The 1989 horror film Puppetmaster was directed by David Schmoeller and written by Charles Band and Kenneth J. Hall. Paul Le Mat, Irene Miracle, Matt Roe, and Kathryn O'Reilly feature as psychics who are targeted by a former colleague, who uses puppets powered by an Egyptian spell. Puppet Master was supposed to come out in theaters in the summer of 1989 and then on home video the following September. However, Charles Band decided that a direct-to-video release on October 12, 1989 was more likely to make money than a theatrical release.It was very successful and has since gained a substantial cult following and franchise status.
In the year 1939, André Toulon, an experienced puppeteer, may be seen at the Bodega Bay Inn in California putting the finishing touches on his most recent masterpiece, Jester. Toulon is warned by Kahn, another live puppet, that two Nazi agents have arrived and are making their way to his chamber.
Toulon carefully puts all of the live puppets in a chest and conceals it in a slot in a wall panel. Toulon commits suicide as the Nazis smash the door down.
In the present day, Neil Gallagher "contacts" four psychics who were all previously acquainted with him: 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 reveals Toulon's "hiding location" to the others and arranges a rendezvous at Neil's Bodega Bay Inn. Upon arriving, they discover that Neil has a wife, Megan, and that he has also murdered himself, leaving instructions for Megan to follow when the others arrive. After she leaves, a large pin is inserted into Neil's body to ensure that the victim is indeed dead. As the psychics are getting settled in their rooms, they see different, confusing images of Neil. That night at dinner, Dana purposely upsets Megan, which makes her leave the table, and Pinhead, another animated doll, crawls 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 when he found, with Frank's aid, that the Ancient Egyptians had devised a means of reanimating lifeless figurines, a power that André Toulon, the last genuine alchemist, had also discovered.
As a result of Neil's lack of communication with the group for some time, Dana and the others assumed that he had abandoned them and taken whatever Neil was searching for for himself, and they are now going to take it and settle the score. That night, Dana's fate is fulfilled when Theresa, the housekeeper, responds to the fire and is struck with a poker by Pinhead. Megan passes out as a consequence of Alex's care for her as the others place Gallagher back in the coffin. In the meanwhile, the others return Gallagher to the casket.
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. As Carissa and Frank investigate the disturbance coming from under the bed, Tunneler kills Carissa by drilling her with a drill, and Leech Woman regurgitates leeches onto Frank as he is strapped to the bed and drained of blood. Frank is eventually killed. When Dana comes back to her room after taking a walk, she discovers the dead body of Gallagher there. Pinhead then attacks Dana, breaking her leg as a consequence of the attack. Pinhead pursues her, strangling and punching her until she manages to kick him off and crawl to the elevator, only to have her throat sliced by Blade, completing her fate. Alex has more nightmares, and Megan finally wakes him up by showing him Toulon's diary and telling him that Neil found Toulon's secret to coming back to life.
Alex sees Neil and rushes downstairs to flee, only to discover Dana, Frank, and Carissa's corpses seated around the dining table with the freshly revived Neil.
He says that he did kill himself, but he used Toulon's secrets to come back to life in an attempt to live forever.
He admits that he murdered Megan's parents and displays hatred for the puppets, brutally dumping Jester, now content to experiment with human puppets. When the other puppets see this, they attack Neil; Tunneler cuts off his legs, Blade holds him down, Leech Woman regurgitates a leech into his mouth, and Pinhead eventually breaks his neck. Megan sees Alex off the following day, and as she ascends the stairs, she brings Dana's toy dog Leroy to life. The actors that played the Puppetmaster (1989) roles had a lot of skill amongst them. André Toulon was portrayed by William Hickey. Alex Whitaker, the film's protagonist, was played by Paul Le Mat, an anthropology professor at Yale University with the power to dream of the future. Irene Miracle gives life to the character of Dana Hadley, an amateur fortune teller who specializes in locating missing or misplaced goods.
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. Jimmie F. Skaggs portrayed Neil Gallagher, the film's antagonist and eponymous Puppetmaster (1989).
Megan Gallagher, Neil's wife, inherited the Bodega Bay from her parents and met Neil there.
Frank Forrester, a psychic researcher with Pensa Research Inc (PRI) and Carissa's partner, was played by actor Matt Roe. They specialize in sexual psychic readings.
Carissa Stamford, portrayed by Kathryn O'Reilly, is a psychometrist with Pensa Research Inc (PRI) and Frank's partner. She often gets visions from former sexual trauma victims or couples in intimate relationships, but she can reconstruct the emotional history of any item by touch. Theresa, the Gallaghers' housekeeper, was Mews Small. Barbara Crampton portrayed a carnival visitor. Blade, Jester, Pinhead, Tunneler, Leech Woman, Shredder Khan, and Gengie are the killer puppets' names. On September 30, 1989, Paramount Home Video released Puppet Master (1989) on VHS. Full Moon Home Video released the film on DVD for the first time on June 13, 2000.
A Blu-ray of The Puppet Master (1989) was published by Wizard Entertainment in July 2010 after a release of the DVD in March 2008. Full Moon Features issued a remastered DVD at the same time.
Echo Bridge Home Entertainment published "Killjoy and Puppetmaster (1989): The Complete Collections" with the Killjoy series in 2014.
Full Moon released a Blu-ray and a limited-edition vintage VHS compilation on April 10, 2018, with the latter having only 3,000 copies made with the first 300 being signed and numbered by Charles Band.
The film has a weighted average rating of 4/10 on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 43 percent acceptance rating based on seven reviews. In its review, TV Guide called it "a worthless twist on the killer-doll motif." A website gave it a 3/5, praising the mood, music, and set designs but criticizing the performances, poor narrative, and first act. Although Puppet Master isn't a great film, its heart is in the right place, and I've always been a fan of demonic dolls in horror, so the film's flaws are easily overlooked.
Wes wrote a good review of the movie on another website. He said, "Despite its flaws, Puppet Master (1989) turns out to be one of the more enjoyable "killer toy" horror movies."
The film's status as a cult classic sparked a series that would last for decades. Puppet Master (1989) II (1990), Puppetmaster (1989) 4 (1993), Puppetmaster (1989) 5: The Final Chapter (1994), Curse of the Puppetmaster (1989) (1998), and Puppet Master (1989): The Legacy (2000) were the five sequels (2003).
Toulon's Revenge (1991) and Retro Puppet Master are prequels (1999). Puppetmaster: Axis of Evil (2010) was followed by Axis Rising (2012) and Axis Termination (2013). (2017). odahsrecked Blade: The Iron Cross, a spin-off centered on the puppet Blade, was published in 2020. In 2022, a second film, this one on Doktor Death (from Retro), will be released.In 2004, the Puppet Master crossover event Puppetmaster (1989) vs. Demonic Toys made its debut on the Sci-Fi Channel. This event was a collaboration with another Full Moon property called Demonic Toys.
Full Moon announced a collaboration with indie gaming firm "October Games" in September 2021 in order to release an official Puppet Master (1989) game on the Steam store by the end of 2022.
In March 2009, it was said that Charles Band would make a 3-D version of the first movie.
Trivia about Puppet Master
Cindy Sorensen, a dwarf stuntwoman, donned fingerless gloves and a sweater sleeve to simulate Pinhead's fists in the film's hitting sequences, but it was her hands that were utilized. The most challenging aspect of those sequences, according to Cindy, was keeping her head ducked the whole time while carrying the Pinhead puppet on her shoulders and throwing fake punches.
Leech Woman's mouth is composed of foam latex, which gives the mouth the appearance of being more flexible when she "coughs" up a leech. A simple camera cut gives the appearance that a whole leech bursts out of Leech Woman's mouth.
The motel at Bodega Bay was a scaled-down version that was about the size of a refrigerator when it was finished. When the filmmakers had selected a site that was just right, they suspended the model in the air and employed a variety of different combinations of force and perspective to make the hotel look as if it was truly there. 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).
In an interview conducted in 1999 by the horror movie website The Terror Trap, director David Schmoeller revealed the reason he was not involved with the rest of the Puppet Master series, other than receiving a character credit, was because he feared it would reveal that someone other than Full Moon CEO Band was responsible for the creation of Full Moon's most successful franchise. In the interview, Schmoeller made the admission.
When the first "Puppetmaster" film was released on DVD, Schmoeller was never invited to record a director's commentary for it. He also said that Band owed him residuals during the same interview.
David Schmoeller's favorite actor, Klaus Kinski, inspired the puppet Blade.
One of the first puppets conceived by Charles Band was a six-armed, armed Ninja. This puppet did not appear in the film, but it inspired the puppet Six-Shooter, who debuted in Puppetmaster III: Toulon's Revenge (1991).
Originally scheduled to be released in theaters in the summer of 1989 and on home video in September 1989, it was pushed back to October 12, 1989 as a direct-to-video release after producer Charles Band stated in an interview that he would make more money in the DTV market than in the theatrical market. The original film's director, Charles Band, wanted to remake the picture in 2010. Because of the negative response, the proposal was abandoned, and Puppetmaster Axis of Evil was formed in its place. Much of the soundtrack for this film is 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.
The beginnings of Puppetmaster (1989) may be traced back to Charles Band's tenure at Empire Pictures. Many fans approached him after seeing The Dungeonmaster (aka Ragewar), on which he worked in 1984, and told him how much they liked the moniker.When he made the decision to construct a film based on live puppets, he remembered how much positive feedback he had received from The Dungeonmaster, a film that he had always been attracted by. As a result, he wanted to create a film based on live puppets.
He named the film Puppetmaster after it. Blade is the only character who wears the same outfit in every movie. The VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray covers for The Puppetmaster Movies all show Blade, the only puppet to appear on all of them. Despite the fact that the puppet Blade check here lacks lungs (or any other internal organs), he breathes hard and sounds out of breath while sprinting at the start of the movie. The film's other puppets pant, groan, and moan. They can't talk.