Monster of the Day #854

Updated on February 17, 2014 By Ken Begg 32 Comments

We’ve never really given Charles Band enough love on these pages, so let’s pay a little homage to that fine gent, who gave us many, many hours of cheezy enjoyment in the ’80s.

Pin It



Related Posts

  • sandra

    Ah, Puppetmaster ! Are you going to give each puppet its own day ?

  • Ken_Begg

    Well, some of them, there are quite a few!

  • Flangepart

    The Charles Band. Playing Red Weddings, Evil graduations, and Barmitzfes.

  • Rock Baker

    PUPPETMASTER 3 from the looks of things. Without doubt the best entry in the series. Certainly the coolest.

  • Band is one of those directors I don’t have a serious opinion on. He’s not someone I seek out, yet I don’t cringe when I see he’s directing something.

  • zombiewhacker

    Trancers was his best film. IIRC he also produced the original Reanimator, so mad props for that.

  • Trancers was decent enough. I also liked Crash and Burn. It’s just his other stuff does little for me. Not entirely sure why that is.

  • Petoht

    Oh hey, something I recognize.
    Not that I’ve seen it, but I remember it from my local video store. All the horror was in a back room, and they had these (plastic) chains hanging like love beads. You’d go through and there would be big box after big box of VHS tapes. The Puppet Master series always had stand out art.

  • Ken_Begg

    I like the Subspecies movies, and Trancers is pretty good. Band’s company put out dependably entertaining films; not great, really, but consistently good and generally fun. They were always worth a rental back in the day. I always thought of him as the closest analogue in the ’80s to the ’50s Roger Corman.

  • The Rev.

    I’ve never seen a Subspecies movie despite hearing they’re some of his better stuff. The first Trancers movie I saw was the 2nd one; those who’ve seen it can understand why I haven’t seen another. I should give the original a go sometime.

  • The Rev.

    We seem to be in the minority; I’d probably pick that as my favorite as well, but most people I talk to dislike, even hate it. Not sure why.

    Good ol’ Blade. Probably my favorite of the puppets, partially because he just looks bad-ass (the first time I noticed his eyes bulging out right before attacking actually gave me a touch of the willies) and partially because he shows more personality (pushing up the brim of his hat or touching it in greeting, that one time he very carefully cleaned off his weapons post-kill, etc.) than any of them save perhaps Jester. Since Ken started with him, I wonder if he’s of the same opinion.

  • Ken_Begg

    I haven’t seen a ton of these, and that was back in the day, but he always seemed like the leader to me.

  • Reed

    Several years ago I went to a Charles Band Road Show. It was actually very entertaining. Band has a lot of really great stories. Given how long his career has been a surprisingly large number of them feature Gary Busey. He seemed like he would be a fun guy to drink a beer with. I love some of Full Moon’s wackier stuff like Hideous or Head of the Family. I rented a lot of his classic output back in the late 80’s, so I will always have a fondness for a lot of his work.

  • Rock Baker

    SHADOWZONE was pretty good for what it was (an obvious ALIEN knock off), THE DAY TIME ENDED was pretty neat, and most of us I’m sure have a soft spot for LASERBLAST. I believe the nifty ZONE TROOPERS was also one of his. DOLLMAN had it’s plus points as well.

  • Rock Baker

    As a series, the PUPPETMASTER cycle was hit or miss. You see the first film and you kinda wonder why it was ever thought of as a property for sequels. The second film wasn’t too bad, though. And the there was the third entry, which re-wrote all the back-story but was such a neato film it was an improvement. From there, it was a largely bland assortment of comic book movies (one even an outright remake of SSSSSSSS!).

  • The Rev.

    You live in the Dallas area, right? So you probably went to the one I wanted to but was out of town during. I wonder if he still does those, and if so if he’d come back this way?

  • The Rev.

    Assuming you’re talking about Curse of the Puppet Master…holy crap, you’re right, that was totally SSSSSSSSS! I never twigged to that!

    Hit or miss….that’s about right, although it’s mostly miss, sadly. I like the original more than most people, although I wouldn’t say it’s particularly good. The second one’s a bit better, and the third’s my favorite. The fourth and fifth I’ve only seen once years ago and remember being pretty meh; however, I do love the Totems, which have a great design, even if their master is one of the worst puppets I’ve ever seen. Curse was garbage.

    I’ve heard Retro was even worse than Curse, so I haven’t seen it or any of the other ones that followed (which may have just been that one with the Demonic Toys, which has one of the worst covers I’ve ever seen). I recall seeing something about another sequel that appeared to pick up from the third one, though. If that’s the case I might find that one.

  • The Rev.

    That’s understandable. Jester is technically the leader, as we have seen him leading or directing the others (in particular he orchestrates their actions at the end of the second movie). However, Blade is like the field commander under Jester’s general. When they’re on the attack he tends to lead from the front and direct the action (hell, Jester’s rarely involved in fights; in fact I don’t recall him even helping kill anyone, much less actually doing so himself). And, since we generally see the puppets in the field, so to speak, it’s not surprising to hear someone think that way re: Blade.

    Wow, I cannot believe how much thought I just gave this.

  • The Rev.

    I haven’t seen any of those, save Dollman, which was okay, and a small part of Laserblast. I seem to recall you talking up Zone Troopers before, though; I might have to put that on the list.

  • zombiewhacker

    Don’t worry, the first Trancers is waaay better than the second one.

  • Petoht

    Like I said, I’ve never actually seen any of them. For the longest time, I had a weird relationship with horror movies: I would never watch them, but I always wanted to know about them. I could spend hours reading about the lore and storylines of slasher and horror movies, but I didn’t want to actually -see- the gore and killing.
    Thus, I’d spend ages in that back room, looking at display boxes for dozens of horror movies I had no intention of actually watching.
    Now though, I should probably man up and watch some of those movies that caught my attention. Especially the goofier themed ones like Puppetmaster.

  • Reed

    I live in Ft. Worth, but no doubt it was the same. I was truly surprised when he “directed” a little skit where he brings up 3 ladies from the audience to be in a “menaced by monsters” scene, and they all went topless. I’m getting older (although still younger than Ken!), but young ladies just weren’t that casual about nudity back in my day!
    Also, Band was doing a big promotional push for Evil Bong. Man, Evil Bong. Remember how awesome that movie was?
    I don’t think he does these any more, but I would totally go to another one. Well worth the (free) price of admission.

  • Ken_Begg

    You young whippersnapper!

    Reed, I assume we’ll be seeing you at Sandy’s next week?

  • Ken_Begg

    Part of it is nostalgia, of course, but also there is a ‘you had to be there effect.’ A lot of total crap was being put out then, and Band’s wares were reliably at least decently made and generally entertaining. Compare his stuff to the run of SyFy ‘original’ movies, for instance.

  • Reed

    God willin’ and the crick don’t rise!

  • The Rev.

    I can’t remember Evil Bong as I’ve never seen it. Nothing about it really caught me enough to try it.

    They had one recently called Ooga Booga, though, that looked so wrong on enough levels that I might just check it out. I also need to get around to the Gingerdead Man movies.

  • Rock Baker

    The most recent pair of films are direct sequels to the third film, revolving around a young American who finds the trunk of puppets in time to set them against Jap and Nazi spies working to sabotage the American war effort. Not terrific, but certainly fun movies. A step up from the bulk of the stuff which followed 3. (Although the puppets are far less agile than they used to be. The Six-Shooter puppet in particular can barely move.)

    As to CURSE being a remake of SSSSSS, the movie itself acknowledged this. Look at the room full of props we’re shown early on, and notice that the half-snake from the SSSSSS transformation scene is proudly displayed right in front of the camera!

  • Rock Baker

    Blade, by the way, was based on Klaus Kinski. He was to play Richard Lynch’s part in PUPPETMASTER 3, but died just before production started (or didn’t get enough money, I can’t be sure which).

  • Reed

    That’s because Evil Bong is a sorry half-assed piece of crap in the “I just really don’t care any more” mold. It’s sad how far Band has fallen (and yes, I can say that without a trace of irony). Even sadder, Evil Bong is actually an advertisement vehicle for “Monster Bras”. That’s not a joke; these are a real thing pimped in the movie: incredibly uncomfortable looking bras with monster mouths or whatever on the cups.
    Band did a thing at the Road Show where if you bought so much money worth of merchandise he would list you as an “executive producer” on his next movie, which I thought was a fanastic idea. He didn’t list me, though. :(

  • The Rev.

    Admittedly, I saw that before I had a chance to see SSSSSSSSS!. I’ll take your word for it as I really have no interest in watching that particular movie again.

    Good to know that there are two of those, though! The one I was thinking of had “The Axis Powers” in the title, I think. Dunno if that’s the first one of those two. If they’re on the upper Bell curve of this series I’m on board. Those are getting put high on the list (right under the highest priority, which is the last two Blind Dead movies).

  • The Rev.

    RE Blade’s appearance: I can see that, actually. I’m sure I won’t be able to unsee it, either.

    Kinski in that role is interesting to consider, even though I’m a fan of Lynch.

  • Rock Baker

    AXIS OF EVIL (the ninth film) and AXIS RISING (the 10th). Neither is as good as the third film, but they’re head and shoulders above every film in between!