Curse Of The Puppet Master
Encyclopedia
Curse of the Puppet Master is a 1998 horror film
written by Benjamin Carr and David Schmoeller, and directed by David DeCoteau. It is the sixth film in the Puppet Master franchise
, the sequel
to 1989's original Puppet Master
, and stars George Peck as a scientist experimenting with transforming humans into puppet
s, his daughter, played by Emily Harrison
and Josh Green as an orphan commissioned by the scientist to construct a puppet for his experiment. While Puppet Master 5 was intended to be the final installment of the series four years earlier, Curse of the Puppet Master promptly revived the series, which has been ongoing since.
), has just returned home from college. She asks her father about Matt, his assistant. Her father tells her that Matt left, since his father was ill. He and Jane decide to drive into town to take their minds off things. Robert "Tank" Winsley (Josh Green), a very tall but meek young man, works at the gas station in town. He passes his time by carving small wooden statues. He is frequently harassed by bully Joey Carp (Michael D. Guerin). Jane and Dr. Magrew arrive and tell Joey to get lost. Jane finds one of the statues that Robert was carving and complements him on it, then shows it to her father. Dr. Magrew introduces himself and Jane to Robert, and offers Robert a job helping him with the Marvel show. Robert accepts and they drive back to the house.
Upon arriving, they introduce Robert to Toulon's puppets, which amaze him, since they're alive. At dinner, Magrew reveals that he bought the puppets at an auction
years ago, and that he is tried to make a living puppet just like Toulons', but has never been successful. He asks Robert if he'll help him carve the puppet, to which he agrees. The next day, during the show, the town sheriff
, Sheriff Garvey (Robert Donavan) and Deputy Wayburn (Jason-Shane Scott
) arrive. They tell Magrew that Matt is missing, and they wonder if Magrew's seen him since he left. He insists that he has not, but they did not quite believe him. That night, Magrew gives Robert the wood and the blueprints for the puppet. Robert does not understand how the puppet will live. Magrew tells him the way to make a dead thing live is: "You put your soul
into it". Robert begins carving and works non-stop. At dinner a few nights later, Magrew reveals that Matt did carving for him as well. While Matt's work had quality, Robert's work has perfection, which is what he wants to make. He uses Blade as an example: "He never tires, never hungers, knows no fear, tells no lies, feels no pain, knows no secrets. And what is man except a being at war with himself? But not Blade. He has no hidden motives, no secret self. He is purely and perfectly what he is. In fact, I think the world would be a better place if we were all like him."
That night, Robert wakes up and finds that his legs have turned into carved, wooden legs, like a puppet. But this ends up being a nightmare
. While Robert carves the puppet, Jane thinks he is working too hard and while trying to get his attention, causes him to cut himself. She bandages the cut on his hand for him, and asks him about himself. He reveals that he is an orphan, and he has never been smart enough to go to college. Jane tells him that his hands can do things that people with brains only imagine being able to do. They both develop feelings for one another and kiss. Later that night, Robert has another nightmare, but this time, his entire body (minus his head) is wooden, complete with inner clockwork
gears. The next day, Jane, thinking that Robert is working too hard, convinces him to take a break. They drive to the woods, and Jane tells him about a beautiful clearing in the woods she found as a little girl. On the way, they stumble upon the half-burnt box that Dr. Magrew burned at the film's beginning.
Robert reaches in and pulls out a carved wooden hand, much like a puppet hand. He tries to show it to Jane, but she is walking away. Meanwhile, Joey and his friends are in the woods when Jane arrives. Joey begins to harass her and steps in her way, blocking her. She continuously shoves him to the point where he is angry, and he sexually harasses
her. Robert arrives and tells Joey to leave her alone. Joey ignores Robert and threatens to rape Jane. Finally, Robert snaps and throws Joey onto the hood of his car and begins choking him. Jane pulls him off, and they drive back to the house. At the house, Robert confesses that when he was choking Joey, it had nothing to do with him or Jane. He felt like he was choking all the things that ever plagued him in his life. Dr. Magrew tells Robert that he is at war with himself: "There's another self inside, a true or more natural self. A creature of violence, with no fear, no conscience. A killer. You spend your whole life battling the self that lives inside. And what happened today, though just for a moment, you lost that battle. The real you, the true you, came out." Robert does not know if he is right or not, but he would "rather die than have it come out again."
Later that night, Joey comes to the "House of Marvels" to beat Robert up, but then decides to try to rape Jane again. As Jane sees him and tells him to get out, Pinhead, who was in the room, jumps at Joey and starts choking him, but Joey pulls him off and then starts squashing him with his foot, breaking off his left hand, and breaks his right arm. Dr. Magrew and Tank show up, but Joey makes a run for it. Dr. Magrew, who wants revenge, takes Blade and Tunneler to Joey's house, and sends them to kill him. Joey, who's lifting weights, gets his forehead slashed by Blade, and gets his crotch
drilled by Tunneler. Back at the house, Robert shows up at Jane's room and shows her that he fixed Pinhead, Jane thanks Robert, then they start to kiss, she then tells him that he can stay if he likes, then they kiss again. As Dr. Magrew comes back, he sees Robert coming out of Jane's room, and then decides to talk to Jane, and is then surprised when he sees that Pinhead's fixed, but then he starts going crazy when Jane says she loves Robert, and tells her that he does not want to see her get hurt, and then leaves. Five days later, Friday, Jane finds Robert very sick, and then has her father call the doctor, but he really does not, he just fakes it. Then he tells Jane that he has to go pick up something for Jane at the post office at the edge of town, but Jane offers to go pick it up, while Dr. Magrew waits for the non-coming doctor to come. Back at Joey's house, the medical examiner
(William Knight
) believes that Joey's death was intentional. Sheriff Garvey starts to ask one of Joey's friends, named Art (Marc Newburger), when was the last time they saw Joey and who else was there, and he says last Sunday in the woods, and Mr. Magrew's daughter was there. Hearing the name Magrew, Sheriff Garvey and Deputy Wayburn decide to give Dr. Magrew a little visit. But as Garvey and Wayburn arrive at the House of Marvels, Six Shooter throws a rope around Wayburn's neck and Pinhead pulls the rope, causing him to fall and gets his head tunneled by Tunneler, killing him. At the same time, Blade slashes Garvey's leg, making him fall and drop his gun, and then he and Jester start slashing his face, with Magrew laughing as he watches them kill. Meanwhile at the post office
, Jane keeps asking the shipping agent (Patrick Thomas
) if he is sure what her father ordered is not there, so the agent calls Tommy Berke (J.R. Bookwalter) to ask him will it come in, but Tommy says that Magrew has not bought anything from him in the past six months.
Hearing this, Jane decides to go back to the woods to see what that burned box was. As she grabs what's inside of it, she sees that it's one of Matt's carved puppets, then it starts to speak: "Jane!" for help in Matt's voice. Terrified at what she saw, she then realizes that her father's going to do the same thing to Robert, so she quickly gets in her car, and drives back to the House. Meanwhile at the house, Dr. Magrew puts Robert's soul into the puppet he especially made for Robert via electricity
, and it finally works this time, but the puppets are angry because they did not want him to kill Robert, so Blade slashes Magrew's legs, hand, and face, Tunneler drills through his leg, and Pinhead hits him with a metal cane. As Jane arrives at the house, she finds her father nearly dead, bleeding to death, with him pointing at the new "tank
puppet", saying "I did it". Suddenly, the Tank Puppet starts to move and points its arm at Dr. Magrew. The arm shoots out a bolt of electricity, and electrocutes Dr. Magrew straight between the eyes. The film ends with a shot of Dr. Magrew screaming before death, and Jane screaming in horrified terror.
only with puppets instead of snakes, it was originally planned to be much different. Curse of the Puppet Master was originally meant to be the first of an epic Puppet Wars trilogy
where Andre Toulon and his creations would battle the Mummy
, Frankenstein
and Dracula
, with Guy Rolfe
set to return as Toulon and Turhan Bey
being considered for the part of a mysterious Egyptian
. Funding fell through at the last minute, but not before second unit
footage was shot of an old-fashioned steam train in Romania
, footage that was eventually used in Retro Puppet Master
.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
written by Benjamin Carr and David Schmoeller, and directed by David DeCoteau. It is the sixth film in the Puppet Master franchise
Puppet Master (franchise)
Puppet Master is a horror film franchise which focuses on a group of puppets animated by an Egyptian spell, each equipped with their own unique and dangerous device and are represented as heroes, anti-heroes, and antagonists...
, the sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to 1989's original Puppet Master
Puppet Master (film)
Puppet Master is a 1989 horror film written by Charles Band and Kenneth J. Hall, and directed by David Schmoeller...
, and stars George Peck as a scientist experimenting with transforming humans into puppet
Puppet
A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....
s, his daughter, played by Emily Harrison
Emily Harrison
Emily Harrison is an American actress.Harrison is most well known as Jennifer Finnigan's replacement in the role of Bridget Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful, which she played from January to July 2004...
and Josh Green as an orphan commissioned by the scientist to construct a puppet for his experiment. While Puppet Master 5 was intended to be the final installment of the series four years earlier, Curse of the Puppet Master promptly revived the series, which has been ongoing since.
Plot
The film begins at The House of Marvels, a doll museum, with Andre Toulon's puppets in a cage, watching their current master, a man named Dr. Magrew (George Peck), stuffing something into a crate. Before leaving, he promises the puppets that things will be different next time. He drives into the woods, where he puts down the crate and douses it with gasoline, then sets it on fire. From inside the crate, faint screaming can be heard. The next morning, Dr. Magrew's daughter, Jane (Emily HarrisonEmily Harrison
Emily Harrison is an American actress.Harrison is most well known as Jennifer Finnigan's replacement in the role of Bridget Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful, which she played from January to July 2004...
), has just returned home from college. She asks her father about Matt, his assistant. Her father tells her that Matt left, since his father was ill. He and Jane decide to drive into town to take their minds off things. Robert "Tank" Winsley (Josh Green), a very tall but meek young man, works at the gas station in town. He passes his time by carving small wooden statues. He is frequently harassed by bully Joey Carp (Michael D. Guerin). Jane and Dr. Magrew arrive and tell Joey to get lost. Jane finds one of the statues that Robert was carving and complements him on it, then shows it to her father. Dr. Magrew introduces himself and Jane to Robert, and offers Robert a job helping him with the Marvel show. Robert accepts and they drive back to the house.
Upon arriving, they introduce Robert to Toulon's puppets, which amaze him, since they're alive. At dinner, Magrew reveals that he bought the puppets at an auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
years ago, and that he is tried to make a living puppet just like Toulons', but has never been successful. He asks Robert if he'll help him carve the puppet, to which he agrees. The next day, during the show, the town sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
, Sheriff Garvey (Robert Donavan) and Deputy Wayburn (Jason-Shane Scott
Jason-Shane Scott
Jason-Shane Scott is an American actor.Scott was born in Southern California. At the age of two he moved to Reno, Nevada with his mother and older sister while making frequent trips to Los Angeles to visit his father. Scott attended Wooster High School and excelled at sports, playing baseball,...
) arrive. They tell Magrew that Matt is missing, and they wonder if Magrew's seen him since he left. He insists that he has not, but they did not quite believe him. That night, Magrew gives Robert the wood and the blueprints for the puppet. Robert does not understand how the puppet will live. Magrew tells him the way to make a dead thing live is: "You put your soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
into it". Robert begins carving and works non-stop. At dinner a few nights later, Magrew reveals that Matt did carving for him as well. While Matt's work had quality, Robert's work has perfection, which is what he wants to make. He uses Blade as an example: "He never tires, never hungers, knows no fear, tells no lies, feels no pain, knows no secrets. And what is man except a being at war with himself? But not Blade. He has no hidden motives, no secret self. He is purely and perfectly what he is. In fact, I think the world would be a better place if we were all like him."
That night, Robert wakes up and finds that his legs have turned into carved, wooden legs, like a puppet. But this ends up being a nightmare
Nightmare
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...
. While Robert carves the puppet, Jane thinks he is working too hard and while trying to get his attention, causes him to cut himself. She bandages the cut on his hand for him, and asks him about himself. He reveals that he is an orphan, and he has never been smart enough to go to college. Jane tells him that his hands can do things that people with brains only imagine being able to do. They both develop feelings for one another and kiss. Later that night, Robert has another nightmare, but this time, his entire body (minus his head) is wooden, complete with inner clockwork
Clockwork
A clockwork is the inner workings of either a mechanical clock or a device that operates in a similar fashion. Specifically, the term refers to a mechanical device utilizing a complex series of gears....
gears. The next day, Jane, thinking that Robert is working too hard, convinces him to take a break. They drive to the woods, and Jane tells him about a beautiful clearing in the woods she found as a little girl. On the way, they stumble upon the half-burnt box that Dr. Magrew burned at the film's beginning.
Robert reaches in and pulls out a carved wooden hand, much like a puppet hand. He tries to show it to Jane, but she is walking away. Meanwhile, Joey and his friends are in the woods when Jane arrives. Joey begins to harass her and steps in her way, blocking her. She continuously shoves him to the point where he is angry, and he sexually harasses
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
her. Robert arrives and tells Joey to leave her alone. Joey ignores Robert and threatens to rape Jane. Finally, Robert snaps and throws Joey onto the hood of his car and begins choking him. Jane pulls him off, and they drive back to the house. At the house, Robert confesses that when he was choking Joey, it had nothing to do with him or Jane. He felt like he was choking all the things that ever plagued him in his life. Dr. Magrew tells Robert that he is at war with himself: "There's another self inside, a true or more natural self. A creature of violence, with no fear, no conscience. A killer. You spend your whole life battling the self that lives inside. And what happened today, though just for a moment, you lost that battle. The real you, the true you, came out." Robert does not know if he is right or not, but he would "rather die than have it come out again."
Later that night, Joey comes to the "House of Marvels" to beat Robert up, but then decides to try to rape Jane again. As Jane sees him and tells him to get out, Pinhead, who was in the room, jumps at Joey and starts choking him, but Joey pulls him off and then starts squashing him with his foot, breaking off his left hand, and breaks his right arm. Dr. Magrew and Tank show up, but Joey makes a run for it. Dr. Magrew, who wants revenge, takes Blade and Tunneler to Joey's house, and sends them to kill him. Joey, who's lifting weights, gets his forehead slashed by Blade, and gets his crotch
Crotch
The term crotch may be used to describe the region of an object where it splits into two or more limbs. This can include trees, animals, buildings, in wiring diagrams, etc....
drilled by Tunneler. Back at the house, Robert shows up at Jane's room and shows her that he fixed Pinhead, Jane thanks Robert, then they start to kiss, she then tells him that he can stay if he likes, then they kiss again. As Dr. Magrew comes back, he sees Robert coming out of Jane's room, and then decides to talk to Jane, and is then surprised when he sees that Pinhead's fixed, but then he starts going crazy when Jane says she loves Robert, and tells her that he does not want to see her get hurt, and then leaves. Five days later, Friday, Jane finds Robert very sick, and then has her father call the doctor, but he really does not, he just fakes it. Then he tells Jane that he has to go pick up something for Jane at the post office at the edge of town, but Jane offers to go pick it up, while Dr. Magrew waits for the non-coming doctor to come. Back at Joey's house, the medical examiner
Medical examiner
A medical examiner is a medically qualified government officer whose duty is to investigate deaths and injuries that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortem examinations, and in some jurisdictions to initiate inquests....
(William Knight
William Knight
William Knight is the name of:* Bill Knight, racing driver and speed record setter* Bill Knight , former Canadian Member of Parliament and financial executive* William Angus Knight , British writer, professor, and philosopher...
) believes that Joey's death was intentional. Sheriff Garvey starts to ask one of Joey's friends, named Art (Marc Newburger), when was the last time they saw Joey and who else was there, and he says last Sunday in the woods, and Mr. Magrew's daughter was there. Hearing the name Magrew, Sheriff Garvey and Deputy Wayburn decide to give Dr. Magrew a little visit. But as Garvey and Wayburn arrive at the House of Marvels, Six Shooter throws a rope around Wayburn's neck and Pinhead pulls the rope, causing him to fall and gets his head tunneled by Tunneler, killing him. At the same time, Blade slashes Garvey's leg, making him fall and drop his gun, and then he and Jester start slashing his face, with Magrew laughing as he watches them kill. Meanwhile at the post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
, Jane keeps asking the shipping agent (Patrick Thomas
Patrick Thomas (actor)
Patrick Thomas is an American actor and voice actor. Thomas has had roles in several different TV shows and movies. He has also done voice acting. He also goes by the aliases Pat Thomas, Puppy Thomas, and Courtney Burr.-Television roles:* 3rd Rock from the Sun - Customer #1 * Family Affair - Eddie...
) if he is sure what her father ordered is not there, so the agent calls Tommy Berke (J.R. Bookwalter) to ask him will it come in, but Tommy says that Magrew has not bought anything from him in the past six months.
Hearing this, Jane decides to go back to the woods to see what that burned box was. As she grabs what's inside of it, she sees that it's one of Matt's carved puppets, then it starts to speak: "Jane!" for help in Matt's voice. Terrified at what she saw, she then realizes that her father's going to do the same thing to Robert, so she quickly gets in her car, and drives back to the House. Meanwhile at the house, Dr. Magrew puts Robert's soul into the puppet he especially made for Robert via electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
, and it finally works this time, but the puppets are angry because they did not want him to kill Robert, so Blade slashes Magrew's legs, hand, and face, Tunneler drills through his leg, and Pinhead hits him with a metal cane. As Jane arrives at the house, she finds her father nearly dead, bleeding to death, with him pointing at the new "tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
puppet", saying "I did it". Suddenly, the Tank Puppet starts to move and points its arm at Dr. Magrew. The arm shoots out a bolt of electricity, and electrocutes Dr. Magrew straight between the eyes. The film ends with a shot of Dr. Magrew screaming before death, and Jane screaming in horrified terror.
Cast
- George PeckGeorge PeckGeorge Peck may refer to:*George H. Peck, California real estate developer*George Peck, co-founder of Peck & Peck*George Washington Peck , U.S...
– Dr. Magrew - Emily HarrisonEmily HarrisonEmily Harrison is an American actress.Harrison is most well known as Jennifer Finnigan's replacement in the role of Bridget Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful, which she played from January to July 2004...
– Jane Magrew - Josh GreenJosh GreenJoshua Green is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is currently playing for the Oklahoma City Barons, of the American Hockey League .-Playing career:...
– Robert "Tank" Winsley - Michael D. Guerin – Joey Carp
- Michael Sollenberger – Station Owner
- Marc Newburger – Art Cooney
- Scott Boyer – Larry
- Jason Dean Booher – Pogo
- Robert Donavan – Sheriff Garvey
- Jason-Shane ScottJason-Shane ScottJason-Shane Scott is an American actor.Scott was born in Southern California. At the age of two he moved to Reno, Nevada with his mother and older sister while making frequent trips to Los Angeles to visit his father. Scott attended Wooster High School and excelled at sports, playing baseball,...
– Deputy Wayburn - William KnightWilliam Frederick KnightWilliam Frederick Knight, sometimes credited as William Knight, William Frederick, or Frederick Knight, is a voice actor who has lent his voice to the English dubs of many anime series and several video games...
– Medical Examiner - Patrick ThomasPatrick Thomas (actor)Patrick Thomas is an American actor and voice actor. Thomas has had roles in several different TV shows and movies. He has also done voice acting. He also goes by the aliases Pat Thomas, Puppy Thomas, and Courtney Burr.-Television roles:* 3rd Rock from the Sun - Customer #1 * Family Affair - Eddie...
– Shipping Agent - Ariauna Albright – Operator's Voice
- J.R. Bookwalter – Tommy Berke's Voice
Featured puppets
Puppet Wars
While the plot of this film is very similar to the 1973 film SssssssSSSSSSS
SSSSSSS is a 1973 horror film starring Dirk Benedict, Heather Menzies, Reb Brown, and Strother Martin. It was directed by Bernard L. Kowalski and written by Hal Dresner and Daniel C. Striepeke. The makeup effects were created by John Chambers and Nick Marcellino...
only with puppets instead of snakes, it was originally planned to be much different. Curse of the Puppet Master was originally meant to be the first of an epic Puppet Wars trilogy
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
where Andre Toulon and his creations would battle the Mummy
The Mummy (1932 film)
The Mummy is a 1932 horror film from Universal Studios directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff as a revived ancient Egyptian priest. The movie also features Zita Johann, David Manners and Edward Van Sloan...
, Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
and Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
, with Guy Rolfe
Guy Rolfe
Guy Rolfe was an English actor born in London.He made his screen debut in 1937 with an uncredited appearance in Knight Without Armour. Notable roles include: Prince John in Ivanhoe , Ned Seymour in Young Bess , Caiaphas in King of Kings , and Prince Grigory in Taras Bulba...
set to return as Toulon and Turhan Bey
Turhan Bey
Turhan Bey is an American actor of Turkish and Czech descent. Bey was active in Hollywood from 1941 to 1953. He was dubbed "The Turkish Delight" by his fans for his exotic handsome looks...
being considered for the part of a mysterious Egyptian
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
. Funding fell through at the last minute, but not before second unit
Second unit
In film, the second unit is a team that shoots subsidiary footage for a motion picture. Its work is distinct from that of the first unit, which shoots all scenes involving principal actors...
footage was shot of an old-fashioned steam train in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, footage that was eventually used in Retro Puppet Master
Retro Puppet Master
Retro Puppet Master is a 1999 horror film written by Charles Band, Benjamin Carr and David Schmoeller, and directed by David DeCoteau...
.