Puppet Master: Axis of Evil (2010), Puppet Master X: Axis Rising (2012), and Puppet Master: Axis Termination (2017)

Many movies have clear cut heroes and villains. An action movie tends to have that action star who can survive almost any situation to come out on top over a bad guy with an evil plot. Science fiction movies might have humans of Earth going up against some sort of extra-terrestrial species trying to take over our planet. Horror movies could have ghosts, ghouls, monsters, or animals attacking vulnerable people. Or, in the case of slasher movies, any sort of evil person, creature, or thing.

The Puppet Master franchise is a great example of heroes versus villains. The first movie, which I covered a few years ago, featured a group of psychics staying in a hotel where evil puppets roamed and murdered. It was the psychics against the puppets as they tried to survive the miniature mayhem. That would continue into the second film (which I haven’t covered), which had some parapsychology students venturing into the hotel and experiencing the same sort of marionette murders. The third film in the franchise, a prequel to the first two flicks, flipped the script.

Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge set the stage for later entries in the Puppet Master franchise. It made one major change to the action. The puppets were no longer the villains of the story. They were the heroes. Well, maybe they were anti-heroes. They did heroic things in less-than-heroic ways. There was one way they were able to pull that off, which was to choose a villain worse than what audiences had seen out of the puppets in the first two Puppet Master entries. The villains of the third movie were Nazis.

The next few movies after the prequel would sidestep the Nazis and go with other villains. There were Egyptian gods, an evil puppeteer/mad scientist guy, and even a toy company. However, Nazis wouldn’t stay out of the franchise forever. Following a less-than-successful crossover with the Demonic Toys franchise, Full Moon Features brought the Nazis back into the storyline. There was another prequel, set immediately after the opening scene of the first Puppet Master movie, that featured an America against Germany in Los Angeles conflict. It would be followed by two other movies, which are called the Axis Trilogy of Puppet Master movies. Three movies, one after the other, that all had a continuing storyline about that World War II on home soil conflict.

Puppet Master: Axis of Evil kicked off the trilogy in 2010, bringing David DeCoteau back to the franchise. That was a good thing. He made two of the better movies in the franchise up to that point and turned in another good, for a Puppet Master movie, installment. Danny Coogan (Levi Fiehler) worked with his uncle as a woodworker since he wasn’t fit to join the war effort. His uncle owned the Bodega Bay Inn. Danny, who was friends with hotel guest André Toulon, inherited Toulon’s puppets following Toulon’s death at the hands of Nazis who wanted his formula for reanimation. This inheritance led Danny into a fight against the Nazis that killed Toulon as they planned to destroy a bomb factory that Danny’s girlfriend, Beth (Jenna Gallaher) worked at.

Nazis are villains with a built-in history. Most people recognize Nazis as one of the world’s worst ever villains. They committed massive genocide while destroying large portions of Europe and killing millions of people, attempting to seize power and land. There haven’t been many groups who have had such a negative impact on the world, both in the time where they were at their height, and the years that followed. Nazis still exist, though not in the same form as the headed-by-Hitler, German political party.

With that history in mind, it was easy to get on board with the puppets as heroes in the Puppet Master franchise. That might be why it was so tempting to return to a World War II era setting for Puppet Master: Axis of Evil. The puppets were now (in order of release, not in order of story setting) working with the Americans as heroes to stop the Nazis. The puppets were the good guys. The puppets were patriots, even if they were the creation of a French puppeteer who performed in Germany.

In terms of horror, it might be scarier for the puppets to commit their violent murders on the protagonists that you hoped would survive. However, it’s difficult to make puppets scary. Even at its best of puppets-as-villains storytelling, the Puppet Master movies weren’t all that scary. The shift to make the puppets heroes signalled that Charles Band and his team realized that fact. They knew it would be better to go with satisfying murders, rather than scary ones. Killing Nazis is very satisfying.

Puppet Master: Axis of Evil sure revelled in that satisfaction. It played into American patriotism by having the puppets work with an American to defeat some Nazis on American soil. It played into the satisfaction by setting up some truly threatening villains. The Nazis killed André Toulon and were also behind the death of Danny’s family. It was not only Danny fighting for America in a patriotic way. That was part of it, for sure. But it was also personal. The Nazis attacked the people he knew. The puppets helped him get revenge, all while saving America.

Puppet Master X: Axis Rising didn’t keep the personal aspect to the story. The closest to a personal vendetta was that one of the puppets, Tunneller, had been kidnapped by the Nazis. Danny (Kip Canyon) wanted to get him back. The plan of the Nazis wasn’t even as good or realistic. The Nazis wanted Tunneller’s life force to bring people back from the dead and raise a zombie army. The technology wasn’t ready, though. A kidnapped doctor was working on it, being forced to do the Nazi science work because the Nazis had his daughter. I guess that was personal, but he was also a villain, so that was an odd choice. That’s what you get when Charles Band directs.

This was the Axis Trilogy going full B-movie. Sure, puppets attacking people was always going to be a B-movie story. There’s no way around that. But at least the story in the previous entry, outside of living puppets, had been grounded. It was a battle between a good guy who wanted to be part of the war effort and bad guys who wanted to blow things up on American soil. The sequel was about Nazi zombies. Which one sounds more like the evil plan of a B-movie villain? Yeah, it’s the Nazi zombies.

That didn’t really matter. Sure, the quality of the story took a downgrade with Charles Band taking the directorial helm and choosing to go a little more out there with the Nazi plot. But the villains were still Nazis. They were still the worst of the worst. It was still extremely satisfying to see them get their puppet comeuppance. Or their zombie comeuppance, in one case.

It is more satisfying to see a movie where puppets continuously stalk, attack, and murder Nazis than it would be to see puppets working for the Nazis continuously stalk, attack, and murder the protagonists. It’s more fun to watch bad people get the punishment they deserve, from a movie standpoint. Especially a bad movie standpoint. I’m sure someone out there could make a great film about Nazis bringing puppets to life to murder others, and it would be scary and captivating. Charles Band doesn’t have that in him. I think he knows that. I think that’s why so much of his career has been devoted to making fun, dumb movies rather than movies with real substance. There may be a little bit of substance to take out of them, but they’re mostly just there to have a good time.

That said, Charles Band added a little bit of substance in the third, and final, part of the Axis Trilogy, Puppet Master: Axis Termination. I should quickly note that there was technically a fourth entry, a spin-off that followed the events of Puppet Master: Axis Termination, called Blade: The Iron Cross. However, it only featured one puppet and one human character from Puppet Master: Axis Termination. The main part of this 1940s storyline was the three movies.

Puppet Master: Axis Termination opened with the two main characters of the previous two movies being murdered by a spy while trying to hand the puppets over to the US government. The spy was then murdered, and the government put together a psychic team to help the puppets stop a Nazi puppet master and her psychic sidekick. It was puppets versus puppets and master versus master.

When I say that Puppet Master: Axis Termination had a little more substance than Puppet Master X: Axis Rising, it wasn’t much. With the two conflicts, puppet conflict and human conflict, it touched a little upon the nature versus nurture debate that so often goes on in the world. Were the bad puppets only bad because of their master? Could they be good with a good master? We had already seen that was the case throughout the franchise. André Toulon himself had flipped from good guy to bad guy, and with him, the puppets had also changed allegiances. The first two films in the franchise, which took place some forty years after the Nazi movies, saw the puppets as villains because their masters (Toulon included in Puppet Master II) had been bad people. Every other movie had seen them as heroes because their masters had been heroic. Actions speak louder than words. The franchise had already given the actions. Now it was giving the words for the people who hadn’t been paying attention.

There was a full circle feel to Puppet Master: Axis Termination. The nature versus nurture story thread was brought to the forefront, a story thread that had been unspoken but present through the rest of the franchise. The team of psychics was back for the first time since the original movie. Dr. Ivan Ivanov (George Appleby) was a talented puppet master who could empathize with the puppets. His daughter, Elisa (Tania Fox) saw things in her dreams that could become reality. Georgina Vale (Alynxia America) performed voodoo. The big difference was that this team of psychics knew what they were up against, where the psychics of the original thought they were in an empty hotel.

Another aspect that felt full circle was the Nazi villains. Sure, the main villain of the original Puppet Master wasn’t a Nazi. But the first movie opened with André Toulon being shot in his hotel room. He was shot by Nazis. The opening of Puppet Master: Axis of Evil continued the story of those Nazis through to their deaths. However, those two Nazis weren’t the only part of their American branch. The villains of Puppet Master X: Axis Rising and Puppet Master: Axis Termination were also part of that Nazi sect. It was still the same Nazi crew being defeated by having another plain foiled.

Finally, there was the ending. Yeah, I’m about to spoil the first and eleventh Puppet Master movies. Puppet Master ended with the puppets turning on their master because he treated them poorly. They broke free of his mastery and brutally murdered him in an elevator. Puppet Master: Axis Termination saw the Nazi puppets turn on their master and brutally kill her because they saw how their master didn’t truly care about them. They were treated poorly. It was another villain coming to the same, violent end. Only, not in an elevator this time. The final Axis Trilogy installment brought the franchise full circle before the reboot that came a year later.

This full circle storytelling couldn’t have been done without the transition of the puppets from villains to heroes. Without that transition, there could be no nature versus nurture storyline. The puppets would simply be killing machines, killing anything and everything in their way. Without the transition, the Nazis wouldn’t be the villains of the trilogy, making the trilogy not happen at all. Unless the puppets got in with the Nazis, I guess. The ending could have still happened. It happened in both movies where the puppets were the villains. It wouldn’t have been as satisfying, though.

The entire Puppet Master franchise was interesting for various reasons. Every movie, following the second, seemed to try something new. The prequel setting of the third. The Egyptian gods of the fourth and fifth. The psychological horror of the sixth. The even earlier prequel. The crossover. The clip movie. The reboot. The spin-offs. Each movie felt like its own thing. The quality of those attempts is up for debate. Some of the more interesting (outside of the psychological one, which might be my favourite Puppet Master movie) have been the three prequel-sequels that make up the Axis Trilogy.

When Charles Band and David DeCoteau decided to make the puppets heroes and bring Nazis in as villains for the third Puppet Master movie, they probably didn’t know it was going to lead to a trilogy of Nazi movies in the 2010s. Why would they? They were just trying to extend a franchise beyond where it probably should have stopped. Yet, here we are.

Heroes and villains tend to be clear cut in movies and movie franchises. Here’s a hero. Here’s the villain they’re against. Or protagonist and antagonist, if you want to look at it that way. Not too many franchises, outside of the Fast and Furious franchise, turn the villains into the hero. More likely, they turn a hero into a villain because of love, grief, loss, or power. Puppet Master took that hero and villain dynamic and flipped it by making the villain the hero and finding a worse villain for them to fight against. The franchise went against the typical conventions, growing into something most than humans trying not to die at the hands of puppets. The dynamic was changed.

Here at Sunday “Bad” Movie, I like to give some notes about the cast and crew of what I just watched:

• David DeCoteau directed Puppet Master: Axis of Evil. He was previously featured as the director of A Talking Cat!?! and an actor in Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust, Evil Bong 420, and Evil Bong: High Five. He also popped up on screen in Puppet Master: Axis Termination.
• Charles Band directed both Puppet Master X: Axis Rising and Puppet Master: Axis of Termination. He previously directed Evil Bong, The Gingerdead Man, Evil Bong 2: King Bong, Evil Bong 3D: The Wrath of Bong, Gingerdead Man vs. Evil Bong, Evil Bong 420, Evil Bong: High Five, and Evil Bong 666.
• Robin Sydney made her tenth Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance in Puppet Master: Axis Termination. Her other appearances were in Evil Bong, The Gingerdead Man, Evil Bong 2: King Bong, Evil Bong 3D: The Wrath of Bong, Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver, Gingerdead Man vs. Evil Bong, Evil Bong 420, Evil Bong: High Five, and Evil Bong 666.
• David Del Valle has been in four Sunday “Bad” Movies. They were Chopping Mall, Evil Bong 420, Evil Bong: High Five, and Puppet Master: Axis Termination.
• Tonya Kay was in Puppet Master: Axis Termination. She was also in Evil Bong 666 and The Amityville Terror.
• Jean Louise O’Sullivan was in Puppet Master X: Axis Rising, Puppet Master: Axis Termination, and Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver.
• Peter Frankland, William Hickey, and Andrew Kimbrough were in Puppet Master. Archive footage of their Puppet Master performances was used in Puppet Master: Axis of Evil.
• Kip Canyon was in Puppet Master X: Axis Rising and Puppet Master: Axis Termination.
• Danielle Stewart returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies in Puppet Master X: Axis Rising after first appearing in Evil Bong 420.
• Three more actors from Puppet Master: Axis Termination were in the Evil Bong franchise. Rob Vardaro was in Evil Bong: High Five, while both Jessica Morris and Diana Prince were in Evil Bong 666.
• If you noticed Taylor M. Graham in Puppet Master: Axis of Evil, it might be because they were in Chicks Dig Gay Guys. I hope it wasn’t.
• Jesse Hlubik made a second Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance in Puppet Master X: Axis Rising after originally appearing in Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance.
• Finally, there was Paul Logan. He played one of the main characters in Puppet Master: Axis Termination. He also had a role in The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time.
• Have you seen the Axis Trilogy of Puppet Master movies? What were your thoughts? Do you like how the franchise switched the puppets to heroes instead of villains? Let me know what you think in the comments or on Bluesky or Threads.
• If there’s a movie you think I should check out for Sunday “Bad” Movies, let me know. Threads, Bluesky, the comments. Hit me up.
• I have a plan for the next movie I’ll be writing about. I’ve already watched it. I was holding back on writing until I finished this post. There was a night a while back where I was in the mood for direct-to-video 90s action. Something similar to a Snake Eater or a Street Corner Justice. I found out that Martial Law was on Tubi, so I gave it a watch. I’ll be writing about Martial Law next. See you with that post when it’s done.