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Crushed Skulls and Slashed Faces: The 7 Best Kill Scenes in the ‘Puppet Master’ Franchise

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With Full Moon’s Puppet Master series getting a reboot this summer courtesy of Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, it seemed like a great idea to revisit the original series of films and create a running tally of all the best death scenes.

Like I said, it seemed like a great idea.

Don’t get me wrong: I grew up on Full Moon movies and the original Puppet Master was a staple of my youth. I’m a fan. But the reality is that the deaths in the Puppet Master movies aren’t especially interesting. Unlike major mainstay franchises like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, these aren’t movies defined by their inventive kills scenes. The fans return for movie after movie (11 and counting as of this writing) for the weird little puppets, as each one only has one way to kill someone – and a few barely even have that. I’m looking at you, Jester.

That makes coming up with a list like this pretty challenging, though it hopefully won’t be the case forever: based on the little bit of early word I’ve heard, any one of the deaths in The Littlest Reich will outdo every kill in the first 11 movies combined. This gives us a lot to look forward to when the movie is released later this summer.

Without further ado, here are seven of the best kills from the Puppet Master franchise…


Neil Gallagher (Jimmy Skaggs), PUPPET MASTER

Here’s the thing about the Puppet Master movies: almost every really good death in the series comes at the end of each film, when the puppets inevitably team up and combine their powers to kill someone more evil than them. It’s how at least half of the entries end. I’m giving the advantage to the original because a) it was the first to use this conceit and b) it’s pretty gnarly.

Neil Gallagher, thought dead by suicide at the start of the movie, reveals himself to be reanimated thanks to the secrets of Andre Toulon, the O.G. Puppet Master. He resents the little bastards, though, and makes the fatal mistake of insulting them and tossing one (Pinhead) across a room and even popping off its tiny head. Well, that’s all it takes for the puppets to turn on his undead ass, joining forces and each taking a turn using their unique ability to tear him apart: Tunneler drills directly into his calf muscle, then Blade cuts his fingers off as he tries to escape. Pinhead, having put himself back together, begins crushing Gallagher’s head. Blade stabs his other hand and then hooks his mouth open so Leech Woman can begin puking up leeches right into his mouth (a weirdly inefficient way to kill someone) while Tunneler continues to drill into his neck. They mess him up so bad that his widow, who just learned that her husband is an evil genius who brought himself back from the dead and has ordered the deaths of all the other characters, begs them to stop.

What really earns this particular kill a spot on the list, though, is that it takes a really, really long time, which makes it all the more satisfying.


Billy the Annoying Kid (Sean Ryan), PUPPET MASTER II

The first sequel in the franchise introduced a new puppet, Torch, who has a German Stahlhelm for a head and a flamethrower for a hand. Torch won my heart when he loses his patience with an obnoxious 10-year old and sets him on fire. It’s the most transgressive moment in the entire Puppet Master series. For that, I love it.


Joey Carp (Michael Guerin), CURSE OF THE PUPPET MASTER

As the biggest douche across all 11 Puppet Master films, Joey Carp really, really deserves what he gets in the sixth movie in the franchise. After repeatedly bullying town simpleton Tank Winsley (Josh Green) and threatening/attempting to rape Tank’s girlfriend Jane (Emily Harrison), Joey is finally killed off during an intense weightlifting session. He’s mid-bench press when Blade hops on top of him and slashes his face over and over, while at the same time Tunneler drills into his crotch. Good riddance, Joey. Anyone as rapey as you deserves to have his dick drilled.


Dr. Gerde Ernst (Tonya Kay), PUPPET MASTER: AXIS TERMINATION

The most recent of the Full Moon Puppet Master movies (and the third and final entry in the “Axis” cycle of sequels) suffers from the same budgetary restrictions that have neutered much of the company’s current output. That means that despite Charles Band’s promise that this would be the goriest entry in the franchise, the kills in Axis Termination are just okay, lacking the resources to make them spectacular in any way. The best death in the film again comes at the end when the puppets turn on psychic Nazi Dr. Gerde Ernsti for betraying them. She’s basically gunned down by Bombshell and Blitzkrieg, which is fairly uninspired but at least executed with maximum splattery squibbage. What elevates her death is that immediately after she’s shot, Dr. Ivan Ivanov (a fixture within the Full Moon universe, here played by George Appleby) removes her soul from her body and permanently destroys it. That’s some cold shit.


Nazi Driver (Neil Parrow), PUPPET MASTER III

Widely considered to be the best film in the series, Puppet Master III jumps back 40 years to WWII and acts as a prequel in which we get to see how Andre Toulon (now played by Guy Rolfe) gave life to his puppet creations. The bloodiest, most memorable death in the movie comes once again at the drill of Tunneler, who drills into a car seat and through the chest of the German soldier driving like some kind of puppet Xenomorph. I suspect Tunneler is involved in most of the memorable deaths in the franchise because he’s the only puppet equipped with a weapon that does the kind of bodily damage we often want to see in horror movies.


Klaus (Aaron Riber), PUPPET MASTER: AXIS OF EVIL

I mean, at this point I’m really just trying to mix it up. Maybe Klaus’s death isn’t that impressive, but at least it departs from the others in that it doesn’t involve Tunneler’s drill or Blade’s knife. Klaus, the Nazi soldier we first meet at the opening of the original Puppet Master when he arrives at Toulon’s hotel moments after he commits suicide, returns for the ninth film (played by a different actor) in a larger role. He’s killed with a throwing star to the eye from new puppet Ninja, who thankfully only lasted this one film. Klaus then gets his skull crushed when Pinhead drops a big statue on it. I don’t know. At least it’s a little different.


Leech Woman (Leech Woman), PUPPET MASTER II

The most inexplicably strange of the evil puppets meets her end in just the second entry in the franchise when she’s thrown into a furnace and burned alive halfway through the movie. The exact reason for killing off Leech Woman – and again, it should be pointed out that this is a puppet that pukes up leeches – is the subject of some controversy. The sequel’s screenwriter has claimed he was told to kill her off by Charles Band, who didn’t like the character; Band has said that it came at the request of Paramount, who found the character too bizarrely grotesque for even their DTV killer puppet franchise. She didn’t stay sidelined too long, of course; she returned in flashback form just one movie later (where it’s revealed that the leech-puking puppet contains the soul of Toulon’s dead wife, making the puppet that much weirder) and in every Puppet Master after part 5. She makes this list because she was the first puppet to be killed off and because the story behind her demise is kind of funny. She was just too gross to live.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

LEPRECHAUN

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

LEPRECHAUN RETURNS sequel

Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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