"Puppet Master: The Legacy" was actually released back in 2004, and it is actually the eighth film of the series, not the last one, but most people are still unaware of this sequel. It was definitely not the worst of the series either. The films from the second half of the series were not bad movies by any means, but could have been a lot better, and this sequel actually beats most of them, if not all of them.

This film begins with a lady who had finally retrieved the old diary of Andre Toolon, the puppet master, after hunting down everybody who might have it or know where it is, and even shot several people in the process, wanting to find Toolon's secret ancient recipe tha gave the puppets life, just to have the book suddenly burst into flames right when she got too close to reading the recipe. The last person left on her list was the boy Toolon once saved from Nazi Germany before coming to the United States, who is now an older man. She breaks into his house, carries a pistol down into his basement to find him down there with the puppets. She demands that secret formula straight up from the start and even strikes the man with her gun in the back of her head to show she means business.

The man tries explaining how it is not like a cooking recipe that could just be written down and handed out, and how there is a lot more to it, but only gets struck some more and even shot in the arms and legs a few times. He plays the only recordings he has from Toolon to prove what he is saying.

The recordings begin expalining what happened when Toolon first learned the ritual at making his original wooden puppets come alive as a young puppeteer. The screen flashes to the flashback of that scene in "Retro Puppet Master," as well as one of the other scenes where he physically fights to protect those puppets and their secrets.

The lady interrupts with a a very sarcastic and mocking, "And the puppet master lived happily ever after. Don't give me that crap."  The man tells her that he knows that is not how it ended and that he was not done yet.

He then covers when Toolon's marriage was destroyed by the Nazis shooting his wife to death for refusing to give up the secrets of those puppets. The screen displays flashbacks of that scene in "Puppet Master 3," as well as when a supposed "fellow puppeteer" curious about those puppets turned out to be an informer for the Nazis, reported them, causing that chaos. It also shows some of the awesome action scenes where a Nazi soldier picks up Pinhead to look at him, only to get strangled by that puppet and at the same time have Tunneller drill him to death; the "fellow puppeteer" getting strangled to death by the puppets to have Toolon standing above him, saying, "Farewell, fellow puppeteer"; and when they got the Nazi chief who killed Toolon's wife by sticking tethered hooks in his back then having Toolon pull the rope they're on, making that Nazi chief rise to the ceiling with those hooks stuck in his back, making him die a very slow and extremely painful death to avenge what he did to Toolon's wife.

The man explains how he never saw Toolon again after he brought him to America, following the incidents in "Puppet Master 3," but the lady does not believe him, stating how she knows about Toolon blowing his own head off to avoid being captured by the Nazis after they tracked him down, and how the puppets once murdered a hillbilly couple with the screen showing those certain scenes from the first two "Puppet Master" films, including the classic wild and intense scene where Torch set the fat hillbilly lady aflame.

The story continues with plenty more twists and turns with both the flashbacks from previous films and with what is presently happening in the film. It stays very interesting and intense all the way through with a little surprise at the end. The flashbacks only include a collection of the most awesome scenes from the other movies with the new footage looking overall good as well. The scene with the old diary bursting into flames at the beginning also has some neat cool looking graphics.

This film is recommended for fans of this series as they should get a lot of good memories as well. Even those who did not like the last few films of the series still might very well like this one.

Those not familiar with this series could also start with this film. It covers enough to give anybody the basic idea of that happened in the other films to whre they should understand this one easily.

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older