Puppet Master (1989) Revisited – Horror Movie Review

Last Updated on May 28, 2024

The Puppet Master episode of Best Horror Movie You Never Saw was Written by Cody Hamman, Narrated by Jason Hewlett, Edited by Paul Bookstaber, Produced by John Fallon and Tyler Nichols, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Counting all sequels, prequels, spin-offs, crossovers, and even a Fangoria reboot, there are over a dozen entries in the Puppet Master franchise. Which can make the idea of diving into it rather intimidating. Especially since some of the films don’t have a stellar reputation. But while the series has ups and downs, there are some great entries. And its legion of living puppets – which can be villains or heroes, depending on who’s pulling their strings – are characters you have to see in action. So we’re urging you to give at least some of these films a chance. Starting with the very first Puppet Master (watch it HERE)… which may be The Best Horror Movie You Never Saw.

Charles Band founded his production and distribution company Empire International Pictures in 1983. That company brought the world several classics – like Trancers, Re-Animator, and Robot Jox – but had a sadly short run before collapsing due to financial issues. Band lost Empire to the bank, but he didn’t let that slow him down. He quickly put together a new company, Full Moon (which has been known as Full Moon Entertainment, Full Moon Studios, Full Moon Productions, Full Moon Pictures, and Full Moon Features over the years). And since his Empire releases had proven to be more successful on home video than in theatres, he decided to cut theatres out of the equation. Full Moon would be a direct-to-video company… and he managed to secure a video distribution deal with a major studio. Paramount Pictures.

Empire had launched with a movie called The Dungeonmaster. An anthology film inspired by the likes of Tron and Dungeons and Dragons. Band really liked the title of that movie, and wanted to get Full Moon started with another film that had Master in its name. And that’s what led him to the basic concept of Puppet Master. Band has demonstrated a strong fondness for tiny terrors over the course of his career, producing many films about killer dolls and small monsters. Two popular examples are Ghoulies and Troll. So it makes a lot of sense that he chose to launch Full Moon with a killer puppet movie. Once he had the title Puppet Master in mind, he commissioned a poster that featured some potential puppet designs. Then he presented the title and poster art to writer and special effects artist Kenneth J. Hall, hiring him to flesh the idea out into a screenplay.

Hall’s script centered on a coven of witches and warlocks who learn that a long-lost associate of theirs has died. So they steal his coffin, take it to an abandoned hotel, and torment his girlfriend in an effort to find out what he has been up to. And they find out when his army of killer puppets starts knocking them off one-by-one. With a script in place, Band got in contact with director David Schmoeller, who he had previously worked with on the films Tourist Trap, Crawlspace, and Catacombs. Schmoeller agreed to direct Puppet Master under the condition that he be able to rewrite the script. Which he did on every project he directed.

The deal was made and Schmoeller reworked the story, using the pen name Joseph G. Collodi. The coven of witches became a group of people who all have some sort of psychic power. They were gathered together by a man named Neil Gallagher, who discovered that ancient Egyptians had found a way to give life to inanimate figures. The method was kept secret, revealed to only a select few over the centuries. Through their psychic abilities, they were able to find out that the last person who knew the secret was a puppet master. Andre Toulon. Who killed himself at the Bodega Bay Inn back in 1939 to keep the secret from falling into the hands of the Nazis. The group of psychics drifted apart while Gallagher continued trying to unearth the secret of life Toulon took to his grave. Years later, they all start having visions of Gallagher. So they convene at the Bodega Bay Inn to find that Gallagher has died. Leaving behind a young widow, who owns the old inn. The psychics settle in to try to figure out what Gallagher has been doing, and what he has learned about Toulon since they last spoke. Soon it becomes obvious that Gallagher did indeed learn how to bring inanimate figures to life. And he has set five living puppets loose in the inn. Puppets that have been ordered to kill his psychic friends. And yes, Gallagher’s knowledge of how to bring inanimate objects to life has also ensured that he will have eternal life himself. He’s not really dead after all.

To bring his version of the story to the screen, Schmoeller assembled a cast that includes Jimmie F. Skaggs as the villainous Neil Gallagher. Paul Le Mat as Alex Whitaker, who dreams of things to come. Irene Miracle as fortuneteller Dana Hadley. Matt Roe as Frank Forrester, who can pick up on people’s thoughts and dreams. Kathryn O’Reilly as Frank’s partner Carissa Stamford, who can tell you the history of any object she touches. Especially if it has a sexual history. Robin Frates as Gallagher’s widow Megan. And Mews Small as ill-fated housekeeper Theresa. Genre icon Barbara Crampton also makes a quick cameo as a customer at Dana’s carnival fortuneteller booth.

Puppet master Andre Toulon only appears in the film’s opening sequence, where he interacts with his puppets before committing suicide. Band was able to fill this role with Oscar nominee William Hickey, who earned his nomination for Prizzi’s Honor just a few years earlier. It took Hickey one day to complete his work on Puppet Master. In fact, he was only on set for a total of six hours.

When it was announced that Band would be producing a film called Puppet Master, some questioned if the idea was too similar to another movie he had made. The Empire production Dolls, directed by Re-Animator’s Stuart Gordon. Band told Fangoria magazine, “They are similar in the sense that they are about small, inanimate objects coming to life, but the stories are extremely different. I wanted to do a picture that did two things that Dolls didn’t. One, I wanted to have dolls, in this case puppets, that were actually villainous, dolls that were created by a twisted mind, dolls that you won’t be able to see anywhere else. Secondly, Puppet Master was inspired by an episode of the Karen Black TV movie Trilogy of Terror, where a Zuni fetish doll terrorizes her. It made quite an impression on me and on many other people who saw it. I wanted to capture a bit of that relentless terror. Dolls was a different kind of movie and didn’t delve into that. Puppet Master will.”

The special effects artist tasked with creating the puppets and bringing them to life was David Allen. Allen worked on many Charles Band productions, as well as movies like The Howling, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Willow, and Ghostbusters II. He earned an Oscar nomination for his work on Young Sherlock Holmes. Stop-motion animation was a specialty of his, which allowed Puppet Master to show off some incredible moments of the puppets moving on their own.

Some of the puppets featured on the concept poster and in Hall’s script didn’t make it into the film. While most of the excised puppets would turn up in sequels, the first movie features five killer puppets. They are Tunneler, who was designed to resemble fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The observant Jester, whose face spins to show different expressions. Leech Woman, who somehow kills her victims by simply regurgitating leeches onto them. The burly, small-headed Pinhead. Who Fangoria seemed to think would be the star of the show. And the puppet who did become the most popular of the bunch, Blade. Who has a knife for one hand and a hook for the other. Blade’s face was designed to look like a skull, but Schmoeller requested that he also resemble someone he had worked with before. The famously difficult actor Klaus Kinski, who had caused Schmoeller a lot of grief when they were making Crawlspace together.

Allen and his crew did mind-blowing work with the puppets. Which was necessary, since the puppets were the selling point. And when Puppet Master reached video store shelves on October 12, 1989, the movie-renting public showed they were very interested in seeing these little killers in action. The film was a huge success, selling out its first release. Band has said he made millions of dollars from Puppet Master. And while positive reviews would become increasingly rare as the franchise went on, this one got some solid write-ups. Including one from the legendary Joe Bob Briggs, who gave Puppet Master four stars. The highest number of stars you can get from Joe Bob. He said it was one of the best movies of 1989.

Band’s ambitious dream for Full Moon was that it would become the Marvel Comics of the ‘90s. And he would be the company’s Stan Lee figure. As he described in his memoir Confessions of a Puppetmaster, “Full Moon would be more than a studio. More than a brand. We’d be a universe unto itself: a vast, creepy, sci-fi-and-horror universe of interlocking franchises. Fans could either dip in for occasional stories or immerse themselves in the world. Crossovers. Multiple sequels. A video magazine at the end of each VHS tape, where I could talk to fans and let them look behind the scenes.” Long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was established, Band was using Marvel as his inspiration for the Full Moon Universe. And he has been able to keep that universe going well beyond the ‘90s. The budgets are lower and the home video market has changed drastically. But Full Moon endures, and it’s all built on the foundation of the successful release of Puppet Master.

The film has an off-kilter atmosphere, with the score composed by Richard Band perfectly matching its strangeness. The music in this has become iconic for Full Moon fans. The actors do well with the material they had to work with. But you won’t find many viewers who think Puppet Master has great characters. These aren’t people you get to know a whole lot about. And you certainly don’t come to care about them. Most of them aren’t very likeable. Frank is a sleaze, Carissa’s usually lost in her sexual visions. Dana is quirky and kind of fun, especially when she’s hanging out with her stuffed dog Leroy. Alex is a bland hero, but somehow so bland that it comes off as charming. The housekeeper Theresa is only around to be weirded out and then murdered. Neil Gallagher’s widow Megan barely registers as a character. And Gallagher himself is a total creep. Jimmie F. Skaggs doesn’t have a lot of screen time as the villain, but it’s enough time to make you hate his character.

But of course, what we’re really here to see are the puppets. And the movie doesn’t disappoint when it’s time to show them off. It does spend a while building up the mystery of what’s going on at the inn. The psychics not being able to figure out what Gallagher has been up to. But we know the puppets are present. Stalking the halls. Ready to kill. And once they start attacking, the movie is a fun ride of violence and oddness.

The puppets David Allen and his crew created are incredibly cool. They don’t speak, and yet the puppeteers were able to give them personality anyway. They each have their own special abilities. With his burly arms, Pinhead has the strength to carry weapons like fireplace pokers. And packs enough of a punch to daze a person. Tunneler has a spinning drill on his head. It’s clear to see why Blade became a genre icon, with his sharp limbs and skull-faced Kinski looks. Jester has never killed anyone in the entire franchise, but he’s important to have around. His expressions convey emotions for the whole group. It’s Leech Woman who’s the least popular of the puppets. Her ability to kill people just by puking leeches onto them never made much sense. And it’s really gross. This is a puppet that actually made more sense in the original script. The book Puppet Master Complete by Nat Brehmer revealed that Leech Woman didn’t puke leeches in Kenneth J. Hall’s draft of the script. Instead, she used a metal forked tongue to drain the blood from her victims. And since she was described as having a clear glass body, we would have been able to see her filling up with blood. But she was reworked into a leech puker. And turned out to be so unpopular, it was ordered that she be killed off in Puppet Master II. But that didn’t stop her from returning in more movies down the line.

The best scenes in Puppet Master are the ones that let us watch the puppets do their thing. Violently removing human characters from the film. As the story nears its conclusion and the details of Gallagher’s schemes are revealed, we also learn something important about the puppets. These are not evil beings. Their actions depend entirely on the puppet master they’re serving. As we see in the opening sequence with William Hickey, Andre Toulon was a kind old man. The puppets were good when they were under his control. But then Neil Gallagher became the puppet master and ordered them to kill his former associates. The puppets can be made to do bad things, but they don’t appreciate being fooled. When they realize Gallagher doesn’t care about them, they turn against their new puppet master. And Gallagher gets his comeuppance.

Puppet Master is a fun, creepy, well-paced film that introduces an awesome group of little killers. We get to watch them rack up a body count, and then it all wraps up in under ninety minutes. A perfect running time for this particular movie, but it also leaves you wanting to see more. Thirty years and multiple Puppet Master movies later, Full Moon fans still haven’t seen enough of these puppets. So seek out a copy of the first film and give it a chance. Meet Andre Toulon’s puppets… and you might want to continue hanging out with them through all of the follow-ups.

A couple previous episodes of the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw series can be seen below. To see more, and to check out some of our other shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!