I need at this point to clarify something. It has become clear to me that some readers confused The Puppet Master (released in 1989 and spawning several sequels including "retro puppet master") with The Puppet Masters based on a Robert Heinlein novel. OK totally different movies and as grade B and the Puppet Masters is it is nowhere near as ridiculous as a man who uses slugs to "reanimate" puppets with the souls of the deceased-a process he learned in Egypt. Is it me does it sound like somebody threw in a whole bunch of different horror movies into a blender and came out with that little gem (add a little frankenstein a dash of robert heinlein and a sound byte from the Shadow and then bake at 375). To add some "sexiness" to the story, one of the puppets is his deceased wife. Oh the romance of it all.
However I would like to point out that one of the original screenwriters of The Puppet Masters (Heinlein) has written about the exact process I was dicusssing (writers being inspired by crap). He calls this crap-plus-one. Essentially the idea is that young writers are intimidated by good work, but when they see crap they think "I can do better than that" thus aiming only slightly above crap. He points out that crap plus on is a very meager goal. He doesn't address the more interesting point that writers are actually threatened by other sucessful works. It makes me think that the writer I knew in college (Jim) was right when he said he didn't read anymore because it impacted upon his work. (Of course the title of his novel was, and I'm not kidding, Metamorphoses 2000-this would have been in 1995)
And now a moment about Jim. Jim was an older guy who I hooked up with new year's eve 1994-1995. The interesting thing here about Jim is that he had been in Playgirl's 1993 College Hunk Search. He was not at all one would except from such a search. Not hugely buff, and honestly owing to a diet of constant alcohol and pot he was virtually nonfunctional in the sex department. He was good looking, but hardly a hunk. So there you go ladies, I have lived the dream.