Charles Band's Puppetmaster (1989) horror review

The horror movie Puppetmaster (1989) was released in 1989 and was directed by David Schmoeller. The screenplay for the movie was written by Charles Band and Kenneth J. Hall. In the movie, Paul Le Mat, Irene Miracle, Matt Roe, and Kathryn O'Reilly play psychics who are the targets of an assassination attempt by a former coworker who uses puppets that are brought to life by an Egyptian enchantment. Originally slated for a summer 1989 theatrical release before being released on home video the following September, Puppetmaster (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. It attracted a big number of fans and has since grown a sizable cult following in addition to spawning a franchise.

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.

Toulon is warned by Kahn, another live puppet, that two Nazi agents have arrived and are making their way to his chamber. 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. Professor Alex Whitaker via a nightmare involving Neil and leeches, Dana Hadley via a premonition of her own death, and psychic researchers Frank Forrester and Carissa Stamford via unspecified means are all "contacted" by Neil Gallagher in the present day, all five of them previously being acquaintances.

Dana has also discovered the "hiding spot" of Toulon, and she informs the others of her discovery. She then arranges a rendezvous at the Bodega Bay Inn, where Neil dwells. They are startled to discover that Neil not only has a wife, Megan, but that he has also committed suicide, leaving instructions for Megan to follow when the others arrive. 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. Alex follows Megan and tells her about what happened between them and her husband. Carissa, who is a psychometrist, can see the emotional history of any object just by touching it. Dana can tell fortunes and find things and people, and Alex can see the future in his dreams.

Neil was doing research on alchemy and, with the assistance of Frank, learned that the Ancient Egyptians had devised a mechanism for reanimating lifeless figurines, a capability also discovered by André Toulon, the last real alchemist.

But, since Neil hadn't contacted them in a long time, Dana and the others assumed he'd abandoned them and taken whatever he was searching for for himself, and they're now coming to take it and settle the score. That night, while attending to the fire, Theresa the housekeeper is assaulted by Pinhead with a poker, fulfilling Dana's fate.

In the meanwhile, Alex tends to Megan as the others return Gallagher to the coffin; she faints as a result. After Blade finds protective spells in Alex and Dana's rooms, he goes to Carissa and Frank's, where they are having very loud sex and keeping Alex and Dana from sleeping. Tunneler and Leech Woman, two more puppets, walk in.

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. Eventually, she manages to kick Pinhead off of her and make it to the elevator, where she is attacked by Blade, who slashes out her neck, fulfilling the prophecy she was given.

Alex has more nightmares, and Megan ultimately wakes him up to show him Toulon's notebook and inform him that Neil discovered Toulon's secret to reanimation. Alex continues to suffer from nightmares.

Alex sees Neil, so they run downstairs to get away, but when they get there, Dana, Frank, and Carissa's dead bodies are sitting around the dining table with Neil. His reason for his apparent suicide is that he used Toulon's secrets to become reanimated in an effort to become immortal, but that he really committed suicide. He says this to cover up the fact that he did indeed kill himself.

He says he murdered Megan's parents and displays hatred for the puppets, forcefully discarding Jester. Tunneler cuts off Neil's legs, Blade holds him down, Leech Woman regurgitates a leech into his mouth, and Pinhead breaks his neck. The following day, Megan sees Alex off and brings Dana's pet 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, is an anthropology professor at Yale University who can look into the future and see what could be.

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, as performed by Jimmie F. Skaggs.

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 met Neil for the first time.

An expert in sexual psychic readings, actor Matt Roe played Frank Forrester in the movie "Psychic Readings," which aired on ABC. Carissa Stamford, portrayed by Kathryn O'Reilly, is a psychometrist with Pensa Research Inc (PRI) and Frank's partner. She often gets visions of former sexual trauma victims or romantic couples, but can reconstruct the emotional history of any item by touch. Theresa, the Gallagher's housekeeper, was Mews Small. Barbara Crampton portrayed a carnival goer.

Blade, Jester, Pinhead, Tunneler, Leech Woman, Shredder Khan, and Gengie are the names of the puppets that are responsible for the murders.

Paramount Home Video released Puppet Master on VHS on September 30, 1989. On June 13, 2000, Full Moon Home Video released the film on DVD for the first time. Following the March 2008 release of The Puppet Master (1989) by Wizard Entertainment, a Blu-ray was released in July 2010. Full Moon Features also issued a remastered DVD at the same time.

Along with the Killjoy series, Echo Bridge Home Entertainment published "Killjoy and Puppet Master: The Complete Collections" in 2014, however both series have since spawned further sequels.

On April 10, 2018, Full Moon released both a Blu-ray and a limited-edition vintage VHS collection. Only 3,000 of the latter were made, and Band signed and numbered the first 300.

The film has a weighted average rating of 4/10, with a 43 percent acceptance rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

TV Guide slammed it as "a useless variant on the killer-doll theme" in its review. The ambiance, music, and set design were all acclaimed, but the performances, bad script, and first act received harsh criticism.

Although Puppetmaster (1989) 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. Despite its limitations, Puppet Master emerges as one of the more pleasant of the 'killer toy' type horror flicks, according to Wes from another website. Following its success, the film's cult reputation generated a multi-decade sequel series. Puppet Master II was released in 1990, followed by Puppet Master (1989) 4 in 1993, Puppet Master (1989) 5 in 1994, and Puppet Master: The Legacy 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 Puppet Master, function as prequels (1999). The first installment in a ramshackle prequel trilogy, Puppet Master (1989): Axis of Evil, was released in 2010, and was followed by Axis Rising (2012) and Axis Termination (2014). (2017). odahsrecked Blade: The Iron Cross was published in 2020 as a spin-off centering on the puppet Blade. 2022 is the planned release date for another film, this one focusing on Doktor Death (from Retro). In 2004, the Sci-Fi Channel presented Puppetmaster (1989) vs. Demonic Toys, a crossover with another Full Moon property, Demonic Toys.

In September 2021, Full Moon and the independent game studio "October Games" announced that they would work together to make an official Puppet Master (1989) game. The game is set to come out on the Steam store in late 2022.

Band was said to be working on a 3-D remake of the original film back in March 2009. Interesting information about the Puppetmaster

Dwarf stuntwoman Cindy Sorensen wore fingerless gloves and a sweater sleeve to imitate Pinhead's fists in the film's punching scenes, but it was actually her fists that were used.

Cindy said that the most challenging aspect of these sequences was keeping her head down while holding the Pinhead puppet on her shoulders and while throwing fake blows.

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 blog is.

Only three-quarters of the leech mechanism emerges from the puppet, and then a simple camera cut produces the appearance that the full leech emerges from the mouth of Leech Woman.

The size of the hotel room in Bodega Bay was comparable to that of a refrigerator. As soon as the producers had decided on a location that would be appropriate for the scene, they used force perspective to make their model hotel seem as if it were standing in the real world. Five people were needed to move the Blade puppet.

Dolls, an earlier Charles Band production about lethal toys, served as inspiration for the film (1986). In a 1999 interview with horror website The Terror Trap, director David Schmoeller said he wasn't involved with the remainder of the Puppetmaster series, other than a character credit, since it would indicate someone other than Full Moon CEO Band created the concept.

When the first "Puppetmaster (1989)" movie came out on DVD, Schmoeller was never even asked to do a director's commentary. He also said in the same interview that Charles Band still owed him residuals.

David Schmoeller's favorite actor, Klaus Kinski, inspired the puppet Blade.

In his early designs of puppets, Band sketched a six-armed Ninja with weaponry. This puppet is the inspiration for the puppet Six-Shooter in Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge (1991).

Originally scheduled 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. In 2010, creator Charles Band planned to rework the original film. Due to harsh criticism, the project was shelved, and instead Puppetmaster (1989) Axis of Evil was created.

The Tourist Trap (1979), a film with similar themes on which director David Schmoeller and producer Band previously collaborated, provided the bulk of the soundtrack for this film, which is mostly synthesized versions of Pino Donaggio's music. Charles Band says that he got the idea for the title Puppetmaster from his early days working for Empire Pictures. In 1984, he worked on a movie called The Dungeonmaster (also known as Ragewar). He said that many fans told him they loved that title.

When he chose to make a film using live puppets, he remembered the positive reaction he had received from The Dungeonmaster, which he had always admired.

He called the movie Puppet Master. In all of the films, Blade is the only one whose outfit doesn't alter. Blade is the only puppet that has appeared on all of the Puppetmaster 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. During the whole movie, you can also hear the other puppets panting, grunting, and moaning. But none of them can really talk.