It was a huge hit, and it spawned a cult following as well as a franchise.
André Toulon is putting the final touches on his newest puppet, Jester, in 1939 at the Bodega Bay Inn in California. Nazi agents enter and move for Toulon's chamber as Kahn, another live puppet, tells him to stay away.Toulon gently conceals the puppets in a chest behind a wall panel. Toulon commits suicide as Nazis break in. In the present day, Neil Gallagher "contacts" four psychics who live far away from each other. All five of them used to know each other: Professor Alex Whitaker had a dream about Neil and leeches, Dana Hadley had a vision of her own death, and psychic researchers Frank Forrester and Carissa Stamford were "contacted" by Neil in some way that wasn't clear.
Dana has also discovered Toulon's "hiding spot" and has informed the others, setting up a rendezvous at Neil's home, the Bodega Bay Inn.
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. After she leaves, a large pin is inserted into Neil's body to ensure that the victim is indeed dead.
While the psychics are getting comfortable into their quarters, they get a variety of unusual and often puzzling images of Neil. That evening, over dinner, Dana purposefully riles up Megan, which results in Megan getting up and leaving the table, which then allows Pinhead, another animated doll, to emerge from Neil's coffin. Alex pursues Megan and informs her about her husband's past. Carissa, a psychometrist, can read the emotional history of any thing just by touching it, Dana can tell fortunes and find goods and people, and Alex can see the future in his dreams. With Frank's aid, Neil found that Ancient Egyptians could reanimate lifeless statues, a skill previously revealed by the last genuine alchemist, André Toulon.
Dana and the others thought Neil had abandoned them and grabbed whatever Neil was looking for for himself due to Neil's lack of contact with the group for some time, and they are now going 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.
Gallagher's body moved to a chair, where Megan found it. This made her pass out, so Alex took care of her while the others put the body back in the casket. 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.
Upon investigating the commotion coming from beneath the bed, Carissa is fatally drilled by Tunneler, and Leech Woman regurgitates leeches onto Frank, who is bound to the bed and drained of blood. Gallagher's corpse is found by Dana in her room when she returns from a stroll; Pinhead attacks and fractures her leg as a result.
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.
Megan awakens Alex from his sleep by displaying him Toulon's diary and informs him that Neil uncovered Toulon's reanimation secret.
Alex sees Neil and they race downstairs to escape, but discover Dana, Frank, and Carissa dead at the table with Neil. He says that, while committing suicide, he utilized Toulon's secrets to reanimate himself in an attempt to become immortal.
He says that he killed Megan's parents and is disgusted by the puppets. He then violently throws Jester, happy to have Megan's parents as human puppets to play with. Neil's other puppets see this and attack him. Tunneler cuts off Neil's legs, and Blade holds him down while Leech Woman spits a leech into his mouth. Finally, Pinhead breaks Neil's neck. The next day, Megan sees Alex off, and as she goes up the stairs, she gives Dana's stuffed dog Leroy life.
The Puppet Master cast was quite skilled. William Hickey performed the role of André Toulon. 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.
Dana Hadley, the character that Irene Miracle portrays, is a small-time carnival psychic who specializes in fortune telling and retrieving lost or missing items.
Neil Gallagher, played by Jimmie F. Skaggs, is the film's principal antagonist, serving as the eponymous Puppetmaster (1989), arranging the murders of his former friends and coworkers at the hands of the animate puppets.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.
Frank Forrester, played by actor Matt Roe, is a psychic researcher at Pensa Research Inc (PRI) and Carissa's companion in sexual psychic readings. A psychometrist at Pensa Research Inc (PRI) and Frank's partner, Kathryn O'Reilly portrayed Carissa Stamford, a psychic who frequently sees previous sexual trauma victims or couples having sex and 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.
On September 30, 1989, Puppetmaster was made available for purchase on VHS by Paramount Home Video.
On June 13, 2000, Full Moon Home Video released the film on DVD for the first time. After the first release of The Puppetmaster (1989) by Wizard Entertainment in March 2008, the company subsequently issued a Blu-ray version of the film in July 2010. A remastered DVD was also made available by Full Moon Features at the same time. Along with the Killjoy series, Echo Bridge Home Entertainment released "Killjoy and Puppet Master: The Complete Collections" in 2014. Both series have since made more episodes, though. On April 10, 2018, Full Moon released both a Blu-ray and a limited-edition vintage VHS compilation, with the latter limited to 3,000 copies with Band signing and numbering the first 300. The film's weighted average rating is a 4/10, with a 43 percent acceptance rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
According to TV Guide, the film is "a useless variant 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.
Puppet Master (1989) isn't a terrific picture, but its heart is in the right place, and I've always been a tremendous fan of the evil doll subgenre of horror, so its flaws are readily forgiven, according to the review.
Another website's Wes said, "Despite its limitations, Puppet Master (1989) emerges as one of the more pleasant of the 'killer toy' type horror flicks."
The film's status as a cult classic spawned a multi-decade franchise. Puppetmaster (1989) II (1990), Puppetmaster 4 (1993), Puppetmaster 5: The Final Chapter (1994), Curse of the Puppetmaster (1998), and Puppetmaster (1989): The Legacy (1998) were the five sequels that followed (2003). Toulon's Revenge (1991), the third film, as well as Retro Puppet Master, serve as prequels (1999). A loose prequel trilogy started with Puppet Master (1989): Axis of Evil (2010), which was followed by Axis Rising (2012) and Axis Termination (2013). (2017). odahsrecked Blade: The Iron Cross, a spin-off centering on the puppet Blade, was published in 2020. Another film, Doktor Death (from Retro), is expected to be released in 2022. In 2004, the Sci-Fi Channel showed the first episode of Puppetmaster (1989) vs. Demonic Toys, which was a crossover with another Full Moon show called Demonic Toys.
Full Moon announced a collaboration with indie gaming company 'October Games' in September 2021 to create an official Puppet Master game, which would be launched on the Steam store in late 2022.
Band was said to be working on a 3-D remake of the original film in March 2009.
Interesting information on the Man Behind the Puppets
Pinhead's fists are stuntwoman Cindy Sorensen's, who wore fingerless gloves and a sweater sleeve to make it seem like Pinhead's. Cindy said that the most challenging aspect of the sequences was keeping her head ducked the whole time while simultaneously holding the Pinhead puppet on her shoulders and throwing fake punches.
Leech Woman's mouth is composed of foam latex, which gives the impression that she is more 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 check here model in mid-air and employed force perspective to make the hotel seem to be present.
Five puppeteers were needed to operate 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 Puppet Master (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 biggest franchise. When the original "Puppet Master (1989)" DVD came out, Schmoeller was never asked to contribute a director's commentary. In the same interview, he also said that Charles Band still owed him residual payments.
David Schmoeller's favorite actor, Klaus Kinski, inspired the puppet Blade. Charles Band envisioned an early six-armed Ninja puppet. This puppet didn't make the movie but inspired Six-Shooter in Puppet Master (1989) III: Toulon's Revenge (1991).
Originally slated to be released in cinemas in the summer of 1989 and on home video in September 1989, it was postponed to 12 October 1989 as a direct-to-video release because producer Charles Band said he would earn more money in the DTV business. Band, who made the first movie, was going to remake it in 2010. Because people didn't like the idea, it was thrown out and replaced with Puppet Master (1989): Axis of Evil.
Much of the soundtrack for this film is synthesized 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 Puppet Master (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. He has always been interested by little dolls/figurines that come to life, and when he intended to produce a film on living puppets, he recalled the good response to The Dungeonmaster.
After that, he made the easy decision to name the movie Puppet Master. Blade is the only character whose outfit does not vary between films.
The Puppetmaster (1989) Movies' VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray covers all feature Blade, the only puppet to appear on all of them.
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.