Puppetmaster 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.
As a direct consequence of how well it has been received, the series has expanded to include a number of spin-offs.
At 1939, in the Bodega Bay Inn in California, an elderly puppeteer called André Toulon is finishing up his newest puppet, Jester, before bringing it to life. Nazi agents enter and move for Toulon's chamber as Kahn, another live puppet, tells him to stay away. Toulon carefully stores all of the live puppets in a chest and conceals it behind a wall panel. Toulon commits himself as the Nazis tear through the door. Professor Alex Whitaker is "contacted" by Neil Gallagher in the present day through a nightmare involving Neil and leeches, Dana Hadley via a premonition of her own death, and psychic researchers Frank Forrester and Carissa Stamford via unclear ways.
Dana has discovered Toulon's "hiding location" at the Bodega Bay Inn, so they schedule a meeting there. They were taken aback when they arrived to discover that not only did Neil have a wife named Megan, but that he had also committed suicide, leaving behind instructions for Megan to follow in the event that the others arrived.
After she leaves, a large pin is inserted into Neil's body to ensure the victim is really dead. 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. Megan is accompanied by Alex, who informs her about their history together. Carissa, a psychotherapist, can sense an object's emotional history by touching it; Dana, a clairvoyant who can discover items and people; and Alex, a guy who can see the future in his dreams, can do the same. Neil was studying alchemy, and with Frank's help, he found out that the Ancient Egyptians had made a way to bring dead figurines back to life. This was a power that André Toulon, the last true alchemist, also discovered.
But since Neil had not spoken with them in some time, Dana and the other members of the group came to the conclusion that he had given up on them and taken whatever it was he was searching for for himself. As a result, they have come to take it and settle the score. That night, while tending to the fire, Theresa, the housekeeper, is assaulted by Pinhead with a poker, sealing Dana's destiny.
Meanwhile, Alex tends to Megan as the others return Gallagher to the coffin; as a consequence, she faints.
After discovering defensive charms on Alex and Dana's rooms, Blade walks on to Carissa and Frank's, where they are having extremely noisy sex and disturbing Alex and Dana's sleep. Blade discovers protective spells on Alex and Dana's rooms. Tunneler and Leech Woman, two additional puppets, make their way through the door. Carissa is fatally drilled by Tunneler while exploring the disturbance emanating from 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 strikes and breaks her leg as a consequence. She eventually succeeds in kicking Pinhead off of her and making it to the elevator, where she is ambushed by Blade, who ultimately fulfills the prophesy that was given to her by slitting her throat with his blade. Megan jolts Alex up from his slumber by displaying him Toulon's notepad and informs him that Neil has figured out Toulon's reanimation formula.
In their haste to flee, Alex sees Neil, and they arrive to discover Dana, Frank, and Carissa's corpses huddled around a dining room table with the just revived Neil.
He says that although he did commit himself, he reanimated himself using Toulon's secrets in an attempt to become eternal.
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.
Puppet Master (1989)'s cast was impressive. Hickey portrayed 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, portrayed by Irene Miracle, is a small-time, carnival-based psychic who specializes in fortune-telling and retrieving lost/missing items.
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, 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.
Matt Roe, a specialist in sexual psychic readings, portrayed Frank Forrester in the ABC film "Psychic Readings." Carissa Stamford, a clairvoyant who regularly sees former sexual trauma victims or couples having sex and can recreate the emotional history of any object by touch, was played by Kathryn O'Reilly, a psychometrist at Pensa Research Inc (PRI) and Frank's partner. 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 names of the killer puppets. On September 30, 1989, Paramount Home Video released Puppet Master on VHS.
On June 13th, 2000, Full Moon Home Video released the film on DVD for the first time. Following the March 2008 release of The Puppet Master by Wizard Entertainment, a Blu-ray was released 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 (1989) series have subsequently generated further installments, Echo Bridge Home Entertainment published "Killjoy and Puppetmaster: The Complete Collections" in 2014 with the Killjoy series.
Full Moon issued limited-edition Blu-ray and VHS sets on April 10, Puppet Master movie review 2018, with the latter limited to 3,000 copies and the first 300 signed by Charles Band. The film has a 43 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on seven reviews, with a weighted average rating of 4/10.
A bad review was published in TV Guide, and they referred to it as "a useless variant on the killer-doll genre." A website gave it a score of three out of five stars, praising the atmosphere, the music, and the set designs, but it had negative things to say about the performances, the poor narrative, and the first act.
Puppet Master (1989) isn't what I would call a fantastic picture, but its heart is in the right place, and I've always been a major fan of the evil doll subgenre of horror, which makes the film's flaws readily tolerable.
Despite its limitations, Puppet Master (1989) is one of the most fun "killer toy" horror flicks, said Wes. The film's status as a cult classic sparked a series that would last for decades. Puppetmaster II (1990), Puppetmaster 4 (1993), Puppetmaster (1989) 5: The Final Chapter (1994), Curse of the Puppet Master (1998), and Puppet Master: The Legacy (2000) were the five sequels (2003).
Toulon's Revenge (1991), like Retro Puppet Master (1989), acts as a prequel (1999). After Puppet Master (1989): Axis of Evil (2010) and Axis Rising (2012) and Axis Termination (2013), a loose prequel trilogy has begun (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 fellow Full Moon series Demonic Toys.
In September of 2021, Full Moon made the announcement that they will be releasing an official Puppet Master video game in collaboration with the independent gaming company known as October Games. The game is expected to be available for purchase on the Steam platform sometime before the end of 2022. In March 2009, it was said that Charles Band would make a 3-D version of the first movie.
Fascinating facts about the Puppet Master (1989)
Pinhead's fists during the punching sequences are really those of dwarf stunt woman Cindy Sorensen, who had to wear the same fingerless gloves and sweater sleeve to make it seem like it was Pinhead's fist.
Cindy found it difficult to keep her head down the whole time she was holding the Pinhead puppet on her shoulders and throwing pretend blows. Leech Woman's mouth is constructed of foam latex, making it look more flexible whenever she "coughs" up a leech.
Despite the fact that only three quarters of the leech mechanism is visible, a simple camera cut gives the appearance that a whole leech emerges from Leech Woman's lips.
The motel at Bodega Bay was a tiny, about the size of a refrigerator. When the filmmakers discovered the ideal spot, they suspended the model in the air and employed permutations of force perspective to make the hotel look as if it were truly there. Five puppeteers were needed to control the Blade puppet. the Charles Band film Dolls, about murderous dolls, served as an inspiration for this film (1986).
In a 1999 interview with horror website The Terror Trap, film director David Schmoeller said that he was not interested in continuing Full Moon's most successful series, the Puppet Master, since it would have revealed someone other than Full Moon CEO Band as its inventor.
When the first "Puppet Master (1989)" movie was released on DVD, Schmoeller was never even asked to participate in a director's commentary for the film in any capacity. In the same interview, he also said that Charles Band owed him residuals even though they had stopped paying him.
David Schmoeller modelled Blade on one of his favorite performers, 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 Puppetmaster (1989) III: Toulon's Revenge (1991).
When the picture was initially intended for release in the summer of 1989 and on home video in September 1989, film producer Charles Band said in an interview that he would make more money in the direct-to-video business than he would in the theatrical market. In 2010, the original film's creator Charles Band planned to recreate it. Due to opposition, the project was shelved, and Puppet Master (1989) Axis of Evil was born in its place. The majority of this film's soundtrack consists of synthesizer versions of Pino Donaggio's music from 1979's The Tourist Trap, a film with comparable themes on which director David Schmoeller and producer Charles Band had previously collaborated.
Charles Band's explanation for how he came up with the term Puppet Master dates back to his early days of working with Empire Pictures. He says that the title was inspired by his time there. In 1984, he was a part of the production of a movie with the title The Dungeonmaster (also known as Ragewar), and he said that a lot of fans came up to him and told him how much they liked the title.He's always been interested by miniature dolls/figurines coming to life, and when he decided to produce a film about them, he recalled how much wonderful response he got from The Dungeonmaster.
He then just chose the title Puppetmaster for the picture. Blade is the only character whose costume remains the same from film to film.
Blade is the only puppet to feature on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray covers. Despite the fact that the puppet Blade lacks lungs (or any other internal organs), he breathes hard and sounds out of breath while sprinting at the start of the movie. In addition, during the whole of the image, you can hear the other puppets breathing heavily, groaning, and moaning. despite the fact that none of them are capable of spoken communication.