Death by Puppet: A ‘Puppet Master’ Series Retrospective
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From the late ‘80s to the early ‘90s, killer dolls were a trend in horror that I couldn’t get enough of. From Dolls, Childs Play, and even Dolly Dearest, I enjoyed them all to varying degrees. Which meant that Puppet Master, with its trunk full of evil puppets on the cover box, was an instant rental growing up. Like most in its sub-genre, the true stars of the film were the creepy, yet somehow endearing cast of killer puppets that spawned a very lengthy franchise; the ever so cool Blade, the terrifying Leech Woman, the sweet Jester, the brawny Pinhead, and deadly Tunneler. While other puppets would be brought into the fold, these five became the face of the franchise that propelled Charles Band’s Full Moon Productions into success after his previous film studio, Empire Pictures, collapsed.
Intended for theatrical release, Band realized Puppet Master would likely be more profitable with a straight-to-video release, an instinct that proved correct as it became massively popular on the home video market. The little indie film that could develope a huge cult following, and with an insane amount of merchandise, 10 sequels, a crossover with another Full Moon Entertaining series, and a reboot in the works.
As the series progressed, continuity was ignored and the timeline became muddied as the films jumped around in the increasingly complex narrative of puppet master Andre Toulon’s long history with Egyptian reanimation elixirs, his connection with his puppets, and his antagonist relationship with Nazis. None of that really matters though, because the reason fans return again and again is for the puppets. From villain to heroes, the murderous yet loyal puppets of Toulon’s are the most entertaining underdogs of horror. While we’re still eagerly awaiting Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, we look back at the extensive history of the Puppet Master franchise:
Puppet Master
The 1989 film that started it all; our introduction to the Bodega Bay Inn, our first meeting with the killer puppets, and a startling introduction to Andre Toulon in 1939 with the Nazis closing in. Though the rest of the film focuses on a group of psychics gathered together at the inn for the death of their friend Neil Gallagher, Toulon’s brief opening scene would ultimately provide the backbone of the franchise as the series’ hero. The featured puppets of Blade, Jester, Pinhead, Tunneler, and Leech Woman ruthlessly killed the unwitting psychics, but it set the tone that whether the puppets were good or bad ultimately depending on their master. In this instance, it meant the selfish and vengeful Gallagher, that stumbled upon Toulon’s secrets before death. Puppet Master also marked a notable cameo by Barbara Crampton, who is set to return to the series with a larger role in Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich.
Puppet Master II: His Unholy Creation
Released a year later, the first sequel also tends to remain at the top of the pack in terms of audience favorite. Picking up some time after the events of Puppet Master, where the film’s protagonist has since been committed to an asylum, this sequel follows the formula laid out before it. A new group of arrives to the Bodega Bay Inn, this time to investigate the events of the preceding films, before getting picked off one by one by the puppets. It also brings about the introduction to life-sized mannequins, which is sadly never again brought up again in the franchise. Blade, Jester, Pinhead, Tunneler, and Leech Woman all returned, and the sequel marked the introduction to Torch, a stylish killer with a flame-thrower for one arm. As cool as Torch is, especially his kill of a child that played too rough, he’s a puppet that didn’t return to the series very often.
Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge
The third entry, released in 1991, finally leaves the Bodega Bay Inn to travel back to 1941, during a World War II Berlin (never mind that this contradicts the opening scene in Puppet Master). It follows Andres Toulon’s satirical puppet show, which catches the attention of the Nazis, who then becomes obsessed with obtaining Toulon’s puppet animation secret. It erases the villainy of Toulon from the previous film, and gives more meaning behind Leech Woman- she’s injected with the essence of Toulon’s lost wife Elsa. This marks the first-time actor Guy Rolfe takes over as Andre Toulon, bringing with him an endless well of empathy. The core five puppets return, and Torch is swapped out for new puppet Six Shooter.
Puppet Master 4: The Demon
This 1993 sequel brings us back to the Bodega Bay Inn, for the silliest entry yet that’s pure ‘90s horror. If you don’t believe me, then see the scene where Tunneler and Pinhead play laser tag with their newest puppet master, Rick. Andres Toulon returns as a sort of Obi-Wan figure, guiding his puppets to accept a new master, and Rick in embracing the puppets and in overthrowing Sutekh’s demons. Who’s Sutekh? An angry demon from Hell that wants his stolen secrets back from Toulon. This marks the first sequel that doesn’t include Leech Woman among the core puppets, Six Shooter taking her place instead. The powerful new puppet introduced is terribly named Decapitron, who’s namesake comes from his interchanging heads.
Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter
The original intended ending to the franchise is a direct sequel to Puppet Master 4: The Demon, continuing Rick’s story as new puppet master. The surviving humans return, as does the demon Sutekh and his henchmen of cool Totem puppets. Though the lineup of good guy puppets is mostly the same, right down to the save-the-day Decapitron appearances, part 5 does mark the return of Torch. While cool, it does point out the weird continuity gaps the series tends to be fond of. Where was Torch during the events of the previous film? Once again, when a series is this fun, does it ultimately matter? Alas, being that this film was meant to conclude the series (and obviously didn’t), it does mark the end of the series as we know it. None really lived up to what we loved about the first five past this point.
Curse of the Puppet Master
With a few years between the “final” installment and this new sequel begins the franchise anew, forgetting almost everything that came before. Gone is the Bodega Bay Inn, and the puppet’s new master Rick. I don’t think the film even makes mention of Toulon himself. Instead, the puppets we know and love have been transported to a doll museum in some little town. Their new master is the terrible Dr. Magrew (who?). While Leech Woman returns to her rank among Blade, Pinhead, Jester, Tunneler, and Six Shooter, the puppets wind up playing second string to their own film in favor of a weird love triangle. It’s a terrible low in the series that can be ignored and avoided.
Retro Puppet Master
Are you a fan of midnight movie favorite The Room? The perhaps this Puppet Master sequel is for you, as it stars Greg Sestero as a young Andre Toulon. Framed as a sort of bedtime story that Andre Toulon (reprised by the great Guy Rolfe) tells his puppets of his very first batch of puppets, where he first learns of the secrets of life. So, while the core lineup was seen in the bookend story, most of the film is spent with a retro, wooden batch of puppets. Six Shooter, Blade, Pinhead, and Tunneler all had retro counterparts, and the film introduced retro puppets Doctor Death and Cyclops. This sequel is an improvement over the last sequel, but that’s not saying much. Continuity has always been super weird with this series, but if someone can explain why young Toulon (Sestero) suddenly developed a terrible French accent, I’m all ears.
Puppet Master: The Legacy
There’s no other explanation for this bizarre sequel other than perhaps an attempt to streamline the entire series into something more coherent and linear. Which is a super nice way of saying this sequel spends a lot of time on archival footage of previous films in attempt to link them all together in a fashion more befitting of a series that honors continuity, which this one doesn’t. The story is irrelevant this time, because it’s nearly all footage you’ve already seen with a small, maybe 10 minutes’ worth of new footage. I suppose if you need a not so great summary of the series, instead of watching them, you could start here.
Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys
This made for TV movie isn’t considered canon, but it is a vast improvement over The Legacy. Crossing over Puppet Master with other Full Moon film Demonic Toys, which was written by David S. Goyer (yes, the same one behind Batman Begins), Corey Feldman stars as Andre Toulon’s great-great-grandnephew Robert. Making for a horror-filled holiday movie set over Christmas, Robert becomes the new puppet master, and his good puppets are pitted against the demonic toys for one big rumble in the toy box. It’s total cheese, but it’s far more fun than the previous two entries. Which I suppose isn’t saying much.
Puppet Master: Axis of Evil and Puppet Master X: Axis Rising
These two prequel-sequels were released back to back, and are essentially just two halves of a whole. While Axis of Evil begins the tale of Toulon’s puppets versus Nazis, and an introduction to new puppet Ninja, Axis Rising brings Nazi puppets into the fold. So, think of this as the canon take on Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys. The battle of the plastic weight main event. The showdown ends how you expect, save for one little cliffhanger that leaves the door open…
Puppet Master: Axis Termination
The Axis trilogy comes to an end with yet another round of puppets versus Nazis and their evil Nazi puppets. It’s the first film of the franchise to have been crowdfunded, and as such Six Shooter was written into the script once the crowdfunding reached a certain level of donations. Blade’s hook hand was swapped out for a green filled syringe in homage to Re-Animator. Hyper-colorful, Axis Termination doesn’t look a lot like its predecessors, but from a story level, it’s more of what the previous two films offered. The series has come a long way from its origin, growing campier in its journey. Puppet versus puppet action is fun to a certain extent, but I can’t help but miss the tone of the original few films.
Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich
Between directors Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund (Wither), and a screenplay by S. Craig Zahler (Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99), this upcoming reboot promises to be downright brutal. Which sounds utterly fantastic. I miss the creep factor of the first film, and the more earnest approach to the little iconic, murderous puppets. The little glimpses revealed so far have hinted at a dramatically different Blade and Tunneler, as well as new puppets. I’m ok with this. I’m ready for a shakeup. As a fan who grew up with these films, there’s a level of nostalgia that keeps me attached, even when I’ve outgrown the direction they’ve taken. I can’t wait to see where this takes the puppets next.
College kids, strippers and vampires—those were Donald P. Borchers’ only requirements when he approached Richard Wenk about writing and directing a movie for New World Pictures. As requested, Wenk cooked up Vamp (1986), a tailor-made blend of the decade’s teen movie craze as well as its horror boom.
Grim and earnest stories were still very much a part of the ’80s horror landscape, yet Vamp is something of a comedy. One difference between it and, say, Saturday the 14th, though, is the former avoids using schtick. Wenk’s movie proves that horror comedies also don’t have to subtract thrills from their recipes. Of course, it takes a minute before reaching that point; college antics and culture shocks preface this one macabre misadventure.
Vamp‘s initial setup is apt for a typical college-set, sex-driven comedy; to bribe their way into a fraternity house, two pledges (Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler) go looking for some adult entertainment. Without wasting time on any further exposition, the characters embark on an all-in-one-night trip that quickly detours into terror.
To procure their elusive MacGuffin—a stripper willing to gyrate for some frat boys—Keith (Makepeace) and AJ (Rusler), plus a third wheel named Duncan (Gedee Watanabe), trade the safety of their remote college campus for the seediness of some unnamed city. The setting is recognizably L.A. by day, but as soon as night falls, downtown, along with the characters, slips into a kind of surreal universe. Director of photography Elliot Davis gave this early entry on his prolific résumé an unusual yet distinctive look; that Mario Bava-esque, magenta-green lighting is omnipresent, so much so that it’s almost its own character.
Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler in Vamp
The faint comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours are merited, although not just because of Vamp’s distinguishing nighttime aesthetic. Save for the primary characters, the supporting roles in Wenk’s movie are also quite colorful and transactional in their behavior. The difference here, though, is the additional urge to ruin Keith and his friends at every turn. Some of that harm is humorous and tolerable enough, whereas the moment Vamp dishes out its first fatality, it’s abundantly clear how this movie qualifies as horror.
Vamp falls into that category of horror movie that reveals its genre with a scream rather than a series of whispers. The opening scene can function as a hint of what lies ahead—things are not at all what they appear to be—but otherwise, Wenk is more than happy to hold off on the horror. When that time does come, though, it catches the viewer off guard. In addition to the pure shock value is that sudden decision to upend the movie’s foremost feature. Or so it would seem.
If afraid of major spoilage, those new to Vamp would be wise to stop reading here. There’s just no skirting around the fact that the central fellowship in this buddy movie hits a serious snag when AJ is killed. That development causes the story to become more of a “long, bad night” journey for Keith and his romantic interest. So while Wenk scores points for subverting expectations, there is also a touch of sadness in his decision. Because if Vamp does anything well, it’s making the characters likable.
Something that comes easily to Vamp—and other teen horror movies from this same era—is its ability to invent young characters worth caring about, or at the very least, are interesting and not so immediately off-putting. More impressive is how Wenk did all this without actually fleshing out those characters. Still and all, Keith and his kind are a grade above cookie-cutter, and in some cases, aren’t completely devoid of growth.
Grace Jones in Vamp
Vamp appeals with an assorted cast of characters. No two are the same, nor are they operating on the same wavelength. The cinematically extroverted AJ, whose actor conveyed charm and vulnerability in near equal amounts, comes alive when he’s at his most undead. Makepeace then makes the chronically cautious Keith a sympathetic fellow, even as he’s more and more affected by the night’s bizarre events. Meanwhile, Duncan is indeed the designated loser of the whole bunch, but Watanabe still manages to humanize him. As a bonus, the role didn’t require him to pull a Long Duk Dong.
As for Dedee Pfeiffer, she is plain adorable as the mysterious After Dark server nicknamed “Amaretto”. She spends all night fixing her dress strap while at the same time trying to get Keith to remember how he knows her. As their offbeat romance grows, it becomes another highlight of this movie. Whether or not Pfeiffer’s character is really a vampire also creates some welcome tension in the story.
Like a lot of its contemporaries, Vamp went on to become a bit of a cult classic. That current status is determined by several factors, but without a doubt, the casting of Grace Jones is the most considerable. The image of her writhing on that unique-looking chair, a Keith Haring original, springs to mind whenever this movie is brought up.
Chris Makepeace, Billy Drago and Paunita Nichols in Vamp
Prior to that first display of unequivocal horror, local vampire queen Katrina (Jones) took to the stage and delivered a strip show like no other. One would expect nothing less from that renowned model and performance artist. By now reports of Jones’ tardiness on set are no secret, yet it’s also hard to deny her commitment to the part of Katrina. It was, in fact, Jones who took charge of her character’s appearance—on top of Haring painting her body and that now-iconic chair, she had Andy Warhol handle her costuming. And not too many actors could seize a room’s attention without saying a single line of dialogue.
In 2022, Vamp received a retrospective novelization from Encyclopocalypse. This literary union of preexisting source material—Wenk’s original screenplay—and new ideas from author Christian Francis amounts to a more comprehensive visit to the After Dark Club. The basic story there is no different than what’s shown on screen; however, Francis gets creative with the characters’ origins and designs, and he enhances a number of key scenes.
The novelization expands on the urban and social decay of the main setting, and supplies a background for the After Dark Club. Sandy Baron’s character, Katrina’s emcee and familiar, is given ample motivation for sticking around; up until the fiery end, he is loyal to his friend and former business partner “Squeak”, who looks like he was “fed through a combine harvester, and left as nothing more than a heap of mangled remains”. Then there is Billy Drago’s character Snow, the leader of a street gang called The Dragons. His reason for menacing Keith and AJ is more altruistic than in the movie; he and his peers act tough to scare off any potential food for the vampires.
Lisa Lyon in Vamp
If not for all the backstories, Francis’ Vamp would be a hell of a lot shorter. Instead, this tie-in read dives into how AJ met Keith—the orphaned Anthony Joseph hailed from a broken home back in Brooklyn—and how their friendship flourished over the years. Keith’s archership is no longer just an assumed part of his entire being; it’s a confidence-building extracurricular for a boy who got picked on before coming into the protection of the new kid in town. These supplemental, in-depth looks at the protagonists, plus their close connection, are maybe unnecessary. The movie already did a fair and concise job of addressing their platonic intimacy without the need for flashbacks and insights, specifically in that scene where AJ lays it all out as he sacrifices himself.
Where the novelization gets off course is its approach to the minor characters. Intermittently backstorying the likes of Katrina’s indentured servants, Seko (Leila Hee Olsen) and Vlad (Brad Logan), ends up disturbing the flow of the writing. Was it absolutely essential that readers know Vlad was the Grand Duke of the House of Romanov, or how Snow’s accomplice Maven (Paunita Nichols) became so dentally challenged? No, not really. However, one’s mileage with these random biographies may vary.
The novelization is a more substantial experience, but for a movie like Vamp, less is more. And as plentiful as they are, it never simply coasts on its campy charms, either. The character work sits comfortably in that realm between cursory and meticulous, the script is sharper than first realized, and Greg Cannom’s vampire makeup is straightforward yet effective. Most of all, the movie didn’t squander its out-of-the-box concept. Richard Wenk made his vision of a “comic nightmare in which just about anything that can go wrong does” come true, and it is very enjoyable.
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