A Heather Henson curated collection of Halloween themed puppet films.
Social & External
It's 1905 when 12 year old Sophia plays all by herself in her big, creepy house with only four handmade dolls as friends. When her abusive father has finally had enough, he forces her to bury them in the backyard. But, after she "slips" and breaks her neck, dad buries her right along with the dolls. 100 years later, the Fillbrook family moves into the very same house.
In 1993, in Hollywood, California, a decadent ventriloquist overdoses and dies, leaving her two children to be sent to a foster house with their dummy. Their lives become a nightmare of abuse and murder, to be avenged by a wrathful dummy.
After being contacted by their mysterious former colleague, four psychics arrive at a secluded hotel where they are stalked by a group of murderous puppets.
A new team of paranormal researchers has come to the hotel to investigate its murder-soaked past; the puppets -- led by a new member, Torch -- shed some light on the matter, as they tunnel, burn, strangle and hook to survive.
After hearing that mystical toymaker Andre Toulon has managed to create a troupe of sentient, living puppets, Nazi underling Dr. Hess sets his sights on exploiting Toulon's powers for the glory of the Reich.
Blade, Tunneler, and Pinhead go toe-to-toe with a team of terrifying, gremlin-like creatures known as "Totems" that are sent by the Egyptian demon Sutekh to recapture the magic stolen by Toulon.
Sutekh, the dark pharaoh from another dimension, sends his own puppet, Totem, to continue his quest to kill Rick and steal the magic which animates the puppets.
Andre Toulon's diminutive assassins take up residence at The House of Marvels, a traveling doll circus run by Dr. Magrew, who has been trying to create a living doll of his own with little success.
Andre Toulon, living a peaceful life as a puppeteer in pre-WWI Paris, encounters the renegade sorcerer Afzel, who has stolen the mysterious secrets of life from the dark god Sutekh.
An evil yet adorable Gingerbread man comes to life with the soul of a convicted killer, and this real life cookie monster wreaks havoc on the girl who sent the killer to the electric chair.
Defense attorney Jennifer Garrick acquires a Pinocchio puppet from a condemned serial killer. Her pre-teen daughter, Zoe, mistakes the puppet as a birthday present and grows attached to her new friend. Suddenly, accidents begin to happen to those who cross Zoe. Zoe claims it's her Pinocchio doll but her therapist thinks otherwise. Pinocchio promises he'll behave if Zoe will cut his strings...
After receiving an exotic small animal as a Christmas gift, a young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet, which unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous creatures on a small town.
A nine year old boy named Joey, who after the tragic death of his father, begins to experience psychic powers such as allowing him to move inanimate objects with his mind, set things on fire, and even communicate with his dead father. However, not everything is good for Joey as his newly gained powers accidentally awake an evil supernatural force that is contained inside the body of an old ventriloquist's dummy that Joey found in an abandoned house. The supernatural Dummy shows similar powers to Joey's, and soon he puts the lives of everyone near Joey in danger as the evil Dummy has dark plans for Joey's special powers.
While on a stakeout, Judith Gray, a beautiful, tough cop, is trapped inside a warehouse full of toys that have been awakened to murderous life by a strange child of darkness.
While celebrating Christmas at a cabin in the woods, a group of high school students are stalked by a psychotic killer obsessed with horror movie icons.
Imagine this: Jim Button, Vincent Price, and Sam Raimi sitting together over a beer after work. Over the course of the evening, they decide they should do something together... But since such a meeting never took place, the young Berlin puppet maker Florian Moch took it upon himself to combine the relevant influences in a film. The result is probably the world's first puppet splatter horror film. It bears the meaningful title "Splettrhex."
When a man is hired to enhance a fashion show, he decides to go to a puppeteer and use Chinese puppets as accents to the models and the clothes. His interest in the show becomes a personal one when he meets one of the models and romance blossoms. An old woman loans him her antique puppets on the condition that he not keep them in the house with him, or grave misfortunes will result. As one might expect, he ignores the warning and then starts to experience a few accidents and unusual occurrences - including being knocked out by what he thought was a puppet, and seeing flashes of a murder while he was unconscious.
In the remote village of Calder's End stands an old windmill, a repository of dark secrets. Nicholas Grimshaw has returned to this haunted place, his childhood home, intent on breaking a generations old family curse. Grimshaw's journey takes him deep below the decaying mill,into mysterious, forgotten catacombs, where upon he confronts the very source of the evil that has corrupted his family. The Mill at Calder's End is a gothic tale inspired by the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, and M.R. James and is told with the use of 36 inch tall bunraku rod puppets operated by puppeteers dressed in black.
Fowl-mouthed villain Turkie carves through the likes of a rapping grandma, a mindless puppet, a wig-wearing inventor, a bisexual space worm, and their equally ridiculous friends on his quest to recover the last copy of "ThanksKilling 2". Also known as "Turkeys, In, Space!".
Puppets live alongside humans peacefully, but suddenly their behavior becomes depraved. Is such criminal activity rare, or is the media blowing things out of proportion, making cops look like sadistic gunslingers and causing people to distrust them, each other, and most of all, puppets. Is the apocalypse coming, or is the fear-mongering just a great way for News programs to get advertising money? Wait – that makes this movie sound like a serious allegory. Change that. This movie has more wtf moments than you can imagine. It’s high brow and low brow at the same time.
Tired of scaring humans every October 31 with the same old bag of tricks, Jack Skellington, the spindly king of Halloween Town, kidnaps Santa Claus and plans to deliver shrunken heads and other ghoulish gifts to children on Christmas morning. But as Christmas approaches, Jack's rag-doll girlfriend, Sally, tries to foil his misguided plans.
A collection of Halloween-themed videotapes unleashes a series of twisted, blood-soaked tales, turning trick-or-treat into a struggle for survival.
When a creepy Jack-in-the-Box is discovered and opened on the grounds of an exclusive girls' school, six brave students soon enter a fight to the finish against the unleashed demon.
Still reeling from the tragic death of their mother, a teenage girl and her younger sister find themselves plagued by a sadistic presence in their house and struggle to get their grieving father to pay attention before it’s too late.
A family reunion at a remote mansion takes a lethal turn when they are trapped inside and forced to play a deadly survival game where only one will make it out alive.
In a small Midwestern town, a deadly annual ritual unfolds when the mythical nightmare, Sawtooth Jack, rises from the cornfields and challenges the town’s teenage boys in a bloody battle of survival.
When Polly receives a mysterious box, it comes with one rule: place inside something she needs, something she hates, and something she loves. If she doesn’t obey, it will consume everything—and everyone—she’s ever known.
A wooden puppet embarks on a thrilling adventure to become a real boy.
Professor Van Helsing had been asked to help against the tyranny of skeletal creatures that are responsible for terror and death amongst the peasants in rural China. He is the only person qualified to deal with the cause of these phenomena, for the undead are controlled by the most diabolical force of all.... Count Dracula. But he is not alone- to aid him comes a mystical brotherhood of seven martial arts warriors.
On Halloween, Mickey tells a tale of two witches-in-training, Minnie and Daisy, who must pass four tests to graduate from the With Academy in Happy Haunt Hills.
After his police officer brother is killed by a drug dealer who flees to the protection of his cartel-connected uncle in Mexico, an American man with a diverse law enforcement/military background goes south of the border to get revenge
On Halloween night, a sorority house is overrun with ghosts, while a vengeful housemother goes on a killing spree.
In a modern America where witches are real and witchcraft is illegal, a sheltered teenager must face her own demons and prejudices as she helps two young witches avoid law enforcement and cross the southern border to asylum in Mexico.
John Constantine wakes up in the eerie House of Mystery with no recollection of how he got there. Fortunately, Zatanna and his friends are all there. Unfortunately, they have a bad habit of turning into demons and ripping him to shreds, over and over again!
A fearless knight braves a deadly realm to save the Chosen One’s soul. Facing witches, demons, and brutal foes, he discovers her return could ignite chaos and doom humanity.
An animated retelling of ‘Night of the Living Dead’, in which a group of people in a rural farmhouse struggle to survive the threat of bloodthirsty zombies.
Teenage friends Kit and Libby make prank phone calls for fun but then find themselves involved in a brutal double murder committed by one of their targets.