Puppet Master

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Year:	1989
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	David Schmoeller
Genre:	When Dolls Attack!
Starring:	Paul Le Mat, William Hickey, Irene Miracle
Rating:	3/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098143/
Tagline:	Killers Come in All Sizes
Favourite line:	"....we are all joined by our thoughts."

Written by Charles Band, a man who has forged a career out of straight to video, low budget horror, a huge proportion of which deal with killer dolls of one form or another.
This is probably his most famous effort.

The plot:
It's 1939, and a master puppeteer, Andre Toulon, is applying the final coat of paint on his latest creation, a living puppet. Around him, other puppets appear animate. Suddenly, unwelcome arrivals: Nazi's. as the door is broken down, Toulon places a pistol in his mouth and pulls the trigger.
Present day, and a psychic sensitive begins to 'feel' things. Drawn to an old house in Bodega Bay, the psychic invites a motley collection of imbeciles along to help him figure out what secrets the house holds, little realising that the legend of the puppet master lives on and that, by meddling, they will be awakening forces they cannot possibly understand.
Muhahahahahaha.

Straight to video, this one, but don;t let that put you off.
as with the sequels, this has real charm.
The killer dolls themselves are great creations: Leech woman, Blade, Pinhead and co. putting their particular talents to murderous use in reasonably inventive style.
In terms of quality movie-making, well, don;t hold your breath, cos there's none of that here, but to expect that would be entirely missing the point.
Cheesy, and by God it knows it is, this is just about enjoying the ride and, truthfully, not thinking too hard about anything that is taking place as even the most cursory amount of scrutiny would spew forth a kidney bowl full of plot holes and logical flaws.
So forget all that.
Turn the lights out, lock the door, sit back and enjoy.
Just make sure you've locked away all the kids toys before you do.