and performances (hah, performances) are so terrible it makes the movie unwatchable beyond the first 20 minutes. I have no respect for this movie, or its auteur writer/director. Somebody, please, give this guy a slinky to distract him before he gets money together for another one of his "visions." Blech. P.S. Sorry Marsters, you picked a BAD project to debut your "film" career. P.S.S IMDb is telling me I need to have more lines in my comment in order to post it. I thought I covered it all succinctly, but I guess not. Hmm, what to say? Got nothing. This movie just plain sucks, even for horror fans and Spike lovers. I'm out to go wax my shaft with a Brillo pad. It's that, or finish this movie :P

I'm not a big fan of the Horror genre, but I did really like this movie. As a big sci-fi fan I was attracted to this from the main actors. It was a bit predictable and cliché at points there were actual surprises. Check the extras after the movie. James Marsters is a very talented actor that I have had the pleasure to meet at a con. Very nice and personable. Tony Todd is brilliant, has been all over the genre scene both horror and sci-fi. Joline Blalock is very talented as well as gorgeous. The others in the cast did a good enough job, esp the swimming girl. Highly recommended for fans of the actors or of the horror genre.

I saw this movie for one and only reason that James Marsters is in it, and as I expected, the movie itself was quite bad. Actually no, the first 20 minutes were pretty good, while you still didn't know what was going on, and before you got a good look at the monster. And while the girls were still in their undies of course. But then it just went downhill. The acting was not great, but at least nothing as amateurish as in Saw. James Marsters was good as always(but then, he can never do wrong in my book:P), the black guys were scary, the girls were hot, and that's pretty much all that was required from them. The ending of the movie was promising to reach the all-time low, but then I think the director realized that, and opted for a genius solution. Yes, bring back the girls in undies. Explanation? Because the monster don't kill you if you're in your undies. That's right. And what happened to that black girl who didn't take off her skirt in time? Nothing good, that's for sure. Let this be a lesson to all you ladies out there. And at the very end you just gotta laugh. And if you see this movie with that easy-mind kind of attitude, then you'll mildly enjoy it. Better yet, watch it stoned. The first 20 minutes made me give this movie the first 2 stars; James Marsters pushed it to 4, and the semi-naked girls bumped it up to 7.