Charles Band’s Full Moon Features and its predecessor Empire Pictures have produced hundreds of ridiculously awesome cult movies over the last four decades. But some of these films have amassed such a following that it’s hard to call them “cult” anymore. So, it’s no surprise to see that fans of Band’s motion pictures have gone on to work on some pretty mainstream projects in television, music videos, and beyond. If you really pay attention, you can pick out subtle references to Empire and Full Moon that have been made in a diverse array of media. Here are five of them:
5. Duckman Deconstructs Puppet Master
Here’s some free legal advice courtesy of Duckman: the next time you’re in court and things aren’t going your way, distract the judge by giving a detailed analysis of the Leprechaun and Puppet Master series. If you still can’t get a not guilty verdict, call in your surprise witness: Howard the Duck.
4. Ghoulies Clogging Your Toilet?
Have you ever reached into a drain to clear out a clog and had your arm torn off by a Ghoulie? It happens to the best of us. Robot Chicken‘s solution? Earl McGarry, the horror handy man. He’s stomped more horrible pipe dwellers than Mario and Luigi combined! Useless Trivia: Robot Chicken creator Seth Green acted in the 1994 Full Moon movie Arcade.
3. Dolls: Creepy and Otherwise
If you’re such a horror nerd that you’ve seen the Stuart Gordon movie Dolls, chances are you’re just nerdy enough to have encountered a little game called Magic: The Gathering. Magic recently released a horror-themed set called Innistrad that draws influence from a wide variety of classic stories and films, everything from Dracula to Frankenstein to The Fly to Plants vs. Zombies. The card Creepy Doll bears a striking resemblance to the killer antique dolls found in Gordon’s classic 1987 Empire film. Let’s hope an Evil Bong Magic card is next on the horizon!
2. Adam Savage Rejects The Dungeonmaster’s Quote Credit and Substitutes His Own
Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, hosts of the Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters, may be some of the craftiest problem solvers on TV, but Adam Savage in particular is also the craftiest QUOTATION PLAGIARIZER IN THE WORLD. He famously said the line “I reject your reality and substitute my own” on an episode of Mythbusters, subsequently causing the quote to take on a life of its own among fans of the show and on the Internet in general. Anyone who’s seen the 1984 Empire film The Dungeonmaster (aka Ragewar) knows from where the line actually originated, but do you think that any of the 87,ooo+ viewers of that four-second YouTube clip know? Or any of the creators of the thousands of Internet memes centering around that line know? Or the freaking official Discovery Channel store that sells Mythbusters shirts, aprons, and mouse pads emblazoned with that line know?! The next time you hear someone attribute that quotation to Adam Savage, do a little mythbusting of your own and explain its real origin.
1. Puppet Master: The Rock Opera
The band Slipknot has a history of eliciting extreme reactions from music fans, even among the metal community that spawned them. But no one can deny that the band’s animated music video for the song “Wait and Bleed” is a pretty darn cool tribute to the Puppet Master series and special effects master David Allen’s incomparable stop motion magic. Slipknot already do everything they can to look like hideous freaks onstage, so turning them into killer puppets is just the next logical step. Now let the bickering about the quality of their music continue!
This list is just the tip of the iceberg of what surely contains many more mainstream media references to the illustrious works of Empire Films and Full Moon Features. Can you think of any more? If so, share them on the Full Moon Features Facebook page!