Puppet Masters / Castle Freaks

BLOOD DOLLS has everything: an all-girl rock band trapped in a cage, murderous dolls, misshapen heads, killer chairs... and that's just in the opening five minutes! Charles Band's spiritual follow-up to HEAD OF THE FAMILY is an absolutely wild ride, and we're fortunate to be joined by Summer and Jamie from the Dolls of Horror podcast to work through it.  Hosted by Jarrod Hornbeck and Steve Guntli ...

He's thirteen inches... with an attitude. He's DOLLMAN, Tim Thomerson's wacky return to the Full Moon universe, a badass space cop who travels to Earth, where he learns he's six times smaller than everything around him. This silly, gory action-comedy boasts some oddball laughs and a fun villain turn from future Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley, and we're excited to be joined by Eric Walkuski from...

Perhaps the gnarliest film in the entire catalog, Stuart Gordon's CASTLE FREAK was a notorious low-budget shocker that completed his Combs/Crampton/Lovecraft trilogy that began back with RE-ANIMATOR. Of course, when talking about CASTLE FREAK, there's only one guest we could have had, a man who's worked himself into the lore of the series and helped perpetuate it's reputation: Stuart Wellington! T...

Full Moon's most prominent killer clown makes his PM/CF debut this week. KILLJOY, the tiny-budgeted shocker from 2000, helped usher in a new era of Full Moon features, for better and for worse. We're excited to welcome the amazing Stevie Webb, host of BRAIN ROT, the UK's best horror podcast, to talk all about the cheap thrills of this ice cream-peddling demon clown! Hosted by Jarrod Hornbeck and S...

SHRUNKEN HEADS tells the classic tale of three murdered children who are decapitated, resurrected by voodoo, and become crime fighters who turn criminals into farting zombies. You know, that tired old trope.  Richard Elfman's gonzo dark comedy is one of the wildest discoveries we've had on this show so far; luckily we've got an amazing special guest on hand to help us make sense of it. Grady Hendr...

Stuart Gordon takes on Edgar Allen Poe this week, with a stacked cast of craggy character actors and a prominent role for Charles Band's castle! This week, we're talking THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM with the great film critic and podcaster Scott Weinberg!  Hosted by Jarrod Hornbeck and Steve Guntli  Logo by Douglas McCambridge  Theme song by Kyle Hornbeck  Email: puppetmasterscastlefreaks@gmail.com  ...

The single most successful film in the entire Full Moon canon isn't PUPPET MASTER or DEMONIC TOYS or even FEMALIEN; it's a kid-friendly adventure that tried to cash in on the popularity of JURASSIC PARK. This week, we're watching PREHYSTERIA!, the first film from the wildly successful, family-friendly Moonbeam Entertainment sublabel. Join us as we meet Elvis, Madonna, and the rest of the tiny dino...

Just when you thought it was safe to go to the bathroom... it's a double dose of the GHOULIES! More than just a GREMLINS knock-off, the original GHOULIES was the breakout hit that allowed Empire Films to thrive, and the sequel let Charlie's father Albert Band jump behind the camera once again for a fun monster movie romp. Horror podcaster Kevin Lane (from the Spill Your Guts podcast) joins us to t...

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST meets DEAD RINGERS this week for the sexy-yet-problematic gothic romance MERIDIAN: KISS OF THE BEAST! Starring a young Sherilyn Fenn and Full Moon favorite Charlie Spradling, the movie delivers on lascivious thrills. but does it hold up to modern scrutiny? Special guest Charles Williamson is on-hand to help us sort it out.  Hosted by Jarrod Hornbeck and Steve Guntli  Theme son...

It's time for a Jack-Attack! This week, we're watching another seminal entry in Charlie Band's Tiny Terrors with DEMONIC TOYS! Special guest Dan Bookbinder locks himself in an abandoned toy factory with us to discuss Baby Oopsie-Daisy, Mr. Static, Grizzly Teddy, and Jack Attack as they wreak their special brand of havoc.  Hosted by Jarrod Hornbeck and Steve Guntli  Theme song by Kyle Hornbeck  Log...

We're very excited to be joined this week by director/writer/producer/actor Sam Irvin! Sam has directed three movies for Full Moon, including the two OBLIVION films and MAGIC ISLAND for Moonbeam, and he shares his memories from the set while also walking us through his incredibly varied and prestigious career! From turning a Romanian film studio into an Old West town to getting the giggles with Ch...

Another of Full Moon's HP Lovecraft adaptations, LURKING FEAR tends to get forgotten in the shadow of the Stuart Gordon trilogy, but this fun genre mash-up has a lot to like. With plenty of genre stars (including Vincent Schiavelli, Jon Finch, Ashley Laurence, and Jeffrey Combs), the story melds a hostage flick with supernatural horror as a skeleton crew of survivors hole up in a cemetery to fight...

The first two PUPPET MASTER sequels are both major fan-favorites, so we knew we had to bring in an expert to weigh in! This week, we're joined by Nat Brehmer, the author of PUPPET MASTER COMPLETE: A FRANCHISE HISTORY, to talk through two early Full Moon classics. Firstly, PUPPET MASTER II, which follows up on the original with more puppets and more gore while letting SFX master Dave Allen take a t...

One of the only true comedies we're going to cover on this show, CANNIBAL WOMEN IN THE AVOCADO OF DEATH is a feminist parody of APOCALYPSE NOW, featuring direct-to-video bombshell Shannon Tweed and a pre-talk show Bill Maher, with a screenplay by the writer of PRETTY WOMAN! It's an interesting mixed bag of a production, but it is a beloved favorite of our guest, Ailish Collins, who joins us to exp...

The second in Stuart Gordon's trilogy of HP Lovecraft adaptations, FROM BEYOND is a wild, kinky, gleefully disturbing thrill ride of a movie. We're joined this week by none other than Nathan Rabin, author, culture writer, former editor of the Onion AV Club, and the man who coined the term "Manic Pixie Dream Girl!" Nathan helps us dive deep into Gordon's oeuvre, from his early days as a renegade th...

A group of teens stumbles upon a roadside attraction full of sentient mannequins in the slow-brewing cult favorite TOURIST TRAP! The earliest film we've discussed so far, TOURIST TRAP was an instrumental early hit for young Charles Band and his future PUPPET MASTER director, David Schmoeller. We're joined this week by podcaster and writer Danny Torkel to talk through this scrappy low-budget slashe...

It's Linnea Quigley vs. an evil wish-granting imp in David DeCoteau's goofy 1988 schlockfest SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-O-RAMA! JR Ralls from "Thirty-Twenty-Ten" joins us as we talk bowling in the 80s, USA's "Up All Night," and the long-delayed sequel you never knew you wanted!  Hosted by Jarrod Hornbeck and Steve Guntli  Theme song by Kyle Hornbeck  Logo by Douglas McCambridge  Email: p...

Howdy, y'all! This week, we're joined by author and podcaster Dylan James Quarles to watch OBLIVION, a wild blend of sci-fi and western tropes that features one of Full Moon's most star-studded casts to date (George Takei! Julie Newmar!). It's a rootin-tooting, space-shootin' good time.  Hosted by Jarrod Hornbeck and Steve Guntli  Theme song by Kyle Hornbeck  Logo by Douglas McCambridge  Email:  p...

This week, we're looking at our most recent Full Moon release to date, the 2022 serial PIRANHA WOMEN! Directed by legendary schlockmeister Fred Olen Ray, this film features genetically-modified bombshells with some killer fish DNA that manifests in some... unorthodox body mutations.  Hosted by Jarrod Hornbeck and Steve Guntli  Theme song by Kyle Hornbeck  Logo by Douglas McCambridge  Email:  puppe...

This week, we're looking at the seamy underbelly of the Full Moon Empire, the short-lived softcore porn label Torchlight! One of the first efforts (certainly one of the most provocatively named) was TEST TUBE TEENS FROM THE YEAR 2000, aka VIRGIN HUNTERS. Directed by David DeCoteau and starring Morgan Fairchild, this campy skin flick tries to add some sexiness to a goofy TERMINATOR parody.  Hosted...

This week, Full Moon relocates to Romania for the first of their hugely popular vampire series, SUPSPECIES! We're going to meet the long-fingered villain Radu and his weird little blood goblin friends as we dig into Ted Nicolao's fun gothic horror flick. We're also going to dig in to the history behind Full Moon's move to it's new Eastern European headquarters, and look back on what would be one o...

This week, we're suiting up to pilot our first Stuart Gordon film, ROBOT JOX! Gordon is one of the most beloved directors in the Empire / Full Moon stable, and this underrated mech-fighting action/sci-fi romp puts his abilities on full display. Joining us for this episode is film industry expert John Torrani, who boasts not only an impressive knowledge of the genre but one of the preeminent collec...

This week we're looking at one of the most prominent of the latter-day Full Moon Features, the lowbrow stoner comedy EVIL BONG. This film sees four roommates battling the titular paraphernalia, who transports them to a sinister strip club populated by other Full Moon characters. Would you believe, though, that this movie is kinda dumb?  Hosted by Jarrod Hornbeck and Steve Guntli  Logo by Douglas M...

In this episode, we're looking back at the pre-Full Moon days, going back to Charles Band's earlier studio, Empire International Pictures! Empire produced some of the most beloved movies from the entire Band canon, and TRANCERS is definitely among the most loved. This wildly fun 1984 sci-fi thriller stars Tim Thomerson as future cop Jack Deth, who must travel back in time to stop a madman from tur...

Welcome to Puppet Masters / Castle Freaks! On this show, we're going to dig into every movie made by Full Moon Features and it's subsidiary studios, and we could think of no better place to begin than the one that started it all: 1989's PUPPET MASTER! Directed by David Schmoeller from an idea by Full Moon creator Charles Band, this movie introduced the world to Toulon and his cadre of killer puppe...