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Full Moon Horror: Puppet Master Updates, Spin-Offs and What’s Next?

This Full Moon horror guide covers every Puppet Master film, spin-off, and crossover in chronological order. Since the recent Noir releases aren’t new, they fit in the same continuity. Discover the essential entries and the complete watching order to experience the franchise from start to finish.

full moon horror movies Full Moon Features isn’t currently producing a new mainline entry in its iconic full moon horror doll franchise. Instead, the studio has shifted its attention to re-releasing some of their classics in a “silent film” format. Well, there’s sound, otherwise how else can one hear those screams? With the Noir format, four films are being revisited, and it works very well for the Axis storyline, just to give it some grit.

While other fans are waiting for a continuation of the solo spin-offs featuring fan-favorite puppets, thankfully this IP isn’t fully resting. Furnace: Leech Woman (announced in March 2023) may be stalled; although disappointing, hopefully all six of Toulan’s puppets will get their due. Currently, Blade: The Iron Cross and Doktor Death makes up the puppet brigade.

Until new films arrive, it’s the perfect time to explore the Puppet Master series in full. One of the franchise’s most interesting storylines is the Sutekh arc. First mentioned in Puppet Master 4: The Demon, Sutekh’s essence wreaks havoc in The Final Chapter via a mystical totem. These films also introduce the elixir of life, a mysterious substance stolen long ago by the Mad Arab from a temple dedicated to this chaos god, later sought by André Toulon.

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When Full Moon Feature’s Quadrant Shows the Dangers of Virtual Reality Becoming Too Real, You Better Watch Out!

Sometimes, what happens in virtual reality can escape and be your worse nightmare! In Quadrant, the complexities of interfacing the wrong person to a fake world gets deftly examined.

Quadrant Movie Poster Coming to Amazon Prime, Full Moon Features, and Tubi.

I love the fact that Charles Band is tackling modern age concerns with movies like Aimee: The Visitor (movie review) and now Quadrant. The former concerned rogue artificial intelligence in search of romance and the latest, just whether virtual reality is a good place to go for therapy! But what if what one dreads, would they embrace their problem, so the issue becomes part of them? That’s where this story concept succeeds because the terror is presented in the best way this filmmaker can imagine. And as for Erin (Shannon Barnes), she better be careful in what she wants to reap after signing that waiver to be involved in this study.

Scientists Harry (Rickard Claeson) and Meg (Emma Reinagel) crafted a VR helmet with a few added interfaces so other bodily functions can be monitored and, if chemical stimulation is required, also pumped in too! It’s a type of neural study I am even game to try, but after seeing this film, I say not!

Quadrant Movie Still 02

Erin is their tool to study how how helpful this technolgoy can be. But little do they know her obsession with Jack the Ripper is more twisted than they realise. She can’t distinguish between the two realities. In order to save her, these scientists must enlist the assistance of Robert (Christian Carrigan). He’s another person they’re studying, and when he has feelings for Erin, they hope he can provide something more real to fixate on instead of the Reaper.

But pretty soon, as with any Full Moon film, everything has to burst at the seams, and chaos erupts. Shannon Barnes is great at being Jekyll and Hyde, and had this tale not affirm the killer is Jack, I’d swear this tale is designed to honour Robert Louis Stevenson‘s work! Although the scientists don’t have the same panache as this star, they have their place as Data (from Star Trek) in those holosuite episodes where he is Sherlock Holmes, and Moriarty is given life!

To note, Quadrant marks this studio’s 400th release and is the first under the Pulp Noir label. It’s better than the recently reviewed Private Eye movie starring comedian Matt Rife in the sense we have existential dread as a theme from start to end. With this film, it’s perfect in its execution where even I wonder if therapy in the virtual realm is needed. Some phobias are best left alone, and others, I’m sure other methods to get over trauma exist!

4 Stars out of 5

Quadrant Movie Trailer

Fantasia’s All Abuzz with David Allen’s The Primevals, A Love Letter to More Than The Land of the Lost

The love for all those classic adventure films and the passion put behind bringing The Primevals to life is the only reason why you should go see this film!

The Primevals is more than a love letter to the pulps of yesteryears. Here, the long production history must be noted before I can go into the review. Back in the late 60s, David Allen (who did the animation in Young Sherlock Holmes and Ghostbusters II) came up with the idea, and this stop-motion animator turned filmmaker had a lot of wonderful ideas which were ahead of its time. It’s tough to say if he knew of Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods and the theories he posed as it was published in 68, with translations not necessarily emerging until a year or two later.

It probably doesn’t matter. Sadly, to get this movie made back then was tough. That was partially due to how the studio system worked and other politics that held this project back.

While much of this story was filmed back in the late 80s, the project was shelved and this individual’s untimely passing meant it’d never get finished. Thankfully, his work with Chris Endicott, Charles Band and Full Moon Studios meant that everything that was done got carefully warehoused. It wasn’t until 2018 that the team sought crowdfunding in order to finish this project. Other talents volunteered their time as this idea shouldn’t be lost to history too.

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[From the Archives] Chatting with Shawn Gabborin about Charles Band’s Puppet Master

Image result for shawn gabborin action lab By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

One of the best horror comics from 2015 is Puppet Master published by Action Lab Comics. A few years later, the series abruptly ended, and Curtain Call released to tie up loose ends. Written by Shawn Gabborin and drawn by Michela Da Sacco, the tale continues down the path had the movies been able to continue prior to the Axis trilogy. This new saga fits in an odd place, in between the present day’s terror (the original film) to the past after Toulin shot himself, and giving Danny Coogan the title role in Axis of Evil.

During the 2018 San Diego Comic Convention, Full Moon Features announced the release of Dollman Kills the Full Moon Universe and I have to wonder if that means a reboot is coming? Gabborin is writing for this company’s new label, Full Moon Comix, and is authoring this very first title! His narrative style is very faithful to recreating the camp which I enjoy from this production house and I will be looking forward to seeing this diminutive figure take on Blade! I wrote a detailed news and review for Drunk in a Graveyard, which can be read here.

The Puppet Master 2018 movie releasing Aug 17th certainly suggests a huge reset is happening. New up-and-coming filmmakers are taking the charge. A bigger question will be in whether the origins are going to change too. The comics set the tale in the present day to avoid cinematic continuity conflicts and one beautiful detail Gabborin sets up is in how the souls transferred to the puppets; they retain the spirits of the person they once were.

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Takeaways from 2018 San Diego Comic Convention

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Many announcements and bombs happened over the July 18th to 22nd weekend at SDCC2018. Some of the news that happened divided a community and my thought is simply on whether Guardians of the Galaxy even continue after what happened? Only time and executive decisions can tell.

Many movie trailers were released to show what’s coming and while most of them look fantastic. Out of all of them, the second instalment of Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla: King of the Monsters stands out the most, and I’m not necessarily picking favourites. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is my second and Glass rounds out my top three. Excluded is what’s coming on television.

The following is a greatest hits package of what to look for at comic shops or video stores in the coming months.
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Full Moon Musings on Puppet Master: Axis Termination, Legacy & Laserblast

puppetcrop

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Hardcore fans are most likely hoping Charles Band’s latest film, Puppet Master: Axis Termination is not spelling out the end of his franchise. This subset of movies brings the pulp-era adventures to completion, perhaps leading into the first movie of the series. There can be more made, as there’s an approximate gap of 40 something years before Puppet Master (it takes place 1989 while the Axis films are during WWII), as the little ones need to find their way home to Bodega Bay Inn. Only time will tell if this producer/director will feel inclined to make more, or is cutting them loose for other filmmakers tell their tale.

With this film, Blade and gang are trading masters yet again. Danny and his girlfriend are not at the helm. Instead, the nefarious Dr. Ivan (George Appleby) gets to be in charge. He needs the boys to help thwart the plans of Gerde Ernst (Tonya Kay) and Krabke (Kevin Scott Allen). These Nazi antagonists have a foothold in Southern California and the war this group of Allies and Nazis are waging is an occult one. Their mission is to discover the key to reanimation. To create a new tiny sized army is the goal, but can either do it?

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