Puppetmaster (1989) (also known as The Puppetmaster (1989) and Puppetmaster (1989)) is a 1989 horror film 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 plotted against by a former colleague, who uses puppets powered by an Egyptian spell to do so. Puppetmaster was initially scheduled for a theatrical release in the summer of 1989, followed by a release on home video in the September of the following year. However, the film was ultimately rescheduled for a direct-to-video release on October 12, 1989, because Charles Band believed that this would be more likely to be financially successful than the theatrical market. It was a huge hit, and it spawned a cult following and 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.
Two Nazi agents come and make their way to Toulon's chamber, while Kahn, a real puppet, cautions him.
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.
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 are all "contacted" by Neil Gallagher in the present day, all five of them previously being acquaintances. Neil lives near the Bodega Bay Inn, where Dana discovered Toulon's "hiding location," so they decide to meet there. They arrive to discover Neil has a wife, Megan, and has murdered himself, leaving instructions for her.
She leaves them with the body to pay her respects, and Dana stabs a long pin into Neil's corpse to confirm his death. The psychics get a series of strange glimpses of Neil as they relax into their quarters. Dana deliberately riles Megan over dinner, leading her to leave the table, and Pinhead, another animated doll, creeps out of Neil's coffin.
Alex follows Megan and explains their relationship to 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 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 concluded Neil had abandoned them and grabbed whatever Neil was looking for for himself due to his lack of contact with the group for some time, and they are now going to take it and settle the score.
That night, Theresa, the housekeeper, goes to put out a fire. Pinhead attacks her with a poker, which makes Dana's wish come true.
In the meanwhile, Alex tends to Megan as the others return Gallagher to the coffin; she faints as a result. 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.
When Carissa investigates a commotion coming from beneath the bed, Tunneler murders her by drilling into her face, and Leech Woman regurgitates leeches onto Frank, who is bound to the bed and has his blood drained. Dana discovers Gallagher's dead in her room after returning from a stroll, and Pinhead attacks her, breaking her leg.
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 is ultimately roused from his dreams by Megan, who gives him Toulon's notebook and informs him that Neil discovered Toulon's secret to reanimation.
Alex notices Neil in their attempt to run, and they come to find Dana, Frank, and Carissa's bodies clustered around a dining room table with the just resurrected Neil. His reason for his apparent suicide is that he used Toulon's secrets to reanimate himself in an effort to become immortal, but that he really committed 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 cast of Puppet Master (1989) was outstanding. William Hickey as André Toulon in the film. Alex Whitaker, the film's protagonist, is an anthropology professor at Yale University who can look into the future and see what could be.
Dana Hadley, played by Irene Miracle, is a small-time carnival psychic who specializes in fortune reading and retrieving lost/missing goods.
Jimmie F. Skaggs portrayed the role of Neil Gallagher, the antagonist of the movie and the eponymous Puppetmaster. Neil Gallagher is the one who is ultimately responsible for the deaths of many of the film's former coworkers and friends at the hands of the live-action puppets. Megan Gallagher, Neil's wife, was portrayed by Robin Frates; her parents owned and ran the Bodega Bay, which she inherited when they died and where she and Neil initially met. Matt Roe portrayed Frank Forrester, a psychic researcher at Pensa Research Inc (PRI) and Carissa's partner; the pair specializes 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 Mews Small was the Gallaghers' housekeeper. Barbara Crampton portrayed a carnival lady. Blade, Jester, Pinhead, Tunneler, Leech Woman, Shredder Khan, and Gengie are the killer puppets' names.
On September 30, 1989, Puppet Master was made available for purchase on VHS by Paramount Home Video. Full Moon Home Video released the film on DVD for the first time on June 13, 2000.
After first releasing the film on DVD in March 2008, Wizard Entertainment subsequently released The Puppetmaster (1989) on Blu-ray in July 2010, after the success of the film's initial release. At the same time, a remastered DVD was made available through Full link to info Moon Features.
Echo Bridge Home Entertainment released the "Killjoy and Puppet Master (1989): The Complete Collections" with the Killjoy series in 2014, however both series have subsequently produced new sequels.
Full Moon issued limited-edition Blu-ray and VHS sets on April 10, 2018, with the latter limited to 3,000 copies and the first 300 signed by Charles Band.
With an approval rating of 43% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film's weighted average rating is a 4/10. It was described negatively by TV Guide as "a useless take on the killer-doll theme." A website gave the film a 3/5 rating, praising the mood, music, and set designs but criticizing the performances, narrative, and opening act.
The review ended by saying, "Puppetmaster isn't what I'd call a great movie, but its heart is in the right place, and I've always been a big fan of the horror subgenre of evil dolls, so I can easily overlook the movie's flaws."
Despite its limitations, Puppet Master is one of the most fun "killer toy" horror flicks, said Wes. The movie's success as a cult movie led to a series that would last for decades. Then came Puppet Master (1989) II in 1990, Puppet Master 4 in 1993, Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter in 1994, Curse of the Puppet Master in 1998, and Puppetmaster (1989): The Legacy in 2002. (2003).
Toulon's Revenge (1991) and Retro Puppetmaster (1989) are prequels (1999). Puppetmaster (1989): 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 broadcasted Puppetmaster (1989) vs. Demonic Toys, a crossover with another Full Moon property, Demonic Toys. Full Moon announced a collaboration with indie gaming developer "October Games" in September 2021, with the goal of releasing an official Puppet Master (1989) game on the Steam store by the end of 2022. Band made the announcement in March 2009 that they will be remaking the first film in 3-D.
Puppet Master (1989) facts.
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.
Cindy said the hardest part was keeping her head down while holding the Pinhead doll and throwing fake blows.
Leech Woman's foam latex mouth seems flexible as she "coughs" up a leech.
A simple camera cut provides the impression that a complete leech emerges out of Leech Woman's mouth, despite the fact that only three quarters of the leech mechanism is visible. The motel at Bodega Bay was a tiny, the size of a refrigerator. When the filmmakers located the ideal site, they suspended the model in mid-air and employed force perspective to make the hotel seem to be present. 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).
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 Full Moon's most famous franchise.
Schmoeller was never asked to provide a director's commentary when the first "Puppetmaster" film was released on DVD. He said in the same interview that Charles Band still owed him residuals. David Schmoeller's favorite puppeteer, Klaus Kinski, inspired the puppet Blade.
Band drew a six-armed Ninja with firearms in his early sketches of puppets. In Puppetmaster III: Toulon's Revenge, the idea for the puppet Six-Shooter is found in this puppet (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 Charles 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 Puppet Master Axis of Evil was created. 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. Band's inspiration for Puppetmaster stems from his early days at Empire Pictures. In 1984, he worked on The Dungeonmaster (aka Ragewar), which many fans adored.
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.
Then, he just chose to call the movie Puppet Master. Blade is the only character whose costume does not change between films. Blade is the sole puppet to appear on the VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray covers of the Puppetmaster Films. At the start of the film, the puppet Blade, who lacks lungs and other internal organs, exhales loudly and sounds out of breath while sprinting.
In addition, the other puppets' panting, groaning, and moaning can be heard throughout the picture. Even though they are all unable to communicate verbally.