Charles Band

Charles Band is an American producer and director known for horror comedy movies. Born in Los Angeles, he entered film production during the 1970s with Charles Band Productions, whose films included Crash! (1976). Frustrated by how distributors handled his movies, he set up Empire Pictures in 1983. At its peak the company released around two films a month, one for theaters and one for home video, among them Ghoulies, Ghoulies II, Re-Animator, and Troll (1986). Empire shut down in 1988 because of financial trouble, and Band launched Full Moon Productions that same year. Full Moon was behind the Puppet Master and Subspecies series, while its family label, Moonbeam Entertainment, released the Prehysteria! trilogy. In 2021 Harper Collins published his best-selling autobiography, Confessions of a Puppetmaster, which recounts his history in the business.