Puppetmaster (1989) horror review

Puppet Master (1989) is a 1989 horror film directed by David Schmoeller and written by Charles Band and Kenneth J. Hall. Irene Miracle, Matt Roe and Kathryn O'Reilly feature as psychics who are plotted against by a former colleague using puppets controlled by an Egyptian spell in the film. In the end, Charles Band came to the conclusion that a direct-to-video release of Puppetmaster on October 12th, 1989, would be more financially successful than a theatrical release of the film. Puppet Master was originally scheduled for distribution in theaters during the summer of 1989, before it was released on home video in September of that same year. It was a huge hit, and it spawned a cult following as well as a franchise.

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.

Two Nazi agents come and go to Toulon's chamber, while another live puppet, Kahn, cautions him. Toulon calmly puts all of the puppets that move into a chest and hides it behind a wall panel. Toulon kills himself as the Nazis break down the door. In the present day, Neil Gallagher "contacts" four psychics miles apart, all of them former 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 discovered Toulon's "hiding location" and informs the others, setting up a rendezvous with Neil at the Bodega Bay Inn. When they arrived, they learned that Neil had a wife named Megan and that he had also committed suicide, leaving behind instructions for Megan to carry out in the event that other people showed there.

A long pin is stabbed into Neil's corpse to make sure the victim is really dead after she departs. 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 accompanies Megan and tells her about their past together. By touching an object, Carissa, a psychologist, can see its emotional past; Dana, a psychic who can find things and people; and Alex, a man who has the ability to glimpse the future in his dreams, can do the same.

When Neil was studying alchemy under Frank's instruction, the last true alchemist of his day, André Toulon, discovered a way to reanimate inanimate figurines. But since Neil hadn't contacted them in a while, Dana and the others assumed he'd abandoned them and taken whatever he was searching for for himself, and they're here to settle the score.

That night, Theresa, the housekeeper, goes to the fire and is assaulted with a poker by Pinhead, therefore fulfilling Dana's fate.

Megan sees Gallagher's corpse on a chair, which causes her to pass out; Alex attends to her as the others return the body to the coffin.

After discovering protection charms in Alex and Dana's rooms, Blade proceeds to Carissa and Frank's, who are having extremely noisy sex and disturbing Alex and Dana's sleep. Tunneler and Leech Woman, two additional puppets, appear.

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.

Pinhead pursues her, strangling and punching her until she manages to kick him off and crawl to the elevator, only to have her neck sliced by Blade, completing her fate.

Alex is roused from his dreams by Megan, who then reveals to him that Toulon's notebook is in her possession and tells him that Neil has uncovered Toulon's secret to reanimation.

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 although he did commit himself, he reanimated himself using Toulon's secrets in an attempt to become eternal.

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 cast of Puppetmaster (1989) was quite excellent. William Hickey gave life to the role of André Toulon in this production.

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. Dana Hadley, played by Irene Miracle, is a small-time carnival psychic who specializes in fortune reading and finding lost/missing items.

Neil Gallagher, the film's antagonist and namesake Puppet Master, 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.

When her parents passed away, she acquired the Bodega Bay that had been owned and managed by her parents and was the place where she and Neil had their first date. The role of Megan Gallagher was played by actress Robin Frates.

An expert in sexual psychic readings, actor Matt Roe played Frank Forrester in the movie "Psychic Readings," which aired on ABC.

Kathryn O'Reilly portrayed Carissa Stamford, a psychometrist for PRI and Frank's colleague. She can recreate 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 killer puppets' names.

Paramount Home Video released Puppet Master on VHS on 9/30/89.

Full Moon Home Video released the film on DVD for the first time on June 13, 2000. Following a March 2008 release by Wizard Entertainment under the title The Puppet Master, Wizard released a Blu-ray in July 2010. Full Moon Features also issued a remastered DVD at the same time. Despite the fact that both the Killjoy series and the Puppetmaster series have subsequently generated further installments, Echo Bridge Home Entertainment published "Killjoy and Puppet Master (1989): The Complete Collections" in 2014 with the Killjoy series.

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.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 43 percent approval rating based on seven reviews, with a weighted average rating of 4/10.

According to TV Guide, the film is "a useless variant on the killer-doll theme." The mood, music, and set designs were praised by a website, however the performances, poor storyline, and first act were condemned. The fact that Puppet Master isn't a great movie doesn't change the fact that it has a good intention behind it, and the fact that I've always been a huge fan of evil dolls in horror movies makes it easy for me to overlook the film's flaws. Puppetmaster appears as one of the more entertaining of the 'killer toy' type horror flicks. Despite its limitations, Puppet Master (1989) emerges as one of the more enjoyable of the films in this subgenre. just updated — Wes, via another website The film's cult status spawned a long-running franchise. Puppet Master (1989) II (1990), Puppet Master 4 (1993), Puppetmaster (1989) 5: The Final Chapter (1994), Puppet Master (1989) Curse (1998), and Puppet Master (1989): The Legacy (1998) were the five sequels (2003). Toulon's Revenge (1991) is a prequel to Retro Puppet Master (1999). A loose prequel trilogy has started with Puppetmaster (1989): Axis of Evil (2010), Axis Rising (2012), and Axis Termination (2013). (2017). odahsrecked

Blade: 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 Puppetmaster (1989) vs. Demonic Toys, a crossover with another Full Moon property, Demonic Toys. Full Moon announced a deal with indie gaming company 'October Games' in September 2021 to create an official Puppetmaster (1989) game, which would be launched on Steam in late 2022. Band announced a 3-D remake of the original film in March 2009. Puppet Master (1989) trivia Pinhead's hands in the punching sequences are really the fists of dwarf stuntwoman Cindy Sorensen, who had to wear the same fingerless gloves and sweater sleeve to make it seem like it was Pinhead's fist. Cindy said the hardest part was keeping her head down while holding the Pinhead doll and throwing fake blows.

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 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 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.

Dolls, an earlier 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 Puppet Master 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 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.

David Schmoeller drew inspiration for the puppet Blade from one of his all-time favorite actors, Klaus Kinski.

A six-armed Ninja with firearms was one of Charles Band's early puppets. Although this puppet did not appear in the film, it served as inspiration for the puppet Six-Shooter, who first appeared in Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge (1991).

It was initially planned to be released into theaters in the summer of 1989 and onto home video in September 1989; however, it was then pushed to 12 October 1989 as a direct-to-video release, as the producer Charles Band had stated in an interview that he would make more money in the DTV field than he would in the theatrical market. This caused the release date to be pushed back to 12 October 1989. The original film was scheduled to be remade by its creator Charles Band in the year 2010. Because of the unfavorable reaction, the plan was abandoned, and in its place, Puppetmaster: Axis of Evil was created.

A lot of this movie's soundtrack is made up of synthesizer arrangements of Pino Donaggio's music from 1979's The Tourist Trap, which has similar themes and is directed by David Schmoeller and produced by Charles Band.

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. He's always been interested by miniature dolls/figurines coming to life, and when he decided to produce a film on living puppets, he recalled The Dungeonmaster's enthusiastic response.

He chose to name the film Puppet Master (1989) after it. In all of the films, Blade is the only one whose outfit doesn't alter. The VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray covers for The Puppet Master Movies all show Blade, the only puppet to appear on all of them. 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, other puppets may be heard panting, groaning, and moaning throughout the picture. Despite this, none of them is able to communicate.