Puppet Master: Axis of Evil

The Puppet Master series has been running strong since 1989. Throughout the series it has taken the storyline in all sorts of directions creating a chronological history that can be confusing. While Puppet Master: Axis of Evil is the ninth official film in the series, it actually is third in chronological order for the series itself. With varying stories and evolution to the characters, can Axis of Evil bring something new to the story and continue to evolve these beloved horror icons and a deliver another stepping stone for the future of these characters?

Puppet Master: Axis Rising follows Toulon as he takes shelter at the Bodega Bay Inn in California. When two soldiers are sent to kill him for his secrets, he hides the puppets away and commits suicide in hopes to have his secrets die with him. When an employee discovers his body and the puppets he begins to take care of them eventually discovering their secrets as well as that of the Gestapo's plans to bomb the United States. With the help of puppets he sets out to stop them before they can set their plan in motion. Featuring Blade, Pinhead, Jester, Tunneler, Six Shooter's arms, Shredder Khan, Gengie, and Ninja this latest entry expands on the opening sequence in the original Puppet Master, even using the same footage. There have been some various inconstancies throughout the series, but still always managed to bring it all together fairly well. This connection to the original seems to bring it back on track as though Band is trying to reconnect all those missing pieces in a more cohesive manner. This one takes a little bit longer to get to the fun, but the clear attempt to tell more of an origin story makes it work. This is an entertaining entry into the series, while the acting is not all that great. Over the years, the acting side of it has seemed to go down a bit, but is overshadowed by the sheer fun of the puppets in action.

If you're a true horror fan or just love anything Full Moon puts out, this is a must have version of Puppet Master: Axis of Evil. In addition to the film it includes additional features The Making of Evil, 13 Vidcasts from China, "No Strings Attached" the original making of from the first Puppet Master and includes the trailers from all 9 original Puppet Master films. Don't miss out on Puppet Master: Axis of Evil on Blu-ray available now! For more information or to get a copy, head over to www.fullmoondirect.com

In a Stateside hotel during the height of World War II, young Danny Coogan (Levi Fiehler) dreams of joining the war effort.

This film, coming in at barely 80 minutes, reused footage from previous films. So that makes this a total of 60 minutes, maybe? I cannot blame them. They needed to use a dead actor, so the footage had to be old, and it ties the story together more fluidly.

What is up with the young Nazis? Is it just me, or does the idea of two young (under 30) Nazis being the only force to infiltrate the American war effort seem silly? Jenna Gallagher was decent as Beth, and fairly attractive. The real mystery is why Full Moon regular Robin Sydney did not get the part (or any part) in this movie. She never fails to entertain and it would be nice to see her in this series.

But the real issue with this film is the anachronisms: the movie takes place in 1939, but the U.S. did not enter WWII until the Japanese attack on December 7th, 1941. So why are we fighting in France and Japan already? The concentration camp Auschwitz is mentioned, but the camp was build two years after the events depicted in this movie. The female Japanese agent mentions Kamikaze attacks, but no Kamikaze units existed until 1944.

The USA flag hanging on the wall in Danny's room has 50 stars on it, but the USA only had 48 states so there would only have been 48 stars on it (1 for each state). It was not until August 21, 1959 when Hawaii became the 50th state that 50 stars appeared on the flag.

This film needs work!

Well I'm not just talking about the humans in this (although some have the emotional range of puppets). So have a plot where our good guys are trying to overcome the bad guys. There is a Japanese character in here and also a Ninja puppet. If that already made your day and you are easily satisfied you will have a lot of fun.

Actually as always good puppetry, although not as impressive as it once was. Technology has advanced and all that. And this also marks the first part of a trilogy that is connected. So Part 9-11 is like a big movie ... sort of.

As if people back during WW2 did not have it bad enough, they have to deal with Puppets too. On a more serious note though, while I guess it was up to the viewer to decide in some of the previous entries if the Puppets had good or bad intentions (appointing them a moral label/compass so to speak). A theme that was a subject in Part 8 which obviously was more a best of thing.

Whatever the case, it's Puppets against Nazis and it's a trilogy and the acting is really bad, but it's also sort of fun. Especially if you watched a few of them and don't mind all the plot holes and the inconsistencies (I didn't care and didn't notice most of them until I watched a Youtube Video named Horror Timelines) ... so there you go, and if you are a completionist like me, you'll watch it too no matter what.

I remember watching the first Puppet Master film in my teens and thinking it was a pretty good. I remember watching the second and thinking it was pretty poor. I remember watching the third and thinking that, whilst low budget, it was a good film.

I say remember as I'm 31 now and it was quite a while a go. But being the film fanatic that I am, I still remember the puppets and their names.

Even though more Puppet Master films were made, I didn't follow the series after the third one....until I noticed that a new film had been released and that the story would take place early Toulon days - like the third film, which worked - so I thought I'd jump back in and see where the series was up to.

Unfortunately, by the 10th instalment filming is on a micro budget and it shows! I liked the story and thought it was engaging enough. I looked past some of the shoddy acting and poor performances.....but the thing I just couldn't forgive was the lack of budget given towards the puppets! It was poor and disgraceful. At no point did you feel that Blade (my favourite since the first) and co. were alive. There wasn't the slightest effort made at all. If you were to make a home movie about puppets that are alive, the best you'd be able to do to make it look convincing is move the puppet with your hand so the camera can not see - this is exactly what happened in this film. No attempt at animatronics or stop motion capture.

The original Puppet Master was made in 1989 - all these years later, it still outclasses this instalment in every department.

The good thing that did come out of this film is that my interest is rekindled and I've obtained Puppet Master 1-9 which I'm going to watch!

EDIT - Just watch 1-4 as the series goes down hill from 5 onwards :)

Director David Decoteau's ("Puppet Master III", "Curse of the Puppet Master" and "Retro Puppet Master") 2010 direct-to-DVD prequel "Puppet Master: Axis of Evil" is quite a surprise. It's not a good movie by any means, don't get me wrong. It's really bad at times, but it's also highly enjoyable as a cheap horror film and has some good fun moments, and it is a definite step up after the abysmal, cheap clip-show of a film the prior entry ("Legacy") was.

The films starts off with an extremely well-done retcon of the original "Puppet Master" film's prologue, almost seamlessly mixing old archival footage and new footage- Danny Coogan (Levi Fletcher), a young man whom wants to fight in World War II but can't due to a bad limp, stumbles into the room of the puppet master Andre Toulon (William Hickey in archival footage) just moments after he killed himself. Danny had been shown Toulon's puppets before, and is able to recover them from their hiding place in the wall, vowing to take care of them and keep them safe from the Nazis Max and Klaus who had been sent to retrieve them for Hitler. (Max and Klaus are played by Tom Sandoval and Aaron Riber) Danny returns home to Los Angeles China-Town district where his mother and older brother (about to depart for the war) live, and where his girlfriend Beth (Jenna Gallaher) works. However, Max and Klaus track down Danny's address and begrudgingly unite with a Japanese spy and her associates to retrieve the puppets for the Axis, and to blow up the factory where Beth works, which may or may not be home to a new secret Allied weapon.

I will give credit where credit is due- there are a lot of good, fun moments in this direct-to-DVD film. Some of the ret-con work in the beginning is highly impressive (it matches perfectly except for slight differences in the lighting), the characters though underdeveloped and poorly acted are likable, and there's even some good unintentional social commentary. (Including a good jab at American ignorance in that our Japanese villainess is able to hide out in plain sight in China-Town because Americans are too ignorant to be able to tell Chinese and Japanese apart.) It's also just good to see the puppets in action again as a fan of earlier installments in the series.

However, when this film falls apart and times, it really falls apart. For one, it's 81 minutes long, but nearly ten minutes of that footage includes the opening and closing credits, and a large portion of archival footage from the original film, so the film is really only about 71 minutes of new footage. And it just isn't enough time to develop the sort-of story the director and writer are going for. You can tell that a lot of scenes must have been cut for budget and time reasons (too much is implied through dialog when it should have been shown on screen, and the film takes place in the same few locations from scene to scene), and it hurts the film. What makes this even stranger is that it's not a fast film, per say, it's actually a slower-moving film editing-wise, which makes it seem even shorter than it already is. It really could have benefited from another 10 minutes of footage.

Two, this is not really a well-made movie. It feels far too low-budget. The puppet effects are all very bland and basic and look arguably worse than they did in earlier films. The production design is very cheap. The acting isn't the greatest (the actors are charming, but just can't act). It just reeks of "low budget direct-to-DVD."

Those complains being said, this is still a watchable film. It's one of the weaker entries in the series (to be honest, the series has gotten a lot worse since the third film), but is still mildly entertaining. I'd give it a just under-average 4 out of 10. If you're a fan of the earlier films, pick up the box set of all nine official entries and give this one a watch. It's worth seeing for the fans.