Full Moon Productions era (1988–1995) After the collapse of Band's previous film studio
Empire Pictures, he moved back to the United States from Rome and opened Full Moon Productions. Band's goal with Full Moon was to create low-budget
horror,
sci-fi, and
fantasy films while retaining a somewhat "big-budget" look. In the United States, Canada, and several foreign territories, from the company's very humble beginnings, Full Moon teamed with
Paramount Pictures and
Pioneer Home Entertainment for
direct-to-video releasing on
VHS and
LaserDisc and the first release was the feature film directed by
David Schmoeller,
Puppet Master in 1989, and designed to create the company under the umbrella of Bandcompany, Inc.
Puppet Master turned out to be a huge hit for Full Moon. Following the film on VHS and LaserDisc was a featurette entitled
No Strings Attached, which documents the making of
Puppet Master. It then featured interviews with cast and crew members, including actor
Paul Le Mat and Charles Band himself. The next three releases—
Shadowzone,
Meridian: Kiss of the Beast, and
Crash and Burn (changing to Full Moon Entertainment with the release of the latter)—all featured a making-of presentation after the film. Paramount, however, didn't believe in the making-of concept and forced Band to pay for all of the additional tape needed. At the same time, Band also reissued two catalog titles,
Tourist Trap and
Parasite through Paramount. Some controversy arose, however, many years after the release of
Puppet Master. In an interview on the website The Terror Trap,
Puppet Master director, David Schmoeller, says that Charles Band owes him residuals, as well as stating that Charles Band doesn't give credit to directors. Schmoeller continues, saying that Band didn't want him on the director's commentary on the
DVD release of
Puppet Master, because "it would reveal that someone else shared in the creation of Full Moon's biggest and most successful franchise." With the fifth Full Moon release
Puppet Master II in 1991, Full Moon introduced VideoZone, a behind-the-scenes video magazine. The average VideoZone featured an introduction by Charles Band, the making-of the "movie you just watched," an interview with someone involved in a future Full Moon release, merchandise (such as Full Moon T-shirts, posters and other assorted goods), trailers, and contact information. VideoZone tied together the "
comic book feel" that Band insisted with the Full Moon product. In 1992, Full Moon decided to expand into theatrical film production, with a distribution agreement at
Paramount Pictures, to release two films, but it was never materialized. Full Moon continued producing its releases throughout the early '90s (sometimes as many as twelve releases a year) and in 1993 founded two more labels:
Torchlight Entertainment, specializing in
softcore pornographic sci-fi
comedies and
Moonbeam Entertainment, specializing in family orientated sci-fi and fantasy films. Torchlight's first release was
Beach Babes From Beyond; Moonbeam's was
Prehysteria!, which actually became a high seller for distributor Paramount and was one of the first Full Moon films to be sold as an inexpensive
sell-through product (as most Full Moon features were sold on VHS as rental items with prices upwards of $100 for each tape). Full Moon has also set up the Moonstone Records, and film and trading cards based on the company's own properties.
Castle Freak was eventually released in November 1995 in both R-rated and unrated versions. After the releases of
Castle Freak and
Oblivion 2: Backlash, Band renamed Full Moon Entertainment, Full Moon Studios for the feature
Vampire Journals and used the name Full Moon Pictures for the following film
Hideous!. Band continued to distribute all films on his own under then name of Amazing Fantasy Entertainment until around 1999 when some of the films were distributed by
The Kushner-Locke Company. In 1997, Bobby Young, who had joined Full Moon two years earlier, has left to start Dominion Entertainment. With the release of
Shrieker in 1998, Band enlisted the help of
Ohio-based
filmmaker and Tempe Entertainment founder,
J. R. Bookwalter, who had recently relocated to
California. Bookwalter was commissioned by Band to begin editing features, including
Curse of the Puppet Master.
Curse of the Puppet Master was created primarily out of market demand and isn't held in high regard with fans of the genre. To conserve costs (as most Full Moon features were being made for much less than the Paramount-distributed films), the film was put together using footage from the first five
Puppet Master files, as well as some new footage. However, Bookwalter's work got Full Moon noticed on
Apple.com where a story was published about Bookwalter's editing of
Curse of the Puppet Master on his
iBook in a hotel room in Ohio. Over the next several years, Full Moon continued its releases and even introduced more labels: •
Alchemy Entertainment/
Big City Pictures – specializing in
urban horror and science-fiction films. •
Surrender Cinema – replacing
Torchlight Entertainment, specializing in the same soft-core science fiction as Torchlight. •
Cult Video – mainly used to re-release old pre-Empire and Empire-era Band films. •
Pulp Fantasy Productions – New films that don't fit the usual Full Moon mold. • Pulsepounders – Replacing Moonbeam Entertainment, specializing in science fiction and fantasy films for families. Bookwalter would eventually get the chance to direct a Full Moon film with the sequel to
Witchouse,
Witchouse 2: Blood Coven. It was Bookwalter's first film on
35 mm and with it opened a new door for Bookwalter's Tempe Entertainment. Starting with
Horror Vision, Tempe Entertainment was hired to produce several Full Moon films for Band. All of these films were shot on
DV, a first for Full Moon and were primarily made for under $60,000 (with
Witchouse 3: Demon Fire completed for $26,000). The films were produced under very tight schedules, some being shot in as little as nine days. While the production drawbacks were high in each situation, this opportunity gave new exposure to Bookwalter and Tempe who was accustomed to producing films on shoestring budgets. On January 16, 2001, Full Moon decided to launch a TV show with
William Shatner attached as host, presenting various Full Moon pictures. Once again, the industry changed and Band decided to end the Full Moon label with the 2002 release of
Jigsaw. In 2001, Full Moon decided to bow out of theatrical distribution, and decided to focus back to straight-to-video films. During this era of Full Moon, Band secured a weekly
television series on the
Sci Fi Channel called ''William Shatner's Full Moon Fright Night''. Veteran actor,
William Shatner, hosted Full Moon films with wraparounds, as well as interviews with many of sci-fi's most notable personalities, including
Stan Lee and
Jeffrey Combs. Tempe also received exposure here as
HorrorVision was included in this short-lived series. With the release of 2000's
The Dead Hate the Living!, Band dropped the VideoZone name and produced behind-the-scenes featurettes without a masthead.
Shadow Films era (2002–2004) Blockbuster Entertainment, a longtime supporter of the Full Moon brand requested the company produce a
slasher film, due to the late '90s resurgence of this subgenre, thanks to
Scream and
I Know What You Did Last Summer. With the help of an uncredited Tempe Entertainment, Band produced
Bleed and acquired
Keith Walley's
Scared, renaming it
Cut Throat. Band produced only two more films "officially" under the Shadow name: (
Birthrite,
Delta Delta Die!). Another Keith Walley film
Speck was acquired.
William Shatner's DV science-fiction movie
Groom Lake, produced by J. R. Bookwalter became notorious as one of the most-expensive films of the modern era of Full Moon. Band also decided around this time to bring back an old label used in the Empire era named
Wizard Video, which distributed
cult-like films. This modern rendition saw the release of Tempe's
Skinned Alive and
Ozone (renamed
Street Zombies for the Wizard release). However, due to low sales, another Tempe film
Bloodletting (which was also renamed: ''I've Killed Before'') was dropped from the release schedule. In 2003, Charles Band entered into a deal with
20th Century Fox to produce a low budget horror movie. Fox would distribute the movie and Band would retain copyrights. The film was directed by J. R. Bookwalter and named
Deadly Stingers. In the tradition of the giant killer bug movies,
Deadly Stingers was about giant scorpions taking over a town. However, after the film was completed, it was shelved due to a decline in the industry and low sales of another similar project at Fox (excluding Full Moon) entitled
Dark Wolf. The film was shown at the Frightvision Horror Festival in 2003, but while it has surfaced on Full Moon Streaming as of December 2013 under the name of
Mega Scorpions, it has yet to see a release on DVD or
Blu-ray. A teaser trailer for the film does exist on J. R. Bookwalter's Tempe Entertainment website.
The second Full Moon Pictures era (2004–present) In late 2003, Band began work on his first 35 mm film in years, ''
Dr. Moreau's House of Pain''. The film released in January 2004 also marked the official return of the name
Full Moon Pictures. However, while the film's video releases all contain the name of Shadow Entertainment, the film's trailer contains the
Full Moon Pictures logo. Quickly before the release of ''Dr. Moreau's House of Pain
, Full Moon released Puppet Master: The Legacy
, a "greatest hits" film that contained the best scenes from all (hitherto) seven Puppet Master'' films with about 20 minutes of a wrap-around story and very bad puppet effects (string rods can be seen in almost every scene featuring the puppets). Once again, all video releases said Shadow Entertainment, but the trailer featured the Full Moon Pictures logo. On the heels of
Puppet Master: The Legacy, Band quickly cut together
Tomb of Terror,
Horrific and
Urban Evil. These three films edited by
HorrorVision director, Danny Draven, were
clip shows that showed off the best in Full Moon's library. After the release of those films, Band re-christened the Full Moon name to Full Moon Features. Full Moon Features intends to take more time making films with considerably higher budgets and on
35 mm film and as of July 2006 has focused on that with the exceptions of
When Puppets and Dolls Attack!,
Monsters Gone Wild! and
Aliens Gone Wild! (all clip shows). In 2005, Charles Band embarked on the Full Moon Horror Roadshow, a traveling, live Full Moon-inspired show featuring Band and actors/actresses from past Full Moon films. Some shows also featured his son,
Alex Band. At all shows, Band offered a contest for a chance for a member of the audience to have a part in a future Full Moon feature. As of 2009, none of these winners had received their roles. However, on August 27, 2009, Band blogged that those who were chosen would have the opportunity to be cast in his next project. Band continued the roadshow in 2006, this time putting it in smaller venues. A similar contest offering a part in a movie was held at these events. In 2011, contest winners were contacted for the chance to be extras in the movie
Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver. Available winners who could make it to the set were featured as extras in the movie during a mass electrocution scene at a roller rink. Full Moon uploaded pictures of the contest winners onset on its official Facebook page. In 2009, Band hopes to expand Full Moon to a similar release schedule more like the mid-1990s with a new release every month. Additionally, the company plans to add sequels to many franchises, including
Puppet Master,
Demonic Toys, and
Head of the Family. In 2012, the Videozone was brought back, making its return on the DVD release of
Puppet Master X: Axis Rising. In addition, the Moonbeam Entertainment brand label was revived under the name
Moonbeam Films. The studio's nearly thirty-year history is covered in the book
It Came From the Video Aisle written by Dave Jay, William S. Wilson, and Torsten Dewi and published by
Schiffer Publishing in October 2017. ==Notable releases==