The Real Puppet Master

CHARLES BAND is a writer, producer and director with nearly 300 film credits to his name. Most famous for the PUPPET MASTER and TRANCERS series of films, his work primarily inhabits a unique subgenre of fantasy horror that he has carved out for himself. As his  label launches its Amazon Channel, the legendary filmmaker took some time to chat with us about how he got started in the business, his prolific career, and what keeps him motivated.

- John Townsend

STARBURST: With such a long and successful career, what keeps you motivated to keep making films and moving forward?

Charles Band: If you do something long enough, it just becomes part of you and part of your routine. I was lucky enough to be able to do it at a young age, and it was all I was interested in doing. There are rough patches, and as the business fluctuates so much, there are moments when you wonder why you’re in it at all. Then something good happens, and you make another movie and it all makes sense again. I never pretended that these movies are anything other than escapism or entertainment; I was never political and not everyone in the world loves horror or sci-fi, but the niche that do really enjoy them. I was lucky that when I started way back in the seventies, much like Roger Corman, there was still an opportunity to have your film released theatrically. There was no video or the other formats that we’re so used to today. You would wait eagerly for a movie to come to your local theatre, so as a young filmmaker, I could go along and watch my movies with an audience. Sometimes even a full house, who would be laughing, or scared, or both. There was an instant gratification. That faded away in the eighties with the direct-to-video revolution, but it’s great to still connect with an audience even if the medium changes. Now, I’m at a point where I wouldn’t know how to do anything else. We’re reinventing ourselves for the umpteenth time for the digital world, making movies every few months, pulling them out of a library and cleaning them up, and there’s all the merchandise derivatives. It’s like the Full Moon brand is being introduced to a whole new, younger generation since the video store died. I guess I would have done some things differently but at the core is that I just love making these movies.