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Thursday, October 9, 2025

The Ninth Night of Halloween

ON THE NINTH NIGHT OF HALLOWEEN I watched the 1994 adaptation of Robert Heinlein’s 1951 novel, The Puppet Masters. Although there had been previous instances of mind-control parasites in weird fiction, with the earliest (according to Stack Exchange) being “Brain Leeches” by Edward S. Mund in a 1935 issue of Astounding Stories, The Puppet Masters is really the master text for this sci fi horror micro-genre. And it would go on to inspire the most famous work of alien infiltration and imitation, 1957’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The novel established all standard components: intelligent slimy little creatures that attach themselves to the human nervous system to pilot us; a clandestine takeover of human society beginning in idyllic Rockwellian small town America and spreading to the highest echelons of power; and paranoia-inducing revelations involving secretly possessed characters. But it also includes a number of bizarre unrelated elements due to its retro-futuristic setting, including not only ray guns and flying cars but also various products of Heinlein’s personal hang-ups, like the universal adoption of temporary marriage contracts and the widespread use of sleep-cancelling drugs. 

The movie adaptation cuts all of the more idiosyncratic aspects of the novel but fails to replace them with anything but stale 90’s thriller cliches. The result is something that looks and feels like a cable TV-movie despite being a big budget theatrical release. After a relatively tense opening, it falls off a cliff into dull predictability. I did like the stunt casting of Donald Sutherland, Keith David, and Yaphet Kotto, though, all veterans of far, far better alien parasite movies.



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