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Since 1997, Days of Our Lives’ resident mad scientist, Dr. Wilhelm Rolf, has been on hand to resurrect the dead, brainwash Salemites, and more. Originally played by William Utay, the part was later recast in 2022 with Richard Wharton as the devious doctor. If either iteration of the demented scientist seems familiar, that’s probably because he resembles a character actor who starred in several horror classics.

A Puppet Master Like Dr. Rolf

Guy Rolfe was a British actor who appeared in films since 1937 and starred in several classics, including Ivanhoe (1952), The Barbarians (1960), and King of Kings (1961). But it was his role as the title character in William Castle’s Mr. Sardonicus in 1961 that made horror fans take notice. In the film, he played a man whose face froze in a creepy and disturbing grin.

He appeared in several subsequent TV shows, including The Champions (1968), which starred General Hospital’s Stuart Damon...

David Schmoeller's 1989 film "Puppet Master" was almost going to be a theatrical release in the summer of 1989, but pivoted to the VHS market at the last minute. Looking at the 1989 supper movie season, one can see why producer Charles Band made the decision. "Puppet Master" would have opened against "Batman," "Ghostbusters II," "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," "Back to the Future Part II," "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," "License to Kill," and "Lethal Weapon 2." There were just too many blockbusters it would've had to compete with.

Its movement to the straight-to-video market might have reduced its prestige, but "Puppet Master" spawned many, many sequels (not to mention a few crossovers) that persist to this day (the most recent "Puppet Master" film was released in 2022). The killer puppets in the film have become minor horror icons and often serve as the face of Full Moon Features, a...

Stars: Brian Cousins, Jane Caldwell, Michael Della Femina, Robert Symonds, Curt Lowens, Patrik Ersgård, Mircea Albulescu | Written by Earl Kenton, Jackson Barr | Directed by Jack Ersgard

Originally planned as an Empire Pictures film back in 1986, Mandroid was lensed in 1993 as the first in a two-part series (the second being Invisible: The Chronicles of Benjamin Knight) by Swedish director Jack Ersgard based on a script by long-term Full Moon collaborators Jackson Barr, who also wrote Subspecies, Trancers II and Seedpeople amongst many others, and Earl Kenton, who would go on to pen the sequel and a number of movies for Charles Band’s erotica imprint Surrender Cinema.

The film tells the story of the titular Mandroid, a humanoid robot invented by Russian scientist Dr. Karl Zimmer and his partner Drago, which follows the motions of a man in a special control suit. Planning to sell his invention, and the superconn crystal which powers it,...

The Puppet Master series is very dear to my heart. Discovering the films many years ago as a teenager browsing the shelves of my local video store, I have grown up with the franchise, following it through thick and thin, good and bad… I’ve owned every iteration of the films on rental VHS, sell-thru VHS, DVD and now, thanks to the good folks at 88 Films, on Blu-ray.

Following the release of the original Puppet Master back in August, 88 Films are following up with the two immediate sequels, Puppet Master 2, which expanded the roster of puppets with one of my favourites, Torch, and Puppet Master 3: Toulon’s Revenge, which many consider to be the pinnacle of the series and which has since spawned two related sequels of its own in the recent “puppets vs. nazis” flicks Puppet Master: Axis of Evil and Puppet Master X: Axis Rising (which...

If you have Netflix and are a horror fan in need of something to watch this Labor Day weekend, one look at this gargantuan list I compiled of the new terror titles Netflix has added for instant streaming in just the first three days of this month should keep you busy until Labor Day next year. You'll find something for everyone, from older titles to recent releases, famous to obscure, classic to not-so-classic, monsters to maniacs - you name it.

For the record, I considered compiling this list in alphabetical order or by year of the film's release, but then I realized I had already spent well over an hour just sorting through the massive catalogue of titles Netflix has now made available for instant streaming and realized Labor Day would be over by the time I finished arranging this list in any kind of order. Ready? Here you go.