Puppet Master (franchise)

In 1902, an unconventionally immortal Egyptian named Afzel steals the secret of life from the god Sutekh. Sutekh sends several followers after Afzel, but none are successful in killing him and returning the spell. In Paris, Afzel is severely wounded and is sheltered by André Toulon. Afzel teaches Toulon Sutekh's spell, telling him when gods like Sutekh rise up one day, the secret of life will be the only thing to protect humanity. Toulon uses the secret to animate one of his puppets, Pinhead. Comfortable that the spell has been passed on, Afzel commits suicide in front of Sutekh's henchmen, making them believe Afzel has taken the magic to his grave. However, when Toulon uses the spell to animate a handful of other puppets, Cyclops, Drill Sergeant, Six Shooter, Blade and Doctor Death, Sutekh's henchmen return to Paris to slay the Puppet Master. While the puppets are successful in besting Sutekh's forces, two of them are resurrected to pursue Toulon. After the demons kidnap Toulon's love, Elsa, he confronts them on a train and battle ensues. Toulon and his puppets are successful in defeating their pursuers and rescuing Elsa.

A flashback scene from Puppet Master II (1991) takes place ten years later; Toulon and Elsa – now married - move their puppetry to Cairo and display a new puppet named “Mephisto”. In the audience is a magician who plans to recruit Toulon by secretly setting his theater ablaze and then acting as savior to the puppeteer and his wife. The magician reveals his own animated puppet (a chained Egyptian goblin puppet named “Homunculus”) brought to life using an elixir formula. (This event is first revealed in a flashback from Puppet Master II and later reinstated with archived footage in "Puppet Master: The Legacy." The integration of both "origins" for Toulon's powers over his puppets suggests that he, for reasons unaddressed, could no longer animate them with the Egyptian spell. Toulon would utilize this new, more sinister, method after he and Elsa fell under the hypnotic influence of this mysterious sorcerer).

To adjust the timeline, one could argue that this film takes place in 1941, because the Eastern Front conducted operation in summer of 1941. That would push Toulon's death back to 1945. In a small theater in Berlin during World War II, a middle-aged André and Elsa Toulon set up a politically satirical puppet show for children. It stars a six-armed American Old West puppet named Six Shooter, who attacks an inanimate reconstruction puppet of Adolf Hitler. There, they are soon discovered by a scientist named Dr. Hess, who is forced by the Nazis, especially his Gestapo liaison Major Kraus, to create a drug capable of animating corpses to use as living shields on the battlefield. The following day, Kraus, Hess, and squad of Nazi soldiers kill Elsa when she refuses to hand over the puppets and place André under arrest for the treason of insulting of the Führer. Toulon soon escapes with the assistance of Pinhead and Tunnler.

Toulon returns to his theater and finds that the stage has been burnt by the Nazis. Luckily, he finds Six Shooter and Jester within the rubble. He sets up camp in a partially destroyed hospital. There he decides to seek revenge and places his wife's life essence into a doll that resembles her (Leech Woman). With the use of his puppets, Toulon hunts down the soldiers that are responsible for his wife's death and befriends two refugees: a boy named Peter Hertz and his father. After Six Shooter loses an arm while assassinating General Müller, the supervisor of the Nazi reanimation project, Peter volunteers to go to Toulon's old atelier to look for a replacement arm. He is soon caught by Dr. Hess, who asks the boy to take him to Toulon. Dr. Hess and Toulon become friends, but their friendship is soon cut short when Kraus and his soldiers storm the ruins. It is revealed that Peter's father betrayed Toulon in exchange for a pardon for his family. Dr. Hess and Mr. Hertz are killed, while Toulon and Peter escape with the help of the puppets.

That night, Major Kraus returns to his office, only to fall prey to an ambush by Toulon and his puppets, now joined by Blade, infused with Hess' essence. Toulon takes terrible revenge on Kraus by impaling him on sharp hooks and hanging him from the ceiling. Toulon plants a halberd from Kraus' office point up, then lights the support rope on fire. The rope eventually snaps and Kraus falls fatally onto the halberd. The film ends with Toulon, posing as Kraus, and Peter leaving the country for Geneva on the express train.

The prologue and epilogue scenes from Retro Puppet Master follow immediately after this film chronologically. After reuniting Peter Hertz with relatives, Toulon continues his travels to the Swiss border, taking shelter at an inn, where he tells his puppets the story of Afzel and of his original puppets. That film ends with Toulon promising to his puppets that he will one day tell them the outcome of the original puppets.

Continuing to hide from the Nazis in the United States, Toulon takes shelter at the Bodega Bay Inn in Bodega Bay, California. The Gestapo, however, have traced his location and two soldiers are sent to the hotel to capture him. Toulon hides his chest containing his puppets inside a wall panel and commits suicide before the spies can infiltrate his room. Bodega Bay employee Danny Coogan discovers Toulon's body, along with his trunk of puppets, and begins taking care of them and, eventually, their secret. Coogan becomes jealous when his girlfriend, who also knows the puppets are alive, flirts with a man Coogan recognizes as one of the Gestapo. Coogan discovers the Gestapo are involved in a plan to bomb the United States, and with the puppets' help, Coogan resolves to stop them. He creates a new puppet "Ninja" to aid the others in battle.

After foiling a plot to blow up an American arms plant, Danny Coogan and his girlfriend, Beth, quickly find that their troubles have just begun. One of Toulon's mysterious puppets has been taken by the Nazis, and under the wicked, watchful eye of the occultist Commandant Moebius, the puppets' life-giving serum is synthesized to create a master race of unstoppable soldiers. Moebius plots to assassinate the highly decorated General Porter to deliver a crippling blow to the American war effort, but his experiments are not ready. A Nazi Scientist uses the serum to create his own superior race of Nazi Puppets in the form of Blitzkrieg, Wehrmacht, Bombshell and Kamikaze! Danny and Beth, teamed with craggy Sergeant Stone and Toulon's puppets, are no match for Moebius and his war machine. It is up to Blade, Pinhead, Leech Woman and Jester to revive their own secret weapon to stop the Axis Rising.

In this final chapter of the Axis Saga, Blade, Pinhead, Tunneler, Jester, Six Shooter, and Leech Woman join forces with a secret team of Allied Operatives—all masters of psychic powers—as they face off together against a new group of evil Nazi adversaries and their collection of vicious Axis Puppets in a showdown that will decide the future of the free world.

An unspeakable evil from Blade's past emerges in the form of a murderous Nazi scientist named Dr. Hauser. As Hauser's heinous crimes are discovered, the psychic war journalist, Elisa Ivanov, awakens Blade, and together the bloody journey of revenge begins. It is Herr Hauser's reanimated undead army versus a possessed doll and a beautiful vengeance-seeking clairvoyant.

In 1989, four psychics each receive unsettling visions, which they conclude have been sent by a former colleague, Neil Gallagher. The group meets at the Bodega Bay Inn where Gallagher has been staying, and before long they are introduced to Gallagher's wife, Megan. The psychics are skeptical that Gallagher had ever been wed, but this is forgotten when Megan reveals that he has recently committed suicide. Toulon's puppets, now out and about, proceed to murder everyone in the hotel until only the psychic Alex Whitaker and Megan remain. It is then that Gallagher, alive, confronts the two survivors. Gallagher explains that while he did die, he used Toulon's formula to give himself eternal life. However, when Gallagher mistreats the puppet Jester, the others revolt against him, locking him in an elevator and mercilessly killing him. Whitaker returns home. Megan, now alone, is shown picking up Dana's taxidermic dog. The dog becomes animated, indicating that she too has learned Toulon's method.

The film begins a year later when the puppets visit the Shady Oaks cemetery, recover Toulon's corpse, and reanimate it using the last of the Egyptian's elixir. With Toulon alive, the puppets hope that he can brew a new elixir to keep them sustained. Toulon humbly pursues the formula, but to do so, his puppets are required to continue killing, as blood and brain tissue are the key ingredients. After slaying the Bodega Bay Inn's owner, Megan Gallagher, Toulon unofficially takes ownership of the hotel. A group of parapsychologists come to investigate the murder of the hotel's owner as well as the rantings of Alex Whitaker, who has gone insane since his visit to the hotel. It is during this time that Toulon designs his latest puppet, Torch. After seeing one of the investigators, Carolyn Bramwell, Toulon is reminded of his wife Elsa, who has a striking resemblance to Bramwell. Uncharacteristically, he abandons the plan to help his puppets and instead looks for a way to unite with the woman whom he believes is his reincarnated wife. Toulon plans to house his soul and Bramwell's in two life-sized mannequins. He uses a combination of the elixir and a magic spell to place his soul into one mannequin, but before Bramwell's soul can be transferred into the other mannequin, her love interest, Michael Kenney, rescues her. The puppets, both angry and ashamed that their master abandoned them, decide to kill him once again. They use the remaining elixir and mannequin to resurrect one of their victims, Michael's mother, Camille. However, Camille takes on a sadistic personality and has the puppets locked away, except for Torch, who shares her disgust for children. It is suggested that Camille uses the puppets to terrorize institutionalized children.

After the events of Puppet Master II, the puppets are somehow returned to the Bodega Bay Inn and the whereabouts of Camille are unknown. In 1993, a student scientist named Rick Myers works as caretaker at the hotel and discovers the puppets. It is now that the god Sutekh makes a second attempt to suppress the secret of animation. Sutekh has three tribal demon puppets called Totems, spiritually linked to demonic minions of his own, sent to Earth. Their goal is to hunt down key personnel in the Omega Project, an organization also attempting to create life in inanimate objects. Myers' girlfriend, Susie, pays a visit to the Bodega Bay Inn, along with her friends Cameron and Lauren. Unknown to Susie, both Myers and Cameron are previously acquainted, as they are both members of the Omega Project. Lauren, a clairvoyant, leads the group to the trunk containing Toulon's puppets and diaries. Myers learns to inject the puppets with elixir to reanimate them. The puppets befriend the group, and protect them when the Totems arrive to kill Myers and his friends. Toulon's spirit, at ease since his puppets slew him over his treachery, returns to guide the puppets. Toulon helps them to activate his unfinished puppet, Decapitron, using an electric current combined with the elixir. Decapitron becomes a vessel for Toulon's spirit. He communicates with the group using interchangeable heads and eliminates the Totems by electrocution.

Following the events of Puppet Master 4, Myers is arrested for the murders committed by the Totems. His boss, Jennings, bails Myers out because he believes he is innocent, and Myers tells Jennings about his experience with Toulon's puppets. Jennings does not believe him, but he is interested in Myers' story. Jennings organizes a group of thugs to break into the Bodega Bay Inn and steal the puppets. Myers has a disturbing premonition and decides to return to the hotel with Blade to check on the puppets. Meanwhile, Sutekh activates another Totem, transferring his soul into it. Sutekh ambushes Jennings' thugs, then confronts Myers and Toulon's puppets. A battle between Sutekh and the puppets ensues. Sutekh attempts to retreat. However, the spirit of André Toulon, piloting Decapitron, is able to destroy him, inadvertently damaging all of the puppets in the process. After the defeat of Sutekh, Myers is cleared of the murder charges. He rebuilds the puppets and is now their guardian.

In Curse of the Puppet Master, six puppets are caged up in a museum exhibit: Blade, Tunneler, Six Shooter, Pinhead, Jester and Leech Woman. It is revealed that an honorary doctor named Magrew purchased Toulon's trunk at an auction. He manages the museum exhibit to fund his research into duplicating André Toulon's method of animation (without the assistance of Toulon's journal). When Magrew's daughter, Jane, returns from college, the two meet a gas station attendant named Robert "Tank" Winsley. Winsley's skill at carving wood is noticed by Magrew, and the boy is invited to stay with him and Jane if he agrees to carve a puppet for Magrew's experiment. As Winsley and Jane grow closer, Magrew tries to discourage Jane from seeing Winsley, so Jane will not be hurt. However, Jane assures her father that Winsley would not leave her. After carving the pieces for Magrew's puppet, Winsley becomes ill. Magrew calls for a doctor, and sends Jane to pick up a package for his sideshow. After learning that no package was sent, Jane starts to return home, but is distracted by some burnt debris in a ditch. Jane finds a grotesque fleshy puppet who knows her name, whom she identifies as her father's former assistant. Now Winsley, the new assistant, wakes to find himself restrained to a laboratory table, with Magrew nearby, brandishing a mechanical puppet. Magrew transfers Winsley's soul into the machine, but his satisfaction is short-lived, Toulon's puppets become enraged by Magrew's disgusting experiments, and they attack him. When Jane returns home, she finds her bloodied father and the mechanical puppet. She recognizes the puppet as Winsley because his face appears on a robot's visual display unit. Winsley then proceeds to kill Magrew by electrocution.

This film attempts to fix the continuity errors within the series. It uses 30 minutes of new footage featuring two individuals discussing the history of André Toulon and his puppets, while the rest of the footage is archived from earlier films.

After the events of The Final Chapter, an elderly man named Eric Weiss finds the remaining puppets (Blade, Pinhead, Jester, Tunneler, Six Shooter) and cares for them in the basement of the Bodega Bay Inn. Weiss is then discovered by a rogue agent, Maclain, who wants the secret element to Toulon's formula. Weiss explains that he knew Toulon before his death, but the original Puppet Master never fully shared his secrets with him. He suggests to the rogue agent that she visit Rick Myers, who possesses Toulon's diary. Maclain responds that she has already visited Myers, and killed him when he did not cooperate. Now the book is useless since it burst into flames as she read it. Weiss explains that all he has left from Toulon is his puppets, his formula, and audio recordings conducted by Toulon himself. The recordings tell of Toulon's many adventures from his time as a young man (Retro Puppet Master) to the death of his beloved wife during WWII (Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge). Weiss then reveals to Maclain that his real name is Peter Hertz, the boy who was saved by Toulon in Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge. Weiss states that he believes that Toulon only killed those who deserved to die, but Maclain brings up the murders of the parapsychologists from original film and Puppet Master II. After a heated argument over whether Toulon was good or bad, Weiss plays another tape recording from Rick Myers, which tells about Sutek's attempt to steal the elixir formula to kill the Puppet Master (Puppet Master 4 and Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter).

Seeing that there is one last recording, Maclain demands that Weiss play it. The recording talks about the legacy of Toulon's secret: even after his supposed death, there's always someone new who discovers it, always someone who does not fully understand what a gift, or a curse, the formula becomes for the puppets (Curse of the Puppet Master). After playing the recording, Pinhead throws a mallet at Maclain's head and Weiss shoots her in the heart with her own gun. Maclain, minutes away from death, reveals that she was hired by the puppets because all of the puppet masters that followed in Toulon's footsteps created immortals whose souls were trapped in wooden bodies, living every day in agony, wanting revenge on their Puppet Master. After Maclain's death, Weiss hears something behind him, turns around, and sees an unknown figure off-screen. He takes aim and fires. Then the screen goes to black and a note appears: “The producers would like to thank all the cast and crew that helped make the Puppet Master series a tremendous success over the years, ending the series with the puppets themselves to fight off the Puppet Masters' unholy creations”.

According to Charles Band, this film is non-canon because it was not produced by him or his production company, Full Moon Features. It was instead a made for TV production that debuted December 18, 2004 on NBC Universal's SyFy.

The film also introduced a new origin story for the puppets that contradicts the previous films. The new folktale states that centuries ago, a doctor by the name of Jean Paul Toulon sold his soul to a demon, Bael, in exchange for the secrets of alchemy. When Bael came to collect the soul, Jean Paul wandered deep into a black forest and entangled his soul with an ancient oak tree, which is the very same tree that André Toulon used to carve his first puppet. It could be argued that the puppets became animated with the help of several different methods combined: the spells from Afzel (Retro Puppet Master), the elixir formula from mysterious sorcerer in Cairo (Puppet Master II), and the wood from the possessed ancient oak tree (Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys); however, the fact remains that Charles Band, the original creator of the franchise, deems this film and its new folklore as non-canon.

The film takes place in 2004; Robert Toulon, great-nephew of original Puppet Master André Toulon, brings the puppets back to life with the help of his daughter Alex. They are soon pursued by a mysterious toymaking syndicate that seeks the Toulon's reanimation formula to turn their line of dolls into vicious killers on Christmas Eve.

The Littlest Reich was in production at the same time as Puppet Master: Axis Termination. The producers have said that this movie takes place in a parallel universe which explains why André Toulon is an evil Nazi this time rather than opposed to the Third Reich.

Most Puppet Master films were originally released direct to video on VHS.

The Puppet Master films have been released on DVD in very small quantities. A box set containing the first seven installments of the series was released by Full Moon (along with a bonus disc of trailers for other Full Moon films), but was recalled shortly after. However, in 2007, Full Moon Features reacquired the rights to the first five films, and the box set has since been reissued and is available directly from Full Moon, as well as through several online retailers. The first three films were included as part of an 18-disc Full Moon Features collection, and have since been individually released as a Spanish-subtitled import collection. In 2007, Razor Digital released an uncut DualDisc version of the first film, featuring both the standard and stereoscopic versions of the film, but with very poor picture quality. In 2012, Echo Bridge home entertainment released all 9 films in one DVD collection, while the first three films were licensed for a UK release by 88 Films.

Starting in 2010, the first Puppet Master was re-released on DVD with a new remastered widescreen transfer, while the second and third films were released with new transfers on September 18, 2012 (both individually or in a box set with the first film). The remastered editions of the fourth and fifth films were released on March 24, 2016, but only through a box set which is identical to Full Moon's original set with the bonus disc of trailers, except they also contain the remastered editions of the first 3 films (Curse of the Puppet Master and Retro Puppet Master still remain unrestored).[13]

The original Puppet Master film was released on Blu-ray in a remastered widescreen transfer on July 27, 2010.[14] On September 18, 2012, the first three films will be released on Blu-ray in a set, the second and third films also remastered in widescreen.[15] The first 3 films have also been released on Blu-ray in the UK by 88 films.

The fourth installment was released on Blu-ray October 12, 2015 while the fifth installment was released on February 1, 2016.

In December 2008, Charles Band authorized the first Puppet Master film for digital download through the iTunes Store; his first foray into the digital market.

For the first time in the series Puppet Master: Axis Termination debuted digitally on Full Moon's Amazon channel in three parts beginning on September 15, 2017.[16]