David Schmoeller directed and co-wrote the 1989 horror flick Puppetmaster (1989). Paul Le Mat, Irene Miracle, Matt Roe, and Kathryn O'Reilly feature as psychics who are plotted against by a former colleague using puppets powered by an Egyptian curse. Originally slated for a summer 1989 theatrical release, followed by a September 1990 home video release, Puppet Master (1989) was finally shifted to a direct-to-video release on October 12, 1989, since Charles Band believed this would be more lucrative than the theatrical market.It was a huge hit, and it spawned a franchise and a cult following. André Toulon, a veteran puppeteer, is putting the final touches on his latest creation, Jester, at the Bodega Bay Inn, California, in 1939.
Nazi spies arrive and make their way to Toulon's room, while Kahn, another real puppet, warns him to stay away.
Toulon carefully sets all of the living puppets inside of a chest, and then conceals the chest behind a compartment in the wall. Toulon hangs himself as Nazi soldiers tear through the door of the room they are in. In the present day, Neil Gallagher "contacts" four psychics who were previously acquaintances: Professor Alex Whitaker through a nightmare involving Neil and leeches, Dana Hadley through a premonition of her own death, and psychic researchers Frank Forrester and Carissa Stamford through unspecified means. Dana has also found Toulon's "hiding place." She tells the others and sets up a meeting at Neil's home, the Bodega Bay Inn.
They were taken aback when they arrived to discover that not only did Neil have a wife named Megan, but that he had also committed suicide, leaving behind instructions for Megan to follow in the event that the others arrived.
Dana stabs a long pin into Neil's corpse to check that he is really dead, and she leaves them with the body to pay respects.
The psychics get several conflicting images of Neil as they retire into their quarters. Dana riles Megan during dinner that night, forcing her to leave the table and Pinhead, another sentient doll, to climb out of Neil's coffin.
Alex pursues Megan and informs her about their relationship with her husband. Carissa, a psychometrist, can perceive an object's emotional past just by touching it, Dana can tell fortunes and find goods and people, and Alex himself can predict the future in his dreams.
Neil was studying alchemy, and with Frank's help, he found out that the Ancient Egyptians had made a way to bring dead figurines back to life. This was a power that André Toulon, the last true alchemist, also discovered.
However, since Neil had not spoken with them in a long time, Dana and the others assumed he had abandoned them and taken whatever he was searching for for himself, and they have here to take it and settle the score.
The housekeeper, Theresa, is attacked with a poker by Pinhead while tending to the fire that night, completing Dana's destiny.
Megan faints after seeing Gallagher's corpse on a chair; Alex attends to her as the others return the body to the coffin. Since it was discovered that Alex and Dana's rooms were shielded by spells, Blade moves on to Carissa and Frank's, where they are having a very loud sex session that is upsetting Alex and Dana. Blade's presence there is causing Alex and Dana to get agitated. As a third puppet, Underground and Leech Woman make their entrance.
When Carissa investigates a commotion coming from beneath the bed, Tunneler murders her by drilling into her face, while Leech Woman regurgitates leeches onto Frank, who is bound to the bed, draining his blood. Dana discovers Gallagher's corpse in her room after returning from a stroll, and she is assaulted by Pinhead, who fractures her leg. Pinhead pursues her and continuously tries to choke and pummel her until she finally manages to throw him away and crawl to the elevator, where she is met by Blade, who slits her neck, so completing her destiny and granting her riches.
Megan wakes Alex from his nightmares by showing him Toulon's notebook and telling him Neil unearthed Toulon's reanimation secret.
When Alex gets a vision of Neil, she and the others go downstairs to get away, but when they get there, they discover the dead corpses of Dana, Frank, and Carissa seated around the dining table with the freshly revived Neil. He says that, while committing suicide, he utilized Toulon's secrets to reanimate himself in an attempt to 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 Puppet Master roles had a lot of skill amongst them. André Toulon was portrayed by William Hickey. Alex Whitaker, the main character of the movie, was played by Paul Le Mat. He is an anthropology professor at Yale University who can dream about things that haven't happened yet.
Irene Miracle plays Dana Hadley, a small-time psychic who works at a fair and specializes in telling fortunes and finding lost or missing things. Neil Gallagher, the film's antagonist and namesake Puppetmaster, is responsible for the killings of many of the film's former colleagues and friends at the hands of the live-action puppets, as performed by Jimmie F. Skaggs.
Megan Gallagher, Neil's wife, inherited the Bodega Bay from her parents and met Neil there. In the movie "Psychic Readings," which was shown on ABC, the actor Matt Roe portrayed the role of Frank Forrester, who was a specialist in sexual psychic readings. Kathryn O'Reilly, a psychometrist at Pensa Research Inc. (PRI) and Frank's spouse, played the role of Carissa Stamford, a psychic who commonly sees victims of prior sexual trauma or couples having sex and who is able to recreate the emotional history of any object by touching it. Theresa, this is Mews Small, who worked for the Gallaghers as a cleaner for many years. Barbara Crampton participated in the carnival in some capacity.
The names of the murderous puppets that are used in the show are Blade, Jester, Pinhead, Tunneler, Leech Woman, Shredder Khan, and Gengie.
On September 30, 1989, Paramount Home Video released Puppet Master (1989) on VHS.
On June 13th, 2000, Full Moon Home Video released the film on DVD for the first time.
Wizard Entertainment published The Puppetmaster (1989) in March 2008, followed by a Blu-ray release in July 2010. A remastered DVD was also published by Full Moon Features at the same time. Along with the Killjoy series, Echo Bridge Home Entertainment published the "Killjoy and Puppetmaster (1989): The Complete Collections" in 2014, however both series have since spawned new sequels.
Full Moon released a Blu-ray and a limited-edition vintage VHS compilation on April 10, 2018, with the latter limited to 3,000 copies with the first 300 signed and numbered by Band.
The film has a 43 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on seven reviews and a weighted average rating of 4/10.
A useless take on the killer-doll trope, according to TV Guide.
A website gave it a 3/5, praising the atmosphere, music, and set design but criticizing the acting, the weak script, and the first act.
Puppetmaster (1989) isn't a terrific picture, but its heart is in the right place, and I've always loved the evil doll horror subgenre, so its flaws are readily forgiven. According to Wes, who writes on a different website, Puppetmaster (1989) is, despite its flaws, one of the most entertaining films in the "killer toy" subgenre of horror movies. The popularity of the movie inside a subculture served as the impetus for the creation of a series that would last for decades. The film was so successful that it spawned a total of five sequels: Puppet Master (1989) II (1990), Puppet Master (1989) 4 (1993), Puppet Master (1989) 5: The Final Chapter (1994), and Curse of the Puppet Master (1998). (2003).
Toulon's Revenge (1991) and Retro Puppetmaster (1989) are prequels (1999). Puppetmaster: Axis of Evil (2010) was followed by Axis Rising (2012) and Axis Termination (2013). (2017). odahsreckedBlade: The Iron Cross, a spin-off starring the puppet Blade, premiered in 2020. Another film, Doktor Death (from Retro), will be released in 2022.
In 2004, the Sci-Fi Channel presented Puppet Master (1989) vs. Demonic Toys, a crossover with another Full Moon property, Demonic Toys.
As of the month of September 2021, Full Moon has made the announcement that they would be working along with the independent gaming firm "October Games" in order to bring an official Puppetmaster (1989) game to the Steam store before to the year 2022's conclusion.
In March 2009, it was said that Charles Band would make a 3-D version of the first movie.
Puppetmaster (1989) facts.
Pinhead's fists are stuntwoman Cindy Sorensen's, who wore fingerless gloves and a sweater sleeve to make it seem like Pinhead's. It was a challenge for Cindy to keep her head down the whole while she was first article 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, which gives the impression that the mouth is more flexible than it really is. 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. Bodega Bay hotel was a refrigerator-sized miniature. The filmmakers hoisted the model in the air and employed force perspective to make the hotel look real.
To operate the Blade puppet, five puppeteers were required.
This film was inspired by the Charles Band picture Dolls, which is about killer dolls (1986). Director David Schmoeller admitted in a 1999 interview with horror movie website The Terror Trap that he was not involved with the rest of the Puppetmaster (1989) series, aside from a character credit, because it would reveal someone other than Full Moon CEO Charles Band was responsible for the creation of the company's biggest franchise.
Schmoeller was never asked to record a director's commentary for the first "Puppet Master" film when it was released on DVD. In the same interview, he said that Charles Band owed him residuals.
Klaus Kinski, one of David Schmoeller's favorites, is the inspiration for the puppet Blade. One of the first puppets Charles Band made was a Ninja with six arms and guns. This puppet didn't make it into the movie, but it was the model for Six-Shooter, who first appears in Puppet Master (1989) III: Toulon's Revenge (1991).
Originally set to hit cinemas in the summer of 1989 and home video in September, the film was moved back to October 12, 1989 as a direct-to-video release after producer Band indicated in an interview that he would earn more money in the DTV market than he would in the theatrical market. The original film's creator, Charles Band, planned to recreate it in 2010. Due to reaction, the project was discarded, and Puppetmaster (1989) Axis of Evil was born instead. The soundtrack for this film is mostly made up of synthesizer versions of Pino Donaggio's music from The Tourist Trap (1979), a film with similar themes on which director David Schmoeller and producer Band previously collaborated.
Charles Band's explanation for how he came up with the term Puppetmaster dates back to his early days of working with Empire Pictures. He says that the title was inspired by his time there. In 1984, he was a part of the production of a movie with the title The Dungeonmaster (also known as Ragewar), and he said that a lot of fans came up to him and told him how much they liked the title. When he intended to develop a movie about live puppets, he recalled The Dungeonmaster's excellent reception. He therefore opted to simply title the film Puppetmaster. In all of the films, Blade is the only one whose outfit doesn't alter. Blade is the sole puppet to appear on the VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray covers of the Puppetmaster (1989) Films.
The puppet Blade, who lacks lungs and other internal organs, exhales forcefully and sounds out of breath while sprinting at the opening of the film.
In addition, the other puppets can be heard panting, groaning, and moaning throughout the video. However, none of them are able to talk.