Retro Puppet Master
Encyclopedia
Retro Puppet Master is a 1999 horror film
written by Charles Band, Benjamin Carr and David Schmoeller, and directed by David DeCoteau. It is the seventh film in the Puppet Master franchise
, a prequel
to 1991's Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge, and stars Greg Sestero
as a young Andre Toulon, Jack Donner
as an Egyptian responsible for teaching Toulon how to animate his puppet
s, and Stephen Blackehart
, Robert Radoveanu and Vitalie Bantas as demons who pursue Toulon for his magic. While Retro Puppet Master serves to explain how Toulon began practicing the spell which animates his puppets, it ignores what was originally established in Puppet Master II
as exactly how he learned the spell of animation. The film was also Guy Rolfe's final appearance as Andre Toulon, save for flashback footage in Puppet Master: The Legacy
.
, taking place after the events of Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge. Toulon and his little friends are still on the run, and decide to hide in the Kolewige, an Inn
that's 4 miles from the Swiss border
. Blade finds the wooden head of an old puppet named Cyclops in their trunk, and when Toulon sees it, he then tells his puppets the adventures with the woman he loves, and his retro puppets, starting in Cairo, Egypt, in 1902.
An Egyptian sorcerer, named Afzel, has stolen the secret of life, and is fleeing the servants of an evil Egyptian god, named Sutekh. Two servants, imbued with magical power from Sutekh, attack him, but are killed easily by Afzel and his own magical power. After dispatching the two servants he begins his journey to Paris
.
Meanwhile, Sutekh has given life to three of his oldest servants—Egyptian mummies. After they rise from their chamber they too begin to pursue Afzel. At the same time, in Paris
, a young Andre Toulon is putting on a puppet show of Dante's Divine Comedy. Watching from the crowd is Elsa, who has left her cold-hearted ambassador
abusive father and harmless
mother (who wasn't in this) to view the wonders of the country and has decided to see the play. In the sewers nearby the three mummies have hired two thugs to kill Afzel. The thugs are necessary since Afzel has the power to sense the coming of the mummies.
Afzel is beaten brutally until Elsa, leaving the theater, sees them and cries for help. The thugs then scatter, leaving Toulon and Elsa to pick Afzel up and bring him inside. Later, when he stirs from his sleep, he talks with Toulon and reveals that he knows the secret of life. Toulon is skeptical until Afzel begins to make the puppets move. Now Toulon realizes he is genuine and begins to learn his powers. Then Afzel starts to make the puppets draw a barrier that's supposed to protect him if the servants come back.
While stepping outside for a brief moment, Toulon begins to talk to a beggar who has sat on the steps since the beginning of the movie. However, he is dead, and when Andre becomes aware of this he begins to mourn. Afzel tells him to bring him inside to teach him the true secret of life. After bringing him inside they use a ring to transfer the soul of the beggar to the puppet, "Pinhead". The puppet starts to move but, after a few questions the puppet runs away into the theater. Later on, Elsa returns to talk to Toulon, until her father's rude servants come by, and they take Elsa and Toulon back to her house, and after Toulon talks to the father, he gets knocked out, and is then thrown into the woods.
The next day, back at the theater, Valentin storms in as the barrier written on paper falls off the wall, and the three mummies see their chance to attack and begin their rampage through the theater, Valentin finished repairing the door as two of the mummies break in and kills him and Vigo, Vigo runs behind stage to Duval and Latour and falls dead, Duval stabs the lead mummy in his hand as the mummy kills him with his other hand, Latuor gets out a gun and shoots the lead mummy three times as the other mummy comes in through the back door and all three of them use their magic to kill him, Afzel appears and says Sutekh shall not claim his life, and kills himself with his own magic. Satisfied with victory, the mummies begin to leave. Once Toulon returns from the woods, he sees what has happened and acts quickly by putting their souls inside his puppets.
The men return, having sensed someone with the knowledge of the secret of life, and try to kill Toulon. His puppets, however, formidable foes, having killed one of the mummies with Six Shooter by shooting the chandelier chains, causing it to crush the servant. The two henchmen retreat in order to plot the capture of Elsa to lure Toulon into a trap.
Feeling that he had won the battle, Andre and his puppets go to a train station to leave Paris
to Kara, Togo before things start to get bad, not realizing they had already begun. The servants capture Elsa, and then send a dream to Toulon that shows Elsa tied up, and a train. Knowing the meaning, he quickly changes trains to Merca, Somalia and gets his puppets ready for the showdown. When the train leaves, Andre looks around, having released his puppets and letting them follow him throughout the train, until finally coming to the last car and finding Elsa tied up like in his dream. The two men appear and ask for the secret of life. Andre displays the scroll where the secret is written and asks, "How do you know I haven't copied it?" to which the leader states he did not have enough time to do so, but still is doubtful he hadn't. Andre, noticing he is distracted, attacks the leader while his puppets attack the other. A large struggle breaks out, and the other henchman is killed with the final leader of the three being thrown from the car. Freeing Elsa, the group rides away in the train, beginning their long amazing adventure. After telling the story, Toulon wonders if the puppets are wondering what happened to the other puppets, so he decides to tell them later in the future.
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 Charles Band, Benjamin Carr and David Schmoeller, and directed by David DeCoteau. It is the seventh 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...
, a prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
to 1991's Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge, and stars Greg Sestero
Greg Sestero
Greg Sestero is a French-American actor and model. He is best known for his role as Mark in the 2003 cult film The Room.-Personal life:...
as a young Andre Toulon, Jack Donner
Jack Donner
Jack Donner is an American actor. He acted in theater, as well as in television and film.-Early life:Donner was born in Los Angeles, California. He has worked steadily in television and film since the 1950s including early work on The Guiding Light and As the World Turns...
as an Egyptian responsible for teaching Toulon how to animate his 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, and Stephen Blackehart
Stephen Blackehart
Stephen Blackehart is an American actor and producer from Hell's Kitchen, New York. It has been reported that Blackehart was born Stefano Brando and is the son of actor Marlon Brando...
, Robert Radoveanu and Vitalie Bantas as demons who pursue Toulon for his magic. While Retro Puppet Master serves to explain how Toulon began practicing the spell which animates his puppets, it ignores what was originally established in Puppet Master II
Puppet Master II
Puppet Master II is a 1991 horror film written by David Pabian and directed by Dave Allen...
as exactly how he learned the spell of animation. The film was also Guy Rolfe's final appearance as Andre Toulon, save for flashback footage in Puppet Master: The Legacy
Puppet Master: The Legacy
Puppet Master: The Legacy is a 2003 horror film written by C. Courtney Joyner and David Schmoeller, and directed by Charles Band. It is the eighth film in the Puppet Master franchise, the sequel to 1994's Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter, and stars Jacob Witkin as an elderly Peter Hertz and Kate...
.
Plot
The movie begins in 1944, SwitzerlandSwitzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, taking place after the events of Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge. Toulon and his little friends are still on the run, and decide to hide in the Kolewige, an Inn
INN
InterNetNews is a Usenet news server package, originally released by Rich Salz in 1991, and presented at the Summer 1992 USENIX conference in San Antonio, Texas...
that's 4 miles from the Swiss border
Border
Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, sovereign states, federated states and other subnational entities. Some borders—such as a state's internal administrative borders, or inter-state borders within the Schengen Area—are open and...
. Blade finds the wooden head of an old puppet named Cyclops in their trunk, and when Toulon sees it, he then tells his puppets the adventures with the woman he loves, and his retro puppets, starting in Cairo, Egypt, in 1902.
An Egyptian sorcerer, named Afzel, has stolen the secret of life, and is fleeing the servants of an evil Egyptian god, named Sutekh. Two servants, imbued with magical power from Sutekh, attack him, but are killed easily by Afzel and his own magical power. After dispatching the two servants he begins his journey to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Meanwhile, Sutekh has given life to three of his oldest servants—Egyptian mummies. After they rise from their chamber they too begin to pursue Afzel. At the same time, in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, a young Andre Toulon is putting on a puppet show of Dante's Divine Comedy. Watching from the crowd is Elsa, who has left her cold-hearted ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
abusive father and harmless
Harmless
The term harmless may be taken in several ways:* A legal term occurring in the contract law concept of hold harmless . See also waiver.* An in-joke for HGTTG aficionados: see Mostly Harmless.In Music*Harmless - A record label....
mother (who wasn't in this) to view the wonders of the country and has decided to see the play. In the sewers nearby the three mummies have hired two thugs to kill Afzel. The thugs are necessary since Afzel has the power to sense the coming of the mummies.
Afzel is beaten brutally until Elsa, leaving the theater, sees them and cries for help. The thugs then scatter, leaving Toulon and Elsa to pick Afzel up and bring him inside. Later, when he stirs from his sleep, he talks with Toulon and reveals that he knows the secret of life. Toulon is skeptical until Afzel begins to make the puppets move. Now Toulon realizes he is genuine and begins to learn his powers. Then Afzel starts to make the puppets draw a barrier that's supposed to protect him if the servants come back.
While stepping outside for a brief moment, Toulon begins to talk to a beggar who has sat on the steps since the beginning of the movie. However, he is dead, and when Andre becomes aware of this he begins to mourn. Afzel tells him to bring him inside to teach him the true secret of life. After bringing him inside they use a ring to transfer the soul of the beggar to the puppet, "Pinhead". The puppet starts to move but, after a few questions the puppet runs away into the theater. Later on, Elsa returns to talk to Toulon, until her father's rude servants come by, and they take Elsa and Toulon back to her house, and after Toulon talks to the father, he gets knocked out, and is then thrown into the woods.
The next day, back at the theater, Valentin storms in as the barrier written on paper falls off the wall, and the three mummies see their chance to attack and begin their rampage through the theater, Valentin finished repairing the door as two of the mummies break in and kills him and Vigo, Vigo runs behind stage to Duval and Latour and falls dead, Duval stabs the lead mummy in his hand as the mummy kills him with his other hand, Latuor gets out a gun and shoots the lead mummy three times as the other mummy comes in through the back door and all three of them use their magic to kill him, Afzel appears and says Sutekh shall not claim his life, and kills himself with his own magic. Satisfied with victory, the mummies begin to leave. Once Toulon returns from the woods, he sees what has happened and acts quickly by putting their souls inside his puppets.
The men return, having sensed someone with the knowledge of the secret of life, and try to kill Toulon. His puppets, however, formidable foes, having killed one of the mummies with Six Shooter by shooting the chandelier chains, causing it to crush the servant. The two henchmen retreat in order to plot the capture of Elsa to lure Toulon into a trap.
Feeling that he had won the battle, Andre and his puppets go to a train station to leave Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to Kara, Togo before things start to get bad, not realizing they had already begun. The servants capture Elsa, and then send a dream to Toulon that shows Elsa tied up, and a train. Knowing the meaning, he quickly changes trains to Merca, Somalia and gets his puppets ready for the showdown. When the train leaves, Andre looks around, having released his puppets and letting them follow him throughout the train, until finally coming to the last car and finding Elsa tied up like in his dream. The two men appear and ask for the secret of life. Andre displays the scroll where the secret is written and asks, "How do you know I haven't copied it?" to which the leader states he did not have enough time to do so, but still is doubtful he hadn't. Andre, noticing he is distracted, attacks the leader while his puppets attack the other. A large struggle breaks out, and the other henchman is killed with the final leader of the three being thrown from the car. Freeing Elsa, the group rides away in the train, beginning their long amazing adventure. After telling the story, Toulon wonders if the puppets are wondering what happened to the other puppets, so he decides to tell them later in the future.
Cast
- Greg SesteroGreg SesteroGreg Sestero is a French-American actor and model. He is best known for his role as Mark in the 2003 cult film The Room.-Personal life:...
– Young Andre Toulon - Brigitta Dau – Elsa
- Stephen BlackehartStephen BlackehartStephen Blackehart is an American actor and producer from Hell's Kitchen, New York. It has been reported that Blackehart was born Stefano Brando and is the son of actor Marlon Brando...
– First Servant - Jack DonnerJack DonnerJack Donner is an American actor. He acted in theater, as well as in television and film.-Early life:Donner was born in Los Angeles, California. He has worked steadily in television and film since the 1950s including early work on The Guiding Light and As the World Turns...
– Afzel - Guy RolfeGuy RolfeGuy 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...
– Elder Andre Toulon - Robert Radoveanu – Second Servant
- Vitalie Bantas – Third Servant
- Sandu Teodor – Latour
- George Calin – Valentin
- Juliano Doman – Vigo
- Vlad Dulea – Duval
- Dan Fintescu – Beggar
- Serban Celea – Father
- Elvira Deatcu – Margarette
- Claudiu Trandafir – Leader
- Marcello Cobzariu – First Tough
- Viorel ManoleViorel ManoleViorel Manole is a Romanian former volleyball player who competed in the 1980 Summer Olympics.He was born in Brasov.In 1980 he was a squad member of the Romanian team which won the bronze medal in the Olympic tournament....
– Second Tough - Mihai Verbinschi – First Pursuer
- Adrian Ciobanu – Second Pursuer
- Razvan Popa – Assistant
- Aurelian Popa – Official
- Cristian IrimiaCristian IrimiaCristian Irimia is a Romanian footballer. He currently plays for FC Sportul Studenţesc Bucureşti as a defender.-External links:* * * *...
– Conductor - Ion Bechet – Ticket Agent
Featured puppets
- Blade
- Jester
- Pinhead
- Leech Woman
- CyclopsCyclopsA cyclops , in Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, was a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his forehead...