Puppet Master (also spelled The Puppet Master (1989) and Puppetmaster) is a 1989 horror film directed by David Schmoeller and written by Charles Band and Kenneth J. Hall.In the film, Irene Miracle, Matt Roe, and Kathryn O'Reilly play psychics who are plotted against by a former colleague using puppets controlled by an Egyptian curse. Originally planned for a summer 1989 theatrical release before being released on home video the following September, Puppet Master (1989) was rushed to a direct-to-video release on October 12, 1989, because Charles Band believed it would be more financially successful than a theatrical release. As a result of its popularity, the series has grown to include several spin-offs.
In 1939, at the Bodega Bay Inn in California, an aging puppeteer called André Toulon is finishing up his newest puppet, Jester, before bringing it to life. Two Nazi agents enter Toulon's chamber as Kahn cautions him. Toulon quietly puts all of the live puppets in a chest and conceals it in a wall panel recess. Toulon commits himself as the Nazis tear through the door. Professor Alex Whitaker was "contacted" by Neil Gallagher in a nightmare in which Neil and leeches appeared, Dana Hadley was "contacted" by a death foreshadowing, and Frank Forrester and Carissa Stamford were "contacted" by an unknown technique.
Dana has also discovered Toulon's "hiding location" and has informed the others, organizing a rendezvous at Neil's home, the Bodega Bay Inn. When they arrive, they learn Neil has a wife, Megan, and that he has also killed himself, leaving Megan with instructions to follow when the others come.
She gives them the body so they can pay their respects, and Dana sticks a long pin into Neil's body to make sure he is dead. The psychics get strange Neil visions while settling down. Dana riles Megan over dinner, leading her to leave, and Pinhead creeps out of Neil's coffin.
Megan is followed by Alex, who informs her about their past with her husband. Carissa, a psychometrist, can sense the emotional history of any thing just by touching it, Dana can read fortunes and find goods and people, and Alex can see into the future in his dreams.
During the course of his studies on alchemy, Neil found out, with Frank's assistance, that the Ancient Egyptians had devised a technique for reanimating lifeless figurines. This was a power that had previously been discovered by André Toulon, the last real alchemist. Dana and the others thought Neil had abandoned them and grabbed whatever Neil was looking for for himself due to Neil's lack of contact with the group for some time, and they are now going to take it and settle the score. That night, Pinhead attacks Theresa with a poker, fulfilling Dana's fate.
Meanwhile, Alex tends to Megan as the others return Gallagher to the coffin; as a consequence, she faints.
Because spells have been discovered to guard Alex and Dana's rooms, Blade proceeds to Carissa and Frank's, where they are enjoying an extremely loud sex session that is bothering Alex and Dana. As a third puppet, Underground and Leech Woman enter.
Carissa is fatally drilled by Tunneler while exploring the noise under the bed, and Leech Woman regurgitates leeches onto Frank, who is chained to the bed and drained of blood. Dana discovers Gallagher's body in her room after returning from a walk; Pinhead assaults her and breaks her leg as a consequence. She eventually kicks Pinhead off of her and makes her way to the elevator, where she is assaulted by Blade, who slices off her neck, fulfilling the prophesy she was told.
Megan wakes Alex up from his nightmares, showing him Toulon's notebook and informing him that Neil discovered Toulon's secret to reanimation. In their haste to flee, Alex sees Neil, and they arrive to discover Dana, Frank, and Carissa's corpses huddled around a dining room table with the just revived Neil.
Despite committing suicide, he exploited Toulon's techniques to reanimate himself and become immortal.
He discloses that he murdered Megan's parents and displays hatred with the puppets, brutally tossing Jester, now content to experiment with human puppets. The other puppets see this and descend upon Neil; Tunneler removes Neil's legs, Blade holds him down, Leech Woman regurgitates a leech into his mouth, and Pinhead ultimately snaps his neck. The following day, after seeing Alex depart, Megan summons Dana's pet dog Leroy to life as she ascends the stairs. The actors that played the Puppetmaster roles had a lot of skill amongst them. André Toulon was portrayed by William Hickey.
Alex Whitaker, the film's primary protagonist, was played by Paul Le Mat, an anthropology professor at Yale University with the power to see into the future. Dana Hadley, played by Irene Miracle, is a small-time carnival psychic who specializes in fortune reading and finding lost or misplaced items. Neil Gallagher, the film's major antagonist, is played by actor Jimmie F. Skaggs, who plays the eponymous Puppetmaster (1989), who orchestrates the killings of his former friends and coworkers at the hands of the lifelike puppets.
Megan Gallagher, portrayed by Robin Frates, is Neil's wife; her parents owned and maintained the Bodega Bay, which she inherited when they died and where she and Neil met for the first time. Frank Forrester, played by actor Matt Roe, is a psychic researcher at Pensa Research Inc (PRI) and Carissa's companion in sexual psychic readings.
Carissa Stamford, played by Kathryn O'Reilly, is a psychometrist who works for Pensa Research Inc. (PRI) and is Frank's partner. She frequently receives visions of people who have experienced sexual trauma in the past or couples who are being intimate with one another, but she is also able to reconstruct the emotional history of any object through touch.
Theresa Mews Small was the Gallaghers' housekeeper. Barbara Crampton portrayed a carnival lady.
Blade, Jester, Pinhead, Tunneler, Leech Woman, Shredder Khan, and Gengie are the names of the killer puppets.
Paramount Home Video released Puppetmaster (1989) on VHS on September 30, 1989.
On June 13th, 2000, Full Moon Home Video released the film on DVD for the first time. Wizard Entertainment released The Puppet Master (1989) on Blu-ray in July 2010, after the DVD click here release in March 2008. At the same time, Full Moon Features released a remastered DVD. Despite the fact that both the Killjoy series and the Puppetmaster series have subsequently generated further installments, Echo Bridge Home Entertainment published "Killjoy and Puppetmaster: The Complete Collections" in 2014 with the Killjoy series. Full Moon released both a Blu-ray and a limited-edition vintage VHS compilation on April 10, 2018, with the latter having just 3,000 copies created with the first 300 being signed and numbered by Charles Band. The film's weighted average rating is a 4/10, with a 43 percent acceptance rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
A useless take on the killer-doll trope, said TV Guide in a poor review.
The mood, music, and set designs were praised by a website, however the performances, poor storyline, and first act were condemned. Puppet Master isn't a terrific picture, but its heart is in the right place, and I've always been a major fan of the evil doll subgenre of horror, so the film's flaws are readily forgiven.
Despite its limitations, Puppetmaster (1989) emerges as one of the more entertaining films of the 'killer toy' subgenre, as reviewed by Wes of another website. Following its success, the film's cult reputation generated a multi-decade sequel series. Puppetmaster II was released in 1990, Puppet Master 4 was released in 1993, Puppet Master (1989) 5 was released in 1994, and Puppet Master: The Legacy was released in 1998. (2003).
Both the third picture, which was released in 1991 and was named Toulon's Revenge, and the fourth film, which was dubbed Retro Puppetmaster (1989), function as prequels (1999). The first installment in a ramshackle prequel trilogy, Puppet Master: Axis of Evil, was released in 2010, and was followed by Axis Rising (2012) and Axis Termination (2014). (2017). odahsreckedBlade: The Iron Cross, a Blade spin-off, was published in 2020. 2022 will see the premiere of a film about Retro's Doktor Death. In 2004, the Sci-Fi Channel presented Puppetmaster vs. Demonic Toys, a crossover with another Full Moon property, Demonic Toys. Full Moon announced a cooperation with indie gaming company 'October Games' in September 2021, with the goal of releasing an official Puppet Master game on Steam in late 2022.
In March 2009, it was said that Band would make a 3-D version of the first movie. Interesting information about the Puppet Master (1989)
In the punching portions of the movie, dwarf stuntwoman Cindy Sorensen was shown wearing fingerless gloves and a sweater sleeve to simulate Pinhead's fists; however, it was really her own fists that were employed in the action. It was a challenge for Cindy to keep her head down the whole while she was carrying the Pinhead puppet on her shoulders and giving out fake punches at the same time. When Leech Woman "coughs" up a leech, her mouth is made of foam latex, giving it a more flexible appearance.
Only three-quarters of the leech mechanism emerges from the puppet, and a simple camera cut gives the impression that a complete leech emerges from Leech Woman's mouth. The motel at Bodega Bay was a small, about the size of a refrigerator. When the filmmakers selected the ideal site, they suspended the model in mid-air and employed a variety of force perspective techniques to make the hotel seem to be there. Five people were needed to move the Blade puppet.
The movie was based on Dolls, an earlier film by Charles Band about toys that kill (1986).
In an interview with the horror movie website The Terror Trap in 1999, director David Schmoeller said that the reason he wasn't involved with the rest of the Puppetmaster series (except for a character credit) was because he didn't want to show that someone other than Full Moon CEO Band was behind the company's biggest franchise.
Schmoeller was never asked to record a director's commentary for the first "Puppetmaster (1989)" film when it was released on DVD. In the same interview, he said that Band owed him residuals.
The puppet Blade is based on one of David Schmoeller's favorite actors, Klaus Kinski. In his early designs of puppets, Charles Band sketched a six-armed Ninja with weaponry. This puppet is the inspiration for the puppet Six-Shooter in Puppetmaster III: Toulon's Revenge (1991). Film producer Band indicated in an interview that he would earn more money in the direct-to-video market than he would make in the theatrical market when the film was originally scheduled for release during the summer of 1989 and on home video in September 1989. In 2010, creator Band planned to rework the original film. Due to unfavorable feedback, the concept was abandoned and replaced with Puppet Master Axis of Evil.
The majority of the score for this movie is comprised of synthesizer arrangements of Pino Donaggio's music from The Tourist Trap (1979), a film with similar themes on which director David Schmoeller and producer Charles Band had previously collaborated. This score was used for this movie as well.
It is possible that Charles Band's time spent working for Empire Pictures was the seed that eventually grew into Puppet Master (1989). During the production of his film The Dungeonmaster (also known as Ragewar), which he worked on in 1984, he had a lot of fans approach him and tell him how much they liked the name of the picture. When he decided to develop a film on live puppets, he recalled how much great feedback he had gotten from The Dungeonmaster, which he had always been captivated with. He named the film Puppetmaster (1989) after it.
Blade is the only character whose attire does not change throughout the flicks. Blade is the only puppet that has appeared on all of the Puppet Master Movies' VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray covers. At the beginning of the movie, the puppet Blade runs about, and despite the fact that it does not possess lungs or any other internal organs, it has a labored breathing pattern and sounds out of breath. Furthermore, the panting, groaning, and moaning of the other puppets can be heard throughout the film. Despite the fact that they are all unable to converse vocally.