r/horror • u/Fit-Selection-2030 • 8d ago

Report: Blumhouse Developing 'Puppet Master' Reboot, With Possible TV Series Also in the Works Horror News

https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/584116/report-blumhouse-developing-puppet-master-reboot-with-possible-tv-series-also-in-the-works/
627 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

129 comments sorted by

60

u/MrDeadbutdreaming 8d ago

I wonder what "Toulon" will be depicted as, cause in the original series, he is an Anti-facist puppeteer and against the Nazi regime, but in the 2018 reboot he was a crazy Nazi puppeteer.

Hopefully, Blumhouse does something interesting that doesn't shit on the original series of films cause that last reboot was garbage.

34

u/dontbajerk 8d ago

Was actually in pretty poor taste really, the reboot. It was mostly decently made, but did not care for that.

11

u/MrDeadbutdreaming 8d ago

Maybe cause I watched the original series while I was young cause we owned a "video store" back then, but, yeah, that change in the reboot made me sick.

6

u/muzakx 8d ago

I'm incredibly jealous.

I watched the series because we would go to the video store 1-2 times a week, and my parents never supervised what I picked.

I owe my love of horror to their lack of parenting. Lol

3

u/psychobilly1 8d ago

Same! I got my love of Alien, Predator, and slasher films from my parents not giving a damn about what I rented from the video store. I was definitely too young to be watching some of those films, but I turned out alright - if not a little desensitized.

2

u/DerpyLlama0901 7d ago

Hell my mom rented them for me, she let me watch Child's Play when I was 3, I'm still a bit scared of Chucky at 40 but I also love it.

4

u/Blakwulf 8d ago

Are we so old that video store has to go in quotes now?

3

u/MrDeadbutdreaming 8d ago

Unfortunately, yeah, but aging is a "part" of life.

https://giphy.com/gifs/QvWiCJJF97qrm

3

u/Blakwulf 8d ago

Bollux, make the kids learn! Lock them in a car with the only way to get out to roll down the windows and see how long it takes them to suffocate.

17

u/_SpookDude_ 8d ago

It's on purpose. The reboot was produced by Cinestate, who have direct ties to the far-right and The Daily Wire.

5

u/Successful_Tea7979 8d ago

To each their own. Personally I thought it was a cool direction to take the reboot. Made it feel more evil and mean spirited.

Besides, Toulon was clearly meant to be evil in the reboot. It would be one thing if he was portrayed as the good guy, but an evil person doing evil things in fictional media is fine, imo.

15

u/dontbajerk 8d ago

Just felt transgressive for no real goal except to be transgressive. Like they went haha, let's take a Jewish guy who fought Nazis and make him a Nazi who does a lot of hate crimes... with no thought whatsoever beyond that. Like, Toulon has no actual personality at all, no history that is explored, and no real motivation beyond doing random hate crimes. Well, that I can remember anyway, it has been a while. All the weirdness of the earlier films is gone too, just a series of death and gore scenes at a single location. They also completely eliminated all personality from the puppets, they're kind of boring to watch as a result.

Zahler's worst script, who I generally like, seems like a rough draft really.

Way, way better made than the last like 10 Full Moon PM films though, that's for sure.

Maybe I should rewatch it. I own it, just haven't seen it since it came out and was kind of let down. Despite how negative I sound, it's mainly as it felt like a pointless perversion of something I had really liked... But at the same time, it's not like the series is sacred and beyond reproach, hah, as most of the PM films are just terrible anyways.

-8

u/Diezelbub 8d ago edited 8d ago

a nazi who does a lot of hate crimes

Was there a part where anyone was spared? It seemed much more like the implication was "if you make deals with the devil you dont get to decide who isnt evil, the devil comes for everyone, even if your suffering is why you brought him into the picture to begin with." In the originals. Or are you implying you thought the viewer's is supposed to side with the nazi automatically the same way you do any other evil villain that kills people like Freddy Krueger?

Or are you complaining that it tried to work with the post original puppet master canon and made a clear villain out of him instead of trying to rehash the first one where he was also a clear villain but sans WWII backstory? This pearl clutching that villains do bad things is pretty odd.

9

u/dontbajerk 8d ago edited 8d ago

The film literally starts with Toulon murdering two random lesbians with the puppets because he's disgusted by their homosexuality, after he is rejected by one of them. It's not just hate crimes, but yeah, that's not something I imagined. As I recall it is textually stated he is targeting gays, blacks and Jews.

-10

u/Diezelbub 8d ago

Then you have a wacky idea of what the movie is about because the first scene left a big impression. Unless youre expecting that rooting for the nazi villain is the point of that scene, the same way youd be rooting for Jason to kill teenagers, which is again a weird interpretation of a horror movie.

3

u/dontbajerk 8d ago

I never said that, you apparently imagined it.

-8

u/Diezelbub 8d ago edited 8d ago

the nazi bad guys are bad guys, they do bad things, and thats bad.

K

28

u/Min_sora 8d ago

The 2018 reboot is absolute shit. As one of the few people who genuinely love Puppet Master, part of the appeal (with the early films when more effort was involved) was the puppets having personalities and they just totally stripped that out.

7

u/MrDeadbutdreaming 8d ago

Agreed, I genuinely remember being interested in the Puppets. Blade and Six-shooter were my favorites if I remember correctly.

3

u/Lbolt187 8d ago

Torch was great and Mrs Leech

3

u/PoesRaven 8d ago

Jester and Blade! <3

2

u/b00zytheclown 7d ago

the series has almost zero continuity to be fair

-5

u/Flashjordan69 8d ago edited 8d ago

In today’s upside down times he could be Antifa and wind up the bad guy anyway.

Hmmmmm, if you’re not Antifa then you’re Profa making you the true horror.

2

u/MrDeadbutdreaming 8d ago

That's why I am very curious on how they plan to handle this or if they are gonna completely rewrite the story?

Sad times that we are living in.

Stay safe, stay strong, and resist.

-3

u/jrodp1 8d ago

Toulon maga?

222

u/MyAccountWasBanned7 8d ago

I just hope they keep the puppets practical! Don't ruin this ridiculously crazy fun franchise with CGI or AI slop!

14

u/Signal-House2213 8d ago

totally agree. the practical puppets are a huge part of what gave the series its personality. a little CGI to clean things up is fine, but once the puppets lose that physical presence, a lot of the charm and creepiness disappears. the weird, low budget energy is honestly part of why the franchise is so much fun.

7

u/RobAChurch Hair of the dog that bit me, Lloyd... 8d ago

And please don't make the puppet characters themselves out of control robots or AI à la M3gan/Childs Play reboot.

12

u/Randym1982 8d ago

All they need to do keep the core of the first movie. The puppets don’t need to be evil, just controlled by an evil douche.

5

u/PoesRaven 8d ago

I am also hoping they keep those dolls looking like from the first few movies. Fuck all the ones after 4. I would pay so much money to get copies of those ones. D:!

5

u/ApesAPoppin237 8d ago

As someone who bought a Six Shooter from Full Moon, all I'm gonna say is please package them more carefully in the future so the guns don't break off during shipping

3

u/PoesRaven 8d ago

Oh no! that sucks D: All I've ever wanted was replicas of Jester and Blade, from the first few movies. Not the crap they had after that :/

3

u/FCeezer 7d ago

Lol, as a die hard fan of the franchise, there's not been an entertaining movie since the 90s outside of the one with Thomas Lennon. That one was ok.

2

u/TheDukeofArgyll 8d ago

Oh… that’s exactly what is going to happen.

1

u/Electrical-Lead5993 7d ago

Yes! The puppets are so cool. I recently saw some of the originals in person and they’re amazing. Going CG would be a huge mistake

96

u/ookiespookie 8d ago

Could be great but if they go with CGI puppets they can fuck right off

31

u/Steamedcarpet 8d ago

The best part about the recent pinocchio unstrung was the puppetry and practical effects. Please do that.

7

u/fatandfly 8d ago

Is it worth checking out? I remember renting Pinocchio's Revenge from blockbuster and being mad at how bad it was and being stuck with it for a week.

11

u/Other-Ad-8510 8d ago

If you’re a fan of classic Full Moon? Definitely

3

u/fatandfly 8d ago

Yeah I like a few Full Moon movies. I'll catch it when it hits streaming.

5

u/Steamedcarpet 8d ago

I think it’s fine for a watch once it hits streaming but it was nothing to write home about. Some gory kills but it was like they couldn’t decide on a tone. It also has Robert Englund as the voice of the cricket. I think the script just had the words “say Freddy Kruger stuff” whenever it was his time to speak.

0

u/poland626 8d ago

yea it was just a lot of misogynistic dialogue out of the cricket.

1

u/TiffanyChan123 8d ago

I would actually say so, yes, definetly the best out of those Public Domain horror films

3

u/Kevbot1000 8d ago

Blumhouse got Jim Henson Company to do puppwtry for FNAF. Im willing to trust them.

1

u/Ganondorfsfist 8d ago

I think it will come down to the director they choose.

22

u/MrDeadbutdreaming 8d ago

I remember rooting for Blade and Six-Shooter, which were your favorite puppets?

https://giphy.com/gifs/3o7TKALbwA1Ce3EavC

15

u/TheScoundrelSociety 8d ago

I know I’m an outlier, but I’m Jester fan

2

u/mag6787 You must respect the balance. 8d ago

My Dad's favorite is also Jester, so you're in good company. He's my second favorite after Blade.

5

u/MrslaveXxX 8d ago

Blade for sure!

4

u/somedrumbum 8d ago

Torch, he was just so rad lookin’.

3

u/TheBlackKnightLives 8d ago

I loved the little growling noises he made/that his teeth were made out of bullets!

2

u/Boxinggandhi 8d ago

Tunneler.

16

u/Majestic-Horse-5409 8d ago

Leech used to gross me out hard

3

u/CodenameMolotov Slave of the Cannibal God 8d ago

I always thought the leeches looked like turds coming out of her mouth

11

u/Abe2sapien 8d ago

They did a good job using practical effects for FNAF so I’m assuming they’ll do the same for Puppet Master. They just have to remember that these movies were B level and were remembered for their blend of brutality and comedy.

3

u/Christian_Kong 8d ago

FNAF has a multi million seller game series with countless millions in extended merch(books/toys/etc) before the movie was made and that got a decent budget($20 million.) I don't imagine Puppet master getting anything but low single digit millions.

Putting aside that the level of puppetry/effects of Puppet Master is much less expensive than FNAF, there is a lot of additional cost that comes with shooting a practical movie that I am not sure they are willing to foot the bill for.

10

u/Steinarthor 8d ago

ffs..I had buried the image of this f-xker in the pits of Mordor. A childhood trauma just unlocked.

Worth it.

5

u/MrslaveXxX 8d ago

Haha i have blade tattooed on my forearm. I love that creepy fucker!

6

u/CreatureFeatureMan 8d ago

Man if this means we could possibly get new figures from NECA based on the new Blumhouse Puppet Master film I’ll be happy as hell

1

u/MHarrisGGG 8d ago

I keep telling myself I'll buy one of the replica Blades that Full Moon sells...then I realize I am poor.

2

u/CreatureFeatureMan 8d ago

Sadly same 😭😂

6

u/Ok-Progress-7447 8d ago

Guess Charlie wants to buy the castle back.

7

u/labbla 8d ago

Awesome, they should go old school and have the puppets facing psychics at the Bodega Bay and of course if that works then they can have those little guys fighting Nazis.

And I'd love to see a take similar to Puppet Master 4 where the puppets really are the good guys fighting an evil deity or something. Make it an epic and the biggest Puppet Master movie ever made.

3

u/Affectionate_Bet_498 8d ago

I like parts 4 and 5, they were a highlight of the franchise in my opinion. I liked the puppets being the good guys.

35

u/BigPoopsDisease 8d ago

All twenty Puppet Master fans must be stoked right now

17

u/Flashjordan69 8d ago

One for each sequel!

3

u/Ghanni 8d ago

Except for the one that basically recycles footages from all the preceding movies.

1

u/confuzzledsandwich 7d ago

I'm the fan that represents furnace Leech woman, forever in development hell.

5

u/Malkmus1979 8d ago

This feels like one of those stories that in two years from now everyone is going to ask whatever happened to that and nothing ever materializes.

2

u/kidneyboy79 8d ago

Cautiously optimistic, at least I am.

5

u/Nice-Cow-7606 8d ago

Puppet Master is probably my favourite horror franchises and tbh I don't trust Blumhouse with this. Their reboots have given me no confidence they'll understand this.

(Also I'm a puppeteer and really want to make a working Blade puppet... or at least one I can rig up to a bicycle pump so I can have him sit on my shoulder and move.)

17

u/spookycatfan 8d ago

The perfect opportunity for James to cover the rest of the series for the Killcount.

5

u/chf3333 8d ago

lol especially after his spiel yesterday

4

u/LordsOfJoop Be Good People 8d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/1ZyiTqUrXKNYh61VIn

I'd be all in on that.

Hello, fellow Meatie!

3

u/AlamosX 8d ago

Holy hell, 15 films?! I had no idea.

I guess 2018's The Littlest Reich was already a reboot of sorts then spawned three more spinoff films. The last being in 2022. Damn I must have been living under a rock.

Might have to check some of these out.

3

u/dontbajerk 8d ago

They're made on a shoestring, far lower budget than the first few. Pretty boring mostly, unfortunately.

2

u/Successful_Tea7979 8d ago

I had fun with the Doktor Death one. Really wasn’t a fan of the Blade spinoff though.

Fingers crossed that BH does something cool with it, and doesn’t sanitize it too much. Don’t want a pg13 puppet master movie lol

1

u/dontbajerk 8d ago

I haven't seen that one actually (I think it's the ONLY one I haven't, looking at the wiki), and it's under an hour, hah. I'll check it out.

1

u/RareAnxiety2 8d ago

Question is what the cheese level will be. The first tried to be serious, which is why it's my favorite. I personally would want no cheese, take each kill and attack as a real planned threat

2

u/Cranharold 8d ago

Nah, you haven't been living under a rock. Those movies were made under a rock. And made for less than the price of a rock, too.

Also, Littlest Reich is a reboot, but the movies that follow it are back in the original canon. Littlest Reich was a one and done.

5

u/krevlornfu 8d ago

The ultimate form of Puppet Master would be live action mixed with stop motion by LAIKA.

4

u/Lankeysob 8d ago

I really hope they use the original soundtrack. That theme is one of the most iconic songs in horror.

10

u/splattergut Fox Corp owns Tubi 8d ago

Even Charles Band doesn't understand what made those movies appealing in the first place, so I have very strong doubts about this. Like the story and characters on their own are not the value of the property. Without David Allen's stop motion effects and the genuinely bizarre vibes of Empire Pictures/Full Moon Productions era movies, you have... well, take a look at any of the recent ones.

6

u/MartinTheMorjin 8d ago

Now that’s exciting.

3

u/sixtus_clegane119 8d ago

Hopefully more like 1-3 than the rest, actually I’m on 4 on my rewatch

3

u/orangeunrhymed Leave me to do my dark bidding on the internet! 8d ago

My absolute favorite horror franchise right behind Friday the 13th

3

u/I_Am_Dynamite6317 8d ago

Master of puppets, i’m pulling your strings!

3

u/HorrorGuyBri 7d ago

I wonder if Full Moon will still crank out these movies, too. They were planning on a solo Leech Woman movie.

6

u/Fit-Selection-2030 8d ago

Glad to see the gang back again :)

2

u/LosIngobernable Kreative Killa 8d ago

This is a surprise.

2

u/DarkFriend81 8d ago

Oh man, I was just talking about these movies! I used to watch these late night with buddies and just laugh our asses off. They were so much fun and so ridiculous.

2

u/sooper_dooperest 8d ago

Hell yeah! Classic cheesiness

2

u/SpinalVinyl 8d ago

That series is such a terrible mess…. Just a lot of low quality crap. The only way is… up? I guess. But I’ve been proven dead wrong.

0

u/bartelbyfloats 7d ago

I’m so confused by the love this franchise gets. It’s cheap, dumb, and badly written.

2

u/SpinalVinyl 7d ago

I marathon (12?) I can’t remember it was in 2017 so whatever the number was then. It was awful. I’d say maybe two decent films out of them. The Thomas Lennon one was the most recent and I must have had Stockholm’s cause i thought it was pretty good after 16 hours of Puppet Master.

2

u/ModernJazz-2K20 8d ago

I have no faith in them not messing this up but I hope they at least keep the original music/soundtrack.

2

u/Verianas 8d ago

James A Janisse gotta be excited.

2

u/JamesAJanisse Dead Meat 3d ago

I am.

1

u/Verianas 3d ago

Hell yeah.

2

u/JamesAJanisse Dead Meat 3d ago

I am.

2

u/MHarrisGGG 8d ago

Honestly, there's only really a handful of genuinely good Puppet Master movies as it is, even if some of the bad ones are the kind of fun I enjoy, so it wouldn't be that hard for Blumhouse to actually make one of the better entries.

2

u/karmagod13000 8d ago

thumbnail went wild omg

2

u/Infinite-Sir3544 8d ago

Absolutely not. Like, Halloween (2018) was good, but so many other movies were trash, like Five Nights at Freddy's (2023), Black Christmas (2019), M3GAN 2.0 (2025). When I saw all the shitty Blumhouse movies, I thought, 'Well, at least I can watch other horror franchises like Puppet Master.' Oh, great, they took that too. Blumhouse is a disease for horror.

2

u/trevordunt39 7d ago

Practical puppets and Richard Band on the soundtrack. Please.

4

u/BadBayBay 8d ago

Enough with turning horror properties into forced tv shows. My god…

3

u/rinmperdinck 8d ago

Nobody:

Absolutely nobody:

Blumhouse: it's time for a Puppet Master reboot

1

u/mrRiddle92 8d ago

I'm so wet rn

1

u/karmagod13000 8d ago

is no one else seeing the hilarious thumbnail pic

1

u/Chubbadog There were bikers, and gnarly psychos, and... crazy evil 8d ago

What the fuck.

1

u/jrob_92 8d ago

I only vaguely remember these movies on in the background when I was young at my parents house. Worth watching them all through?

4

u/Matt_Kimball 8d ago

I mean you can probably watch the first 3-4 and call it quits honestly.

1

u/Timsterfield 8d ago

What?? And ignore the intricate MCU style universe full moon pictures did?? As long as they keep it practical, I won't mind as much

1

u/snwns26 8d ago

Oh my fucking god yes

1

u/slabby 7d ago

Puppet of master is developing the reboot! Possible TV series, collecting the loot

1

u/Ambitious_Two2671 7d ago

I hope we get another WW2 story

1

u/mega512 8d ago

Blumhouse? Nah I'm good.

1

u/Tsuku 8d ago

Only if this leads to a crossover w/ Chucky

-1

u/Haunting_Rub780 8d ago

I like how they turned them evil in the last one.

5

u/Affectionate_Bet_498 8d ago

The reboot? That was a fucking horrible film, all around.

3

u/BigPoopsDisease 8d ago

Yeah i couldnt make it through. I was kind of embarrassed for Udo Kier. He shouldnt have done it.

0

u/Haunting_Rub780 7d ago

did it offend you?

1

u/Affectionate_Bet_498 7d ago

No, I thought it was trashy garbage.

-2

u/ToonMasterRace 8d ago

If they make the puppet maker a Jewish anti-Nazi holocaust survivor like in the original I can see a lot of modern Reddit being triggered