At the height of the Second World War, aging puppet master Andre Toulon hides at the Bodega Bay Inn in California where young furniture maker Danny Coogan (Levi Fiehler) dreams of enlisting to fight the Germans and Japanese. Unfortunately, Danny’s disability has ruled out such dreams, leaving him disappointed and frustrated now his older brother, Don (Taylor M. Graham) is about to ship out overseas. When Toulon commits suicide to prevent his dark secrets falling into enemy hands, Danny discovers his bizarre collection of deadly living dolls. Shortly thereafter, he learns that Nazi agents, Max (Tom Sandoval) and Klaus (Aaron Riber) have infiltrated the munitions factory where his girlfriend, Beth (Jenna Gallaher) works and are planning an attack alongside Japanese saboteur Ozu (Ada Chao). Armed with his killer puppets, Danny decides to intervene.
One of the few indie horror franchises out there, this is the ninth entry in a long-running series created by prolific producer Charles Band. As with the superior Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge (1991), the film opts for a wartime setting but kicks off clumsily with a caption that reads: 1939 and a photo-montage that includes a cinema billboard advertising How to Murder Your Wife (1965)! As scripted by August White, the characters know all about kamikaze pilots and concentration camps long before America entered the war.
From the original Puppet Master (1989) onwards, the series has been one-dimensional with plots pitched at a comic book level that rarely strive for any depth. This instalment has the feel of a 1940s quickie or else a Marvel comics flag-waver with characterisations to match. It is hard to tell whether the script is being satirical when glowering Nazi Max denounces the All-American pastime of baseball as a “damn ridiculous sport” or when dragon lady dismisses his Nazi regalia with a withering “And I thought my dress sense was extravagant!” One reoccurring problem with the earlier sequels was their persistent recycling of footage from the first film. This upholds that annoying trend as the opening scenes shoehorn a cameo from original Toulon, William Hickey and prowling, low-angle camerawork by Sergio Salvati (formerly Lucio Fulci’s cinematographer of choice) that leaves the new footage looking rather shoddy.
David DeCoteau has improved as a stylist since his early days as a prolific DTV schlockmeister, but his cramped direction renders the suspense sequences somewhat listless and though he drenches the meagre sets in evocative colours and wafts of fog, the low budget shows through. The puppets themselves remain deliciously deviant, including old favourites Blade, Pinhead, Jester, Tunneler and Leech Woman, but White’s talky script gives them little to do. One neat idea finds Danny fusing a ninja puppet with the soul of a departed supporting character. Barely feature length, Puppet Master: Axis of Evil ends on a cliff-hanger that isn’t especially enticing. The DVD includes “No Strings Attached” a promo piece detailing the making of the original Puppet Master along with a trailer for this movie.
