Re: Puppet Master 720p
Herta Adel
Puppet Master is an American horror film series which focuses on a group of anthropomorphic puppets animated by an Egyptian spell, each equipped with its own unique and dangerous device and are represented as heroes, antiheroes and antagonists. The franchise was created by Charles Band and Kenneth J. Hall. The series consists of 15 films, 11 mainline, one crossover, a reboot and two spin-offs. The sixteenth film and third spin-off titled "Puppet Master: Furnace Leech Woman" began filming in Cleveland, Ohio in May 2023.
Produced by Full Moon Features, the series was established in 1989 with the eponymous first installment, which has since been followed by ten sequels, a crossover with the characters of Demonic Toys, a 2018 reboot entitled The Littlest Reich, a spin-off film about the puppet Blade, a spin-off film about Retro Puppet Master's Doktor Death, two comic book mini-series, an ongoing comic book series, a free-to-play multiplayer video game by October Games, as well as numerous other collector's items.[citation needed]
1990 saw the release of a sequel, Puppet Master II, and later in 1991, Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge, the latter a series prequel. Toulon's Revenge was the first installment to feature Guy Rolfe in the role of puppeteer Andre Toulon (in the prior films Toulon was portrayed by William Hickey and Steve Welles, respectively). Rolfe reprised the role of Toulon for three additional films. After his death in 2003, he posthumously appeared in The Legacy through extensive use of archival footage. In 1993 Full Moon began shooting another two sequels simultaneously, Puppet Master 4 and Puppet Master 5. The latter, as the title indicates, was intended to be the final installment of the series.
Due to demand from video retailers and fans for a new installment, four years after retirement, the franchise was revived by the production of a sixth entry, Curse of the Puppet Master, in 1998. This was the first installment not to have David W. Allen involved with stop-motion special effects. By this time, Paramount had ended its deal with Full Moon, so the film used a combination of rod and string puppets, as well as archival footage to conserve costs. In September 1999, Full Moon Features released Totem, featuring characters similar to the Totems of the fourth film.
Also in 1999, a second prequel (taking place at an even earlier time than Toulon's Revenge) was released, titled Retro Puppet Master. The original idea for the seventh installment was for it to take place following Toulon's Revenge, with Toulon and his puppets escaping Germany by train, after which they are confronted by Nazis and demons. This idea was abandoned because the distributor, the Kushner Locke Company, thought it would offend the German audience, although it later formed the basis for the ninth installment of the series, Puppet Master: Axis of Evil. Retro Puppet Master was an anomaly to the series, in that the main theme composed by Richard Band was completely absent, and with its PG-13 rating, this was the first installment not to be rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. The films following this would all fall under not rated.
In June 2009, the Full Moon website posted updates about the latest installment, revealing the roster of puppets to be included, as well as principal cast members Levi Fiehler and Jerry Hoffman. Puppet Master: Axis of Evil was released on DVD, Blu-ray and streaming in 2010.
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.
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 from Retro 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.
After the events of Axis Rising, Danny and Beth arrange to meet Captain Brooks so that they can hand over the puppets to be used in the American war effort, but they are both shot and killed by a Nazi Spy that is posing as Brooks.
After killing the spy he had been assigned to take a puppet trunk from the bodies and take it back to Kip, there he discovered that the American army had been tipped off about the Nazis using the occult to give life to their own puppets and had successfully killed another American general and six citizens and he needed Brooks to work with a team of psychics led by Dr. Ivan Ivanov to find out how the puppets work so that they can use the magic inside of them to help the American war effort. Brooks was not happy with this assignment as he did not like being told what to do by a Russian 'dwarf' and also did not believe in living puppets or psychic phenomena. While he stayed with them he quickly began to gain their respect and believe in their powers, after Ivan's daughter had read his thoughts and brought back his horrific war incident.
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