What actually happens
A puppeteer who plans for visitors
In 1939 an elderly puppeteer, André Toulon, is at the Bodega Bay Inn in California finishing a new puppet called Jester just as two Nazi spies approach his room. Another living puppet, Kahn, warns him. Toulon shuts the living puppets in a chest, hides it inside a wall, and kills himself as the door gives way. Fifty years later, a man named Neil, who lives at the inn, reaches four psychic acquaintances telepathically. Alex has a nightmare about leeches, Dana foresees her own death, and Frank and Carissa are contacted in a way the film keeps to itself. Dana has found Toulon's hidden compartment and sets up a meeting at the inn. When they arrive they meet Neil's wife, Megan, and hear that Neil took his own life and left her instructions. Dana pays her respects by pushing a long pin into Neil's corpse to be sure. The psychics then have confusing visions of Neil, and a puppet named Pinhead climbs out of his casket.
Reading this instead of watching it is the correct decision. Scaredy Cat makes that decision automatic, for free.
A fireplace poker ends the dinner conversation
At dinner Dana irritates Megan until she leaves the table, and Alex follows her and explains who everyone is. Carissa reads objects by touching them, Dana is a clairvoyant who tells fortunes, and Alex sees the future in dreams. Neil had been studying alchemy, and with Frank's help he learned that the ancient Egyptians had a way of animating figurines, the same skill Toulon had found. When Neil stopped getting in touch, the group assumed he had made a breakthrough and left them out, and now they want whatever he found. That night Pinhead attacks the housekeeper, Teresa, using a fireplace poker as she tends the fire, which Dana had foreseen. Megan finds Neil's body sitting upright in a chair and faints. Alex looks after her while the others put the body back in the casket.
Protective spells on two doors and none on the third
Blade can't get past the protective spells on Alex's and Dana's rooms, so it tries Carissa and Frank's room next, where the couple is making enough noise to keep the others awake. Tunneler and Leech Woman come in after it. This is the stretch people brace for, and it happens in the order that follows. Carissa checks a noise under the bed and Tunneler kills her. Frank, whom she left tied up and blindfolded, is left for Leech Woman's leeches. Meanwhile Dana finds Neil's body in her room, and Pinhead breaks her leg and keeps attacking until she throws him off and crawls to the elevator. Blade is there and cuts her throat. That makes three psychics gone in the middle of one night, and it leaves Alex as the only one.
Neil is back, and he has plans for the guests
Alex is plagued by nightmares until Megan wakes him to show him Toulon's diary, which she says proves that Neil found Toulon's methods of animation, and Alex has another vision of Neil. They run downstairs to leave and find Neil, alive again, at the dining table with the bodies of Dana, Frank and Carissa propped in chairs. Neil explains that his death was a step in a plan: he used Toulon's methods to bring himself back and become immortal. He also admits that he killed Megan's parents to get full control of the inn. He tells them he finds the puppets disgusting and plans to move on to experiments with human bodies.
The ending, explained
The puppets turn on Neil. Tunneler takes out his legs, Blade pins him down, Leech Woman puts a leech in his mouth, and Pinhead breaks his neck. Dana, Frank, Carissa and Teresa are already dead, so Alex and Megan are the only people left alive. The following day Megan waves Alex off. Dana's taxidermized dog Leroy then starts to walk on its own, which shows that Megan has reanimated it.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether Puppetmaster has a scene after the credits, so stay if you like.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Puppetmaster scary?
Barely. Puppetmaster is a 3 out of 10: low dread, a handful of gross attacks and a lot of small puppets going after psychics in an old hotel.
How does Puppetmaster end?
The puppets kill Neil, who had planned to use their secrets to live forever. Alex and Megan are the only survivors, and Dana's stuffed dog starts walking on its own at the end.
Does the dog die in Puppetmaster?
No dog dies in Puppetmaster. Dana's taxidermized dog Leroy is stuffed throughout the film, and at the end it starts walking on its own.
Is there a post-credits scene in Puppetmaster?
Nobody has confirmed whether Puppetmaster has a scene after the credits. The last event of the story is Leroy the stuffed dog walking.
Why are the puppets alive in Puppetmaster?
The puppets belong to Toulon, a puppeteer who learned how to animate figurines and hid them in a wall in 1939. Neil rediscovered the same method through alchemy, and the puppets turn on him in the end.
