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Shadow Puppets (2007) More at IMDbPro »

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18 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
Intriguing and Suspenseful, 27 July 2007
7/10
Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A woman (Jolene Blalock) and a man (James Marsters) awake in individual white cells in an abandoned prison or mental institution wearing only underwear and without any memory. They hear a strange and creepy noise and decide to look for a way out of the facility. They meet six other strangers in the same situation and one of them is attacked and killed by a shadow. While trying to escape from the place and the shadow, they find the brain washing apparatus with the indication that had been used eight times. When they meet the ninth stranger, they realize that one of them is lying and knows what have happened with them.

In 1997, the outstanding "Cube" showed a situation of strangers trapped in a room without knowing how and the reason. The use of this concept was repeated in many other films, among them "Saw" and "House of 9". "Shadow Puppets" in this regard is not original, using the same idea of eight strangers without memory trapped in a facility. The noisy shadow is a rip-off of the smoke monster of "Lost". However, the story is intriguing and suspenseful, has a good twist, the actors and actresses leaded by Jolene Clalock, James Masters and Tony Todd have good performances and the special effects are also good. The resolution is reasonable, but the greatest flaw is that the characters should be naked to survive since the shadow could feel the clothes. But I liked this enjoyable movie. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Sombra" ("The Shadow")

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9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Underground in undies., 23 August 2007
7/10
Author: Boloxxxi from United States

What can I say? I'm a big fan of horror (as well as science fiction, and anything generally weird). If you too are a fan you will be entertained by this movie. It's a "trapped-and-hunted" movie which is a common enough plot idea, but the delivery had some originality and was very entertaining.

Basically, an unlikely mix of people (one's a nympho, for instance) wake up (separately) to find themselves in a cell in underwear with no knowledge of who they are or where they are except that they are captives of some sort. They are able to leave their cells and walk around and and in so doing eventually run into each other. There mission is of course to find out who they are, where they are, and generally: What the heck is going on!!!

I don't want to say anything more and ruin it for the rest of you. Suffice to say that you will be entertained, especially if you are into horror and sci-fi like I am. Finally, it's really hard to find a good scary horror movie these days, isn't it? Sometimes I think it's a lost art and nobody out there really knows how to scare the crap out of you anymore. In fairness, maybe it's harder to scare today's crowd who've been there, done that. I guess we've lost our innocence and the challenge for any moviemaker these days is to find the child in us and say- "Boo!" Love, Boloxxxi.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
I enjoyed it a lot, 4 October 2007
8/10
Author: the_rickker from United States

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.

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9 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Pretty good thriller, 29 July 2007
8/10
Author: Mattias Thuresson from Stockholm, Sweden

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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.

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10 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
I thought it was pretty good, 5 September 2007
7/10
Author: nodoubt-7 from Taiwan

I don't think it's fair that this movie got so many bad reviews. I mean, if you really want to see a bad movie, try those made by Cine Excel Entertainment. After having just seen "GiAnts" and "Magma: Earth's Molten Core," this movie is like a 9 on my list. The story was good and the acting wasn't all that bad. Again, if you really want to see bad acting, check out the above two titles. The only bad thing I would say about this film is the corny ending. It would have been better without the last two lines. I think the director made the best out of his budget and he definitely deserves more credit. I've seen a lot of trash films and believe me, this is not one of them.

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9 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Don't take this movie too seriously, and then you'll enjoy it., 16 July 2007
7/10
Author: gibzy7 from Canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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.

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10 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
It 's awful, 19 July 2007
1/10
Author: sdv30-1 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is one of the worst movies I have seen - and believe me I have seen my fair share of crap. The plot is horrendous and the dialog is laughably bad. The acting is in general bad, but for the most part, the actors do not have anything to work with in terms of script, and that is a valid excuse in this movie. On second thought, the one actor who really seems painfully wooden is Winnick, who probably got the role as the director's brother/cousin or something. For the rest, at least you can tell they are professional. The monster special effects are bad. The ending is ridiculous, with the sun coming up fast, so that the heroes can be saved. There was no suspense, and in the end I was hoping the stupid monster would kill and eat everyone and then die of indigestion. In order to see how the interesting scenario of waking up without memory was developed into a good movie a couple of years back, you can watch "Unknown" (2006). Just save your brain cells and skip this one.

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11 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Not entirely bad just not interesting enough, 18 July 2007
4/10
Author: brucev13 from Netherlands

"Shadow Puppets" is movie that has a great cast and a great premise! The biggest problem with this movie that it isn't thrilling! Not one moment you get scared! The ghost isn't threatening enough! The shadow ghost is an interesting concept! It is too bad that they didn't use this idea to it's full potential! But this is a problem the whole movie has! The lack of ambiance! It should be key in a movie like this! It could have been overlooked if they had put in some wonderful twist that would have explained the ghost and actually showed how this ghost was created! We do get some explanation on the situation! But by the time we do you couldn't care less because you were bored to death! The predictable story and the lack of thrills make this a movie that is not worth watching !

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32 out of 63 people found the following comment useful :-
"Saw" plus "Cube" plus "Some supernatural stuff" minus "Story" minus "Realy anything to say" = Shadow Puppets, 4 July 2007
1/10
Author: oalex-2 from Hungary

Don't waist your time.

I believe the writer, after seeing cube and saw, decided he would write and direct something similar. And to make things more interesting, would add some ghost stuff. Well i believe this idea sucks on its own (you don't just decide to "hey, Godfather was a hit, I think I'll make something likewise", and then start writing a story), but what makes this even worse is that Micheal (the writer) has no creativity. The story is dull and dumb. Period.

Suspense, yeah, for the first 10mins, cause you have to wonder whats going on. But once you are made to understand, you go "Oh my god,.... is that it???" and turn off the movie.

Its not exiting, its not trilling, and its definitely not worth any ones time.

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50 out of 99 people found the following comment useful :-
a treat for horror fans, 3 September 2006
7/10
Author: uhlili from United States

I was fortunate to see a special preview of Shadow Puppets. I don't want to give away anything but I will say this: The movie keeps you in suspense from beginning to end, has a believable script, unique special effects, an original premise, and many jump-out-of-your-seat moments. The soundtrack and unusual sound effects increase the terror-level in many scenes. Jolene Blalock and James Marsters are excellent but newcomer Mark Winnick is an actor to watch: he has the best lines and delivers them with adorable ingenuousness. I will definitely see this movie again when it is released in theaters, and look forward to more films by director Michael Winnick.

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