Biography
John Carl Buechler (pronounced Beekler) was an American director, actor, and special effects and makeup artist. He was born in Belleville, Illinois, and is probably best known for directing Troll (1986), Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988), Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College (1990) and 2006The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (200&). John Carl Buechler was born on June 1, 1952, in Belleville (Illinois), and he died on March 18, 2019, in Los Angeles (Califronia).
Known For
Complete Filmography

Wizardream
2025
Director
A fantasy/science-fiction/sword'n'sorcery film from director John Carl Buechler. Shot in 2013 and still unreleased, this is a follow up to Trolls.

Cutter's Club
2025
Special Effects
A pair of young student doctors get involved in a secret society of surgery fetishists and monster makers called the "Cutters Club", overseen by the m...

Beneath the Black Veil
2019
as Mr. Jensen
After losing their child in a horrific accident, Aaron and Genna's once idyllic life is turned upside down. They begin to question how a loving God co...

To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story
2017
as Self
To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story is the harrowing story of a stuntman overcoming a dehumanizing childhood filled with torment and bullying in S...
Troll Empire
2015
as Self
A "making of" the first Troll Movie

Behind the Mask: The Making of The Phantom of the Opera
2015
as Self
Behind the scenes feature for 'The Phantom of the Opera' (1989). Included on the Shout! Factory blu-ray.

Catch of the Day
2014
as Detective Martin Spangler
Officer Rod Davis becomes embedded undercover when a cartel starts bringing drugs into the city through fish shipments. He soon finds himself and his ...

Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th
2013
as Self
Taking inspiration from Peter M. Bracke's definitive book of the same name, this seven-hour documentary dives into the making of all twelve Friday the...

Slice and Dice: The Slasher Film Forever
2012
as Self
A celebration of slasher cinema - from PSYCHO to the present day, with a focus on highlighting many of the genre's forgotten cult classics, deconstruc...
Hallow Pointe
2010
as Lazlo
The film is centered around Madeline’s Closet, a quaint bed and breakfast hidden away from the world on a forgotten dirt road in the woods. Henry and ...
Hallow Pointe
2010
Creative Producer
The film is centered around Madeline’s Closet, a quaint bed and breakfast hidden away from the world on a forgotten dirt road in the woods. Henry and ...

Hatchet II
2010
as Jack Cracker
Picking up right where the original ended, Marybeth escapes the clutches of the swamp-dwelling killer Victor Crowley. After learning the truth about h...

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy
2010
as Self
For decades, Freddy Krueger has slashed his way through the dreams of countless youngsters, scaring up over half a billion dollars at the box office a...

His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th
2010
as Self
A retrospective documentary about the groundbreaking horror series, Friday the 13th, featuring interviews with cast and crew from the twelve films spa...

Gingerdead Man 2: The Passion of the Crust
2008
as Orson Biggs
The horrifying yet delicious and chewy Gingerdead Man causes murder and mayhem on the set of a horrible low budget movie set. It will take the determi...

Evil Bong
2006
as Gingerdead Man Puppeteer / Voice
Straight-laced nerd Alistair moves into a college dorm with hardcore marijuana users, who order an old giant bong that proves to have strange magical ...

The Eden Formula
2006
Director, Writer
When industry spies break into a top secret lab at Calgorin Industries, they accidentlally let a T-Rex loose, which wreaks havoc into the lab before b...

Hatchet
2006
as Jack Cracker
When a group of tourists on a New Orleans haunted swamp tour find themselves stranded in the wilderness, their evening of fun and spooks turns into a ...

Hatchet
2006
Special Effects
When a group of tourists on a New Orleans haunted swamp tour find themselves stranded in the wilderness, their evening of fun and spooks turns into a ...

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
2006
Writer, Director
After successfully curing a primate's heart condition, Dr. Henry Jeckyll develops a personality-enhancing serum for himself which inadvertently create...

Saurian
2006
Director, Writer
FBI agents with the Paranormal Intelligence Team try to put a stop to the havoc being wreaked on the world by reptilian beings who have taken human fo...

The Gingerdead Man
2005
Special Effects
An evil yet adorable Gingerbread man comes to life with the soul of a convicted killer, and this real life cookie monster wreaks havoc on the girl who...

Mortuary
2005
Special Effects
A family moves to a small town in California where they plan on starting a new life while running a long-abandoned funeral home. The locals fear the p...

Friday the 13th: From Crystal Lake to Manhattan (Crystal Lake Victims Tell All - Documentary)
2004
as Self
Behind-the-scenes featurette detailing the production of the 'Friday The 13th' movies.

The Friday the 13th Chronicles
2004
as Self
Behind-the-scenes featurette detailing the production of the 'Friday The 13th' movies.
Secrets Galore Behind the Gore
2004
as Himself
Behind the scenes of Friday the 13th.

Vampires: Out For Blood
2004
Makeup Supervisor
In the dark, throbbing world of underground raves, people are vanishing without a trace and Detective Hank Holten is the only one who knows the terrib...

Countess Dracula's Orgy of Blood
2004
Special Effects
Southern California 1897: While Dumas is in the parlor cleaning his gun, his sister Roxanne is in the bedroom being seduced by the lusty vampiress...

Grandpa's Place
2004
Director
Jason and Grandpa are in Grandpa's basement where they enjoy an afternoon of imagination, fun and learning.

Dr. Moreau's House of Pain
2004
Special Effects Makeup Artist
In a big mansion, a scientist has been experimenting with humans and animals, mixing their DNA together.

A Light in the Forest
2003
Director, Writer
Britta, the new girl in school Highland, has reason to be jubilant this Christmas: Her sadness has served to invoke Holly Boy, the holiday spirit, wak...

The Mummy's Kiss
2003
Special Effects Makeup Artist
Eternally cursed and mummified by the pharaoh for pursuing the love of his daughter, Hat-Em-Akhet, Hor-Shep-Sut lies in quiet slumber waiting for the...

Dark Wolf
2003
Special Effects
A vicious werewolf stalks the streets of Los Angeles. Between killings, its desperate goal is to mate with unsuspecting Josie, who is unaware of her s...

Curse of the Forty-Niner
2002
Director, Special Effects
A group of friends discover gold deep inside an old mine. But by taking the gold and think they've hit it big, they awaken a long dead miner who's Hel...

Deep Freeze
2002
Director, Producer, Special Effects
A deadly creature terrorizes a team of researchers at an isolated Antarctic laboratory.

After the Storm
2001
Special Effects Makeup Artist, Special Effects
On the run from smugglers and the police, world-weary scavenger Arno (Benjamin Bratt) takes a job as a courier for a tycoon. But when the tycoon's yac...

Watchers Reborn
1998
Director, Special Effects
An extra-smart dog and detective team up to stop a DNA enhanced killer.

Alien Escape
1997
Makeup Designer
Cindy and her beautiful friends are on vacation when they are assaulted by a ruthless gang of aliens attempting to take control of Earth. The friends ...

Carnosaur 3: Primal Species
1996
Special Effects
International terrorists get a surprise when their cargo turns out to contain living dinosaurs. The army commando team now have to think fast, if they...

Freeway
1996
Special Effects Makeup Artist
Following the arrest of her mother, Ramona, young Vanessa Lutz decides to go in search of her estranged grandmother. On the way, she is given a ride b...

Inhumanoid
1996
Special Effects
A family of three is travelling in space, when they encounter a stranded spaceship. They manage to pull out one survivor (Grieco) who's in shock. Howe...

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
1995
Makeup Effects Designer
Six years after being kidnapped by a cult, Jamie tries to escape the clutches of her serial killer uncle, Michael Myers.

Not of This Earth
1995
as The Other
An anemic alien comes to Earth from a dying planet, in the remake of the Corman 50s classic.

Bikini Drive-In
1995
Special Effects
Kim Taylor inherits her grandfather's drive-in theatre. She must raise $25,000 over one weekend or the bank will take the property from her. She also...

Scanner Cop II
1995
Makeup Designer
When other Scanners in the Los Angeles area are left drained of life, Sam is forced back into action in a desperate attempt to stop Volkin, who is det...

The Fear
1995
Special Effects
Richard, a college student who has decided to focus his attention on the study of fear, invites a group of friends up to his family's secluded mountai...

Project: Metalbeast
1995
Special Effects, Makeup Designer
With the medical breakthrough of a metal-based synthetic skin called "bio-ferron" the prospect for pioneering surgeries for burn victims and cancer pa...

Tammy and the T-Rex
1994
Special Effects Makeup Artist, Makeup Effects
An evil scientist implants the brain of a murdered high school student into an animatronic Tyrannosaurus, who later wreaks vengeance on the bullies wh...

Biohazard: The Alien Force
1994
Special Effects
Triton Indutries has created a genetically-engineered creature using DNA from human sources. During the course of the experiment, however, the host mo...

Scanner Cop
1994
Special Effects Supervisor, Special Effects Makeup Artist
Rookie cop Sam Staziak has a unique gift: he is a Scanner, which gives him the power to read the thoughts of others, and also to inflict great bodily ...

Dinosaur Island
1994
Special Effects
Welcome to lush Dinosaur Island, where a tribe of gorgeous cavedwelling warrior women satisfy the exotic fantasies of five downed military airmen. Fea...

Necronomicon
1993
Special Effects Supervisor
H.P. Lovecraft anthology is divided into four segments: "The Library" which is the wraparound segment involving Lovecraft's research into the Book of ...

Carnosaur
1993
Special Effects
After being driven to extinction, great bloodthirsty dinosaurs come back to life with the assistance of a demented genetic scientist. She plans to rep...

Red Rock West
1993
Special Effects Makeup Artist, Makeup Effects
When a promised job for Texan Michael fails to materialize in Wyoming, Mike is mistaken by Wayne to be the hitman he hired to kill his unfaithful wife...

Seedpeople
1992
Second Unit Director of Photography, Special Effects
The citizens of Comet Valley are being taken over by seeds from an alien plant that has taken root there. A sheriff investigates the strange goings-on...

Demonic Toys
1992
Second Unit Director
While on a stakeout, Judith Gray, a beautiful, tough cop, is trapped inside a warehouse full of toys that have been awakened to murderous life by a st...

Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College
1990
Director, Special Effects Makeup Artist
A college teacher brings the little creatures back to his campus, where they proceed to terrorize the faculty and students.

The Sleeping Car
1990
as The Mister
Jason moves into an abandoned train car where he resurrects the vicious ghost of his landlady's dead husband... The Mister. After some near-fatal enco...

The Sleeping Car
1990
Special Effects Makeup Artist
Jason moves into an abandoned train car where he resurrects the vicious ghost of his landlady's dead husband... The Mister. After some near-fatal enco...

Robot Jox
1989
Makeup Effects
50 years after a nuclear war, the two superpowers handle territorial disputes in a different way. Each fields a giant robot to fight one-on-one battle...

Arena
1989
Creature Design
An intergalactic fighting competition between champions of various worlds has traditionally been won by a species much larger and stronger than humans...

The Laughing Dead
1989
Special Effects Makeup Artist
A busload of travelers and their disgraced priest tour guide, on the hunt for Aztec ruins, decide to stop in a Mexican village on the eve of the Day o...

To Die For
1988
Special Effects Makeup Artist
L.A. real estate agent Kate Wooten gets a new lease on life when she learns that her new client, a mysterious and handsome man named Vlad, is looking ...

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
1988
Makeup Effects Designer
Michael returns to Haddonfield for Jamie Lloyd – the orphaned daughter of Laurie Strode – and her babysitter Rachel. Can Dr. Loomis stop him before th...

Cellar Dweller
1988
Makeup Effects, Creature Design, Director
In the 1950s, a horror-comic artist's creations come alive and kill him. Years later a new cartoonist revives the creatures in his house, now part of ...

Ghost Town
1988
Special Effects Makeup Artist, Special Effects, Special Effects Supervisor
Deputy Langley tracks a kidnapped girl to an abandoned ghost town. However, the town is not abandoned, but haunted by the spirits of an outlaw, Devlin...

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
1988
Director, Line Producer
Tina Shepard, a telekinetic teenage girl, accidentally unchains Jason from his watery grave, allowing him to go on another killing spree in the area.

Demonwarp
1988
Creature Design, Story
A man and his daughter are attacked in the woods by what they believe is a Bigfoot-type creature. However, they soon begin to suspect that they may ha...

Trancers: City of Lost Angels
1988
Special Effects
Jack Deth, the super cop from the future, has put away three centuries worth of time traveling criminals. But Deth's most dangerous collar, the ultra...

Pulse Pounders
1988
Makeup Designer
In this 'sequel' anthology, the film offers a TRANCERS sequel written by original creators Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo, a new Lovecraft adaptation THE...

Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity
1987
Special Effects, Creature Design
In the future, two slaves in a distant galaxy escape prison and crash-land on a strange planet. They meet Zed, whose hospitality attempts to hide the ...

The Garbage Pail Kids Movie
1987
Makeup Artist
Seven disgusting kids but nevertheless of interesting personality are being made of the green mud coming out of garbage can. Once alive their master g...

The Caller
1987
Special Effects Supervisor, Special Effects Makeup Artist, Special Effects
One night, an unusual stranger in need (Malcolm McDowell) asks a woman living alone in a house in the woods if he can use her phone. It soon becomes c...

Vicious Lips
1987
Special Effects Makeup Artist
Sometime in the distant future, a fledgling band gets an opportunity for a breakthrough, if they can make it in time to a faraway planet to perform in...

Dolls
1986
Special Effects Makeup Artist
A precocious girl, her nasty parents, two punk-rock losers and a weak-kneed salesman inadvertently become the guests of two ghoulish senior citizens i...

From Beyond
1986
Special Effects Coordinator
The Resonator, a powerful machine that can control the sixth sense, has killed its creator and sent his associate into an insane asylum. When a beauti...

TerrorVision
1986
Special Effects
Stanley Putterman installs a state-of-the-art satellite dish in his backyard, soon unleashing a strange monster that leaps off the screen and needs to...

Eliminators
1986
Makeup Effects, Special Effects, Makeup Designer
A former pilot rebels against his creator, teaming up with the scientist responsible for android technology, her pet robot Spot, a rough-and-tumble ri...

Troll
1986
as Sorcerer (uncredited)
When a family moves into a San Francisco apartment, an opportunistic troll decides to make his move and take possession of little Wendy, thereby pavin...

Troll
1986
Director, Story, Special Effects Makeup Artist
When a family moves into a San Francisco apartment, an opportunistic troll decides to make his move and take possession of little Wendy, thereby pavin...

Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors
1986
as Self
Actors, directors and special effects technicians are interviewed at a horror-film convention.

Re-Animator
1985
Special Effects Makeup Artist
Conducting clandestine experiments within the morgue at Miskatonic University, scientist Herbert West reveals to a fellow graduate student his groundb...

Fright Show
1985
as (segment "The Thing in the Basement")
Two obscure film critics host four SF/Horror films: The Thing in the Basement, Illegal Alien, Nightfright, and Dr. Dobermind.

Fright Show
1985
Makeup Artist
Two obscure film critics host four SF/Horror films: The Thing in the Basement, Illegal Alien, Nightfright, and Dr. Dobermind.

Zone Troopers
1985
Special Effects Makeup Artist
American soldiers, led by The Sarge, are stuck behind Nazi enemy lines. As they make their way across the Italian countryside, they come across an ali...

Hard Rock Zombies
1985
Special Effects Makeup Artist, Second Unit Director, Special Effects Supervisor
A hard rock band travels to the tiny and remote town of Grand Guignol to perform. Peopled by hicks, rubes, werewolves, murderous dwarves, sex perverts...

Ghoulies
1985
Special Effects Makeup Artist, Creature Design
A young man and his girlfriend move into the man's old mansion home, where he becomes possessed by a need to control ancient demons.

Trancers
1984
Special Effects Makeup Artist, Special Effects
Angel City trooper Jack Deth is sent back in time from 2247 to 1985 L.A. to inhabit the body of his ancestor. Deth's assignment is to find his archene...

The Dungeonmaster
1984
Director, Writer, Special Effects Makeup Artist
Paul, a computer whiz who spends more time with his machine than with his girlfriend, finds that he has been chosen as a worthy opponent for Mestema, ...

The Prey
1983
Special Effects Makeup Artist
Three couples go on a camping trip in the woods of southern California during the summer, where a deformed man is stalking their camp.

Deathstalker
1983
Special Effects Makeup Artist
The warrior Deathstalker is tasked by an old witch lady to obtain and unite the three powers of creation - a chalice, an amulet, and a sword - lest th...

Love Letters
1983
Makeup Artist
After discovering a box of old love letters sent to her mother by a mysterious stranger, Anna, a young radio deejay, begins a torrid affair with a mar...

The Horror of It All
1983
as Self
A collection of film clips from horror movies and interviews with the actors and directors who made them.

Forbidden World
1982
Special Effects Makeup Artist
In the distant future, a federation marshal arrives at a research lab on a remote planet where a genetic experiment has gotten loose and begins feedin...

Sorceress
1982
Creature Design
To maintain his powers, the evil wizard Traigon must sacrifice his firstborn child to the god Caligara. His wife, however, has other ideas and runs aw...

Stingray
1978
as The Flamer
Lonigan and his partner Tony, two drug dealers, shoot two cops who attempt to set them up, and run away with a million bucks and the drugs, which they...

Stingray
1978
Makeup Artist
Lonigan and his partner Tony, two drug dealers, shoot two cops who attempt to set them up, and run away with a million bucks and the drugs, which they...

Celluloid Wizards in the Video Wasteland: The Saga of Empire Pictures
N/A
as Self
The official feature-length documentary about the rise and fall of Charles Band's legendary Empire Pictures studio.