Puppet Master (1989)

Slapped together under a shoestring budget and released directly to video by schlock movie mogul Charles Band, Puppet Master was an instant cult hit that launched the longest running franchise of the infamous Full Moon Features content farm. As of this date, there are over a dozen sequels when you factor in crossovers, reboots, and spinoffs. None of these movies are particularly good by most standards of taste, but they've clearly made some kind of impression on the movie watching public. At the insistence of Cheryl and Pete, Ryan has recorded a discussion about how Puppet Master was made, who made it, and what he thinks the creative team was trying to say. Subtextual matters that factor into the dialogue include the popularity of killer dolls in low budget horror movies, the role that direct-to-video plays in the bottom lines of both video rental outlets and the streaming services that replaced them, and Puppet Master's decision to (sort of) use Nazis as bad guys in its opening scene.