Fans ofcult horror movieswill have no trouble recognize the name of manufacturer , writer , and director Charles Band ; it pops up in the credit of well - be intimate classics likeRe - Animator , Ghoulies , Pupper Master , andTroll , all of which he made through his various society over the years ( including the now - defunct Empire Pictures and his current party , Full Moon ) . With a highly enjoyable new memoir releasing this month — the colorfully titled Confessions of a Puppetmaster : A Hollywood Memoir of Ghouls , Guts , and Gonzo Filmmaking — io9 spoke with Band about his life and life history so far . What follows is a lightly edited and digest rendering of our conversation .
Cheryl Eddy , io9 : What was your inspiration for writing your memoirs now , at this stage in your vocation ?
Charles Band : It was sort of fortuitous timing early last summertime — we were still shooting pic , but far few because of covid — and a literary agent pose in cutaneous senses with me . He ’s friendly with the citizenry at HarperCollins , and somehow they had heard about my softheaded life so far and cogitate that they desire to make some form of an offer for an autobiography . I said , “ OK , that sounds great . I may even have the prison term to do that , but I ’m not a author . ” So [ the agent ] find out a fantastical biographer named Adam Felber , who , among other things , was one of the head author on Real Time With Bill Maher for 11 years . For me , [ compiling my memoirs ] was weird because I ’m just so forward - thought , I ’ve got so much that I ’m doing . We ’re get to have plausibly our most prolific yr ever next year — we have 18 movies plan — so I just do n’t calculate back that much . And I know I ’ve made a circumstances of movies and had many adventures , but this was fun [ because ] he kind of made me slow down and think about thing that I usually do n’t think about and attempt to recollect stuff going back , like , way too far . [ Laughs ]
Band poses with some of his scary little buddies on the cover of his new memoir.Image: William Morrow/HarperCollins
io9 : That ’s perfect , because you — as you talk about in your book — cast Bill Maher in one of his early acting role [ in 1989 ’s Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death ] , right ?
striation : There ’s [ almost always ] somebody like that — even ones that are not note [ in the book ] , on every movie—[both in front of ] and behind the photographic camera … it kind of started even in the outset . My first repulsion movie , which was call Mansion of the Doomed , we had Richard Basehart , we had Gloria Grahame . That was Lance Henriksen ’s first movie . My stateless person was Andrew Davis , who after became a well - known director ; he made The Fugitive and other big Hollywood movies . My extra effects bozo wasStan Winston , who became a close champion and became probably the most noted special effects guy wire , doing movies like Terminator and Aliens and Jurassic Park . So many of these movies are pepper with people that , in many cases , went on and had awful careers . So that was really great and sort of rosy that that was part of that .
io9 : How did you decide what stories to admit in the book ? Did you have to sort of self - edit anything out along the way ?
Image: William Morrow/HarperCollins
Band : Not really . You have a go at it , I did n’t require the leger to just be movie - by - movie , behind - the - vista snippets about what it was like to make all 12 Puppet Master film . There have been other Koran that have been write about my physical structure of employment and I thought , “ I just want to order the stories that are more human . ” I mean , look , this could be any business . It ’s a story of an entrepreneur who , without any formal training — I mean , I recognize how to make moving picture , I grew up on a motion-picture show set — but , you hump , I graduated high schoolhouse , did n’t blow a minute , jump into this business . I had no business grooming . It ’s a unknown mix of art and finance . You make a billion mistakes , which I did , and I thought the book would be more interesting , and that the great unwashed who would enjoy reading about that , as oppose to just muckle of technological stuff about make low-spirited - budget pic .
io9 : For anyone who ’s reading this interview that might not be totally familiar with your filmography , what would you say are like five or six quintessential Charlie Band movies ?
Band : Well , I guess these movies have stand the tryout of time . I never sort of follow the pack , so I never made a slasher picture when Friday , the 13th was happen and all its sequels . Did n’t do any of those , did n’t do Halloween picture or the Freddy Krueger hooey . I just call up most of these movies have , you know , a sealed originality — albeit , you know , low budget . So you could go back to the ‘ 70s , a movie like Laserblast , which could be remade with a $ 100 million budget and be a mickle of fun : careless aliens go away a optical maser - same weapon on Earth , and some kid who ’s been treated ill , bullied around , finds it and mishandle up all his enemies . I made a movie called Tourist Trap , whichStephen Kingthought was one of the scariest pic of that decade ; [ it stars ] Chuck Connors and is about this strange place mass fell into , and mannequins . And then movies like Ghoulies , which I know destroy [ so many ] parents efforts ’ of endeavor to get their child potty trained because the poster had a Ghoulie coming out of the toilet … we got some really , really tight letters back in the day .
And then , you know , Re - Animator , which I think was pretty alone for the clip , and From Beyond and Dolls . And then as we hit the ‘ ninety , we had a keen deal with Paramount and we were making a movie every four weeks . And that ’s when we released Puppet Master , and Subspecies , which I think is one of the full vampire series enfranchisement . There ’s also movie like Trancers and Troll , which has a youngJulia Louis - Dreyfusin there . The landscape is littered with all these sorting of movies as I go back and forward in time .
Even more recently , [ we ’ve found a ] successful franchise [ with ] malevolent Bong — the first one is with Tommy Chong — we’ve made nine of them over 16 , 17 years . It ’s fun , giddy , weed - centrical escapism , but that kind of has its own audience . And in a similar way , we made another kooky franchise called the Gingerdead Man with Gary Busey playing a super pissed - off cookie . Then , of course , you do the crossover , so we made a picture call Gingerdead Man vs. Evil Bong , just like I made years before with Dollman vs. Demonic Toys . There ’s a sort of universe that keeps expand and growing , and I love plucking characters from the older movies and then bringing them into a current moving picture without any fanfare . Just , let ’s see if people make out this fiber and this actor from a movie made in the ‘ 90s , or a movie we made last twelvemonth , you know , so kind of having fun with that , too .
io9 : It ’s unclouded in the book , and also from talking to you , that you ’re majestic to be known as a B - moving-picture show or a cult moving picture filmmaker . What does that mean to you both personally and professionally ?
Band : It ’s true I never took the time to — nor did I desire to — baby-sit around and test to get a gravid movie approved and made at a major studio . You know , some $ 100 million dollar celluloid . I have friend who make those picture show and it ’s great when they ’re greenlit and they ’re in action mechanism . But sometimes it take literally years to get these movies off the ground and approved and funded . I ’m spoiled in that , yes , I ’m make little films with A-one budgetary limitations . But I can dream them up and have a book in 30 days and then shoot them — and 60 years , 90 days later , it ’s out on ourstreaming web site . Or days ago , it was out on limited theatrical [ release ] and out on video . So I ’ve been work in this house of cards now for a long time .
And yeah , sometimes you go “ I wish well I had just a little more money . It would aid the movie be more fun , ” but we still manage to make , I retrieve , generally pretty clever films . I mean , they ’re very character - ram . We do n’t have the big essence budgets , but nor does that really , I think , aid that much . I am a huge pic fan and back in the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. when motion-picture show theaters were all happening , it was a rarified weekend that we did n’t go to the flick , especially any sci - fi , fantasy , or horror film . I would be there .
But the movies now seem to be , with elision , like 90 % CGI burst , [ and ] effects — how many time can we see city drift up and tidal waves and optical maser ? You lose track of the human side . The old sci - fi , fantasy , revulsion movies , the classic from the ‘ fifty , the ‘ 60s , the ‘ 40s , and a few in the ‘ 70s , they have people you sort of cared about . And when the effects started or the phantasy began there , it was just sprinkled in and it was so enceinte to see those few discontinue - gesture animation shots in it … it was a seasoning that was magical . Now it ’s the other mode around . You kind of foresightful for a few the great unwashed in a quiet moment , in a room just utter . as luck would have it for Full Moon , that ’s kind of what we can afford to do . So most of these movies , you know , they ’re not tiptop consequence - ladened , they just hopefully recite good stories with interesting character .
io9 : What advice would you give to an aspiring filmmaker who admire all that you ’ve carry out ?
Band : Well , there ’s nothing new in this advice , but first it ’s capital to do something that you love or you know you ’re concerned in . It turn you on . It barrack you . It ’s really unvoiced to deal something to get motivated if it ’s not what you ’re really excited about . try on to do and make a job out of what you love doing because then it ’s a different vibe . And consider me , there are days that are really unmanageable . I mean , I ’ve done this forever and there are really difficult Clarence Day , and it ’s not like , it ’s all awesome , but it ’s enceinte when it go well . But at least you ’re creating a body of work . If you ’re an creative person , whatever you do , you ’re a panther , a sculptor , making moving picture , short video . Then the only other sort of age - old advice is just , you have to get up every morning like a good soldier and just do your matter . It ’s like the writer who has that regimen of seat down at a certain time of day every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , come hell or high body of water , and write , even though they may not drop a line what they like at the moment or the page stare at them blank , you got to get up and do it . You get ta soldier through . I entail , it ’s 10 % inspiration , 90 % perspiration . Is that what it is ? Something like that .
io9 : Can you taunt some of those 18 new movies that you ’re work on now ? What are you most search forward to have people see ?
striation : They ’re all my children , so I do n’t want to make any movie or moviemaker feel bad . But you know , we ’ve been trying now for years to make a 5th chapter for Subspecies , which is one of our well - known franchises . We were solidly in pre - production early last twelvemonth in Croatia . We were set , we were going , we ’d advanced money , we were quick to roll and then covid kind of wham us out of the ballpark . So that did n’t pass . Now it ’s fail to take place again . It ’s lead to be likely March , April , but we will — myopic of any other lifelike catastrophe — finally be making a fifth Subspecies which is really ambitious . It ’s sort of the thousand - year history of [ the vampire character ] Radu . And I live a good deal of fan are aroused about that .
We ’re go to make another movie that was planned for last twelvemonth that will be basically the thirteenth Puppet Master film , call Doktor Death . We were ready to go last class , and we had to also push that back — that ’s a character from Retro Puppet Master , a middling cool - looking little character . Then , because we ’ve had such a nice success on a smaller level with Baby Oopsie , which is a spin - off of Demonic Toys — they’ve done exceedingly well on our cyclosis site — we’ve made , I think , a very clever movie casting two lead who would normally not be the leads in this variety of a movie . We ’re making four more of those chapters , so it ’s essentially two more sequels , but we ’ll be shooting those up in Cleveland , where I buy a — I call it a haunted house but it ’s really not haunt , but it ’s a big , 110 - twelvemonth - sometime house , the perfect mansion to shoot movies and kind of make into a plate foundation .
Cleveland turns out to be a corking position for all sort of reasons to make movies , kind of a home away from domicile , incredible computer architecture , very enthusiastic people . location are almost free . So , yeah , it ’s unlike LA , which in all probability was all of that 140 year ago . Now it ’s like , you know , “ Get off my lawn . ” Cleveland is a whole different story , so we ’ll be shooting more chapters of Baby Oopsie , and making more chapters of another show we did called The cavity resonator : Miskatonic U. Kind of a Lovecraft thing , harkening back to movies I made in the ‘ 80s like Re - Animator and From Beyond . What else is exciting ? Well , there ’s a peck , but that ’s that ’s enough . That ’s a lot !
confession of a Puppetmaster : A Hollywood Memoir of Ghouls , Guts , and Gonzo Filmmaking by Charles Band with Adam Felber is out November 16 ; you may pre - order a copyhere .
wonder where our RSS feed went ? You canpick the novel up one here .
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