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Puppet Master
Puppet Master movie poster
Directed by	David Schmoeller
Produced by	Hope Perello Charles Band
Written by	Charles Band Kenneth J. Hall
Starring	Paul Le Mat William Hickey Irene Miracle
Music by	Richard Band
Cinematography	Sergio Salvati
Editing by	Thomas Meshelski
Distributed by	Full Moon Features
Release date(s)	October 12, 1989(1989-10-12)
Running time	90 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Followed by	Puppet Master II (1991)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Puppet Master is a horror film released in 1989 by newly-formed Full Moon Features. The film was rated R for strong graphic horror/fantasy violence, a strong sex scene with nudity, and strong language. The popular film would eventually spawn 8 sequels.

The film starts in 1939 with an old puppeteer named Andre Toulon putting the finishing touches on a living puppet called Jester. A living Japanese-looking puppet stares out of the window at Blade, another living puppet, as Blade scouts the grounds of the Bodega Bay Inn that Andre is staying at. Two Nazis get out of a car and head for Toulon's room but Blade beats them there and Andre puts Blade, Jester, An Indian Puppet, and the Japanese puppet into a chest, before hiding the chest in a wall panel. As the Nazis break down the door, Toulon shoots himself in the mouth with a pistol. The Oriental puppet is not seen for the rest of the movie nor is the Indian Puppet.

The film now cuts to fifty years later, 1989, with a psychic named Alex. Alex has a dream that there are leeches on his stomach. Seconds later, he dreams of a man that he recognizes putting a gun to a woman's head. The film cuts to Dana, another psychic, who has visions of being slashed across the throat with a knife. Carissa and Frank, two other psychics who are apparently lovers, are reading the mind of another woman when they get a call from Alex. Frank tells Alex that they also got a call from Dana, and the four psychics assess that the visions they've been having were sent from a former colleague, Neil Gallagher.

The psychics meet at the Bodega Bay Inn that Neil is staying at and meet Neil's wife, Megan, as well as the housekeeper Theresa. The psychics are skeptical that Neil took a wife but it is forgotten when Megan tells them that Neil shot himself. Theresa, Megan, Dana, Carissa, Frank, and Alex leave the body and Pinhead, another living puppet, jumps from the casket.

Later, Carissa has visions of Neil violently attacking a woman in an elevator. Dana warns Theresa to stay away from the fireplace and later, at dinner, Dana makes several remarks about Neil that causes Megan to leave the table. Alex goes after her and explains about the powers of he, Dana, Carissa, and Frank.

When night starts, Theresa goes near the fireplace and is murdered when Pinhead hits her with a poker. The psychics hear a scream and find Megan passed out nearby Neil's body that has been moved into a chair by someone. Carissa and Frank spend some intimate time together in one of the hotel rooms but two more living puppets, Tunneler and Ms. Leech, enter. Tunneler kills Carissa by drilling into her face and Ms. Leech vomits leeches onto Frank's body that suck his blood out. Meanwhile, Dana sits around with her strange, dead and preserved dog until she has her leg broken by Pinhead. Pinhead chases her and repeatedly strangles and punches her until she manages to knock him away, only to have her throat slashed by Blade, using his knife-hand.

Alex has recurring nightmares of Megan having a gun put to her head by Neil and the other psychics being found dead, but is eventually awoken by Megan who takes him into the room that Andre Toulon was in, and tells him that Neil found Andre's secret to bringing inanimate objects, such as puppets, to life. Alex has a vision and they go downstairs to find the dead bodies of the psychics sitting around a table. They are stopped by the newly brought-back-to-life Neil. He fights with Alex and beats him up, until Neil hurts Jester and the puppets revolt against him. They lock him in an elevator and murder him by having Tunneler drill into him, Pinhead push into his temples, Blade cut off his fingers, and finally Ms. Leech vomit a leech into his mouth.

The film cuts to days later with Alex leaving the hotel and Megan picking up Dana's dead and preserved dog, and she some how brings it to life . . .

• Paul Le Mat – Alex Whitaker
• William Hickey – Andre Toulon
• Irene Miracle – Dana Hadley
• Jimmie F. Skaggs – Neil Gallagher
• Robin Frates – Megan Gallagher
• Matt Roe – Frank Forrester
• Kathryn O'Reilly – Carissa Stamford
• Mews Small – Theresa
• Barbara Crampton – Woman at Carnival
• David Boyd – Man at Carnival
• Peter Frankland – Assassin #1
• Andrew Kimbrough – Assassin #2
• Ed Cook – Voice of Pinhead
• Linda Cook – Voice of Leech Woman
• Tim Dornberg – Voice of Tunneler
• Michael Laide – Voice of Jester
• Bert Rosario – Voice of Blade

• Pinhead
• Blade
• Leech Woman
• Jester
• Tunneler
• Oriental puppet
• Indian Puppet

• Retro Puppet Master
• Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge
• Puppet Wars 1: Curse of the Puppet Master (coming soon)
• Puppet Wars 2: Tomb of the Puppet Master (coming soon)
• Puppet Wars 3: Castle of the Puppet Master (coming soon)
• Puppet Master (film)
• Puppet Master 4
• Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter
• Curse of the Puppet Master
• Puppet Master II
• Puppet Master: The Legacy
• Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys

Puppet Master DVD box set

• There are puppets in the opening sequence of the movie that never appear again in the series. They can all be seen in Andre Toulon's room at the Bodega Bay Inn.
• The original designs for the puppets closely resembled the retro versions later featured in Retro Puppet Master.
• The hands of the Pinhead puppet were actually the hands of a woman.
• Later in the series, we learn that the souls of each puppet once belonged to friends of Andre Toulon that were killed by the Nazis.
• In The Movie CD release of this film, there was restored uncut footage of a longer sex scene and a longer death of Gallagher.

• Puppet Master at the Internet Movie Database
• Full Moon Direct (official site)
• Puppet Master Movies Fansite