Tuesday, October 16, 2018

THE 31 MOVIES OF HORROR-WEEN: PUPPET MASTER: AXIS TERMINATION (2017) * ½


Puppet Master:  Axis Termination is the eleventh entry in the long-running franchise and the final installment in the “Axis Trilogy".  Our heroes from Axis Rising show up once again, only to be immediately killed off one minute into the movie.  An American soldier (Paul Logan, a veteran of many Jim Wynorski films) just happens along long enough to take ownership of the puppets.  He later is teamed up with a dwarf scientist (George Appleby) to use the puppets as part of a magic squad to fight the Nazis.  Naturally, the Nazis have their own puppets who are now in the care of a sexy scientist (Tanya Kay) who controls them using mental telepathy.

Axis Termination is once again directed by Charles Band.  Even though it’s pretty much a stinker through and through, I have to give him credit for trying to give this one a unique look.  He does overboard with the multi-colored gels though.  The emphasis on psychics, telekinesis, telepathy, and “sexual magic” gives it a different flavor than the last few entries too.  I’m not saying it’s in any way remotely successful or anything (the magic power battles are goofy), but at least this wasn’t a case of churning out the same old shit.  

There’s also more gore than the previous installments, although some of the CGI blood is painfully phony looking.  We also get a cool character who ripped her gimmick off from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3.  The problem is that the pacing is almost non-existent.  The scenes of people sitting around talking endlessly about making plans instead of you know, following through with them go on and on without mercy.  In fact, any scene without the puppets is extremely slow-going, which is to say, it’s just like any other Puppet Master movie.

The puppets themselves are a bit livelier this time out as they are sometimes portrayed by actors performing in front of a greenscreen.  However, there isn’t nearly enough puppet action in this one to make it worthwhile, and the action we do get is mostly reserved for the last ten minutes of the movie.  I can’t guarantee you’ll stick around that long.

David DeCoteau, who directed the third, sixth, seventh, and ninth installments in the franchise, appears briefly as a “Flamboyant Nazi”.

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