‘The battle is over. The war has just begun!’
Puppet Master X: Axis Rising is a 2012 American action horror film produced and directed by Charles Band from a screenplay co-written with Shane Bitterling (Reel Evil; Beneath Loch Ness). It was edited by Danny Draven (Patient Seven; Ghost Month; Reel Evil; Dark Walker).
The film is a direct sequel to Puppet Master: Axis of Evil (2010) and introduces new puppets named Blitzkrieg, Bombshell, Kamikaze and Weremacht. It was released on October 9, 2012 by Full Moon Features.
Main Cast:
Kip Canyon (1313: Bermuda Triangle), Jean Louise O’Sullivan (Sorority Slaughterhouse; The Bates Haunting; The Dead Want Women), Oto Brezina (Beast Beneath; Cry of the Mummy;The Poughkeepsie Tapes), Scott Anthony King, Stephanie Sanditz, Brad Potts, Kurt Sinclair, Paul Thomas Arnold, Terumi Shimazu, Ian Roberts, Nigel McGuinness.
Opening plot:
Ozu, the villain from the previous film, walks down a dark alley only to be stopped by Kommandant Moebius, the Nazi general. Ozu offers him the puppet Tunneler, in exchange for her freedom. Moebius gladly takes the prize, which immediately kills SS Soldier #1. Moebius “sets her free” by shooting her in the head. While this takes place, the puppet Blade watches from the shadows.
The next morning, Danny and Beth are recovering at Danny’s house. Danny tells the rest of the puppets that he couldn’t revive Ninja, but they will get back Tunneler. Blade appears and informs them of Ozu’s death and Tunneler’s capture by the Nazis. Danny and Beth respond to a knock at the door only to be grabbed by mysterious men in suits…
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Reviews:
“As a sequel it’s a solid watch, if only for the return of Six Shooter! … Axis Rising is a worthy sequel that finally focuses on progressing the mythos of Toulon’s puppets, and it’s a solid horror film I had a good time with.” Felix Vasquez, Cinema Crazed
“The performances are more wooden … the action less enthralling and the setting/locations look abysmally cheap. Anyone reading this probably holds the same modicum of hope that I do for this series. That, one of these days, Band and co. will understand that they need to spend some money to make money. This isn’t that day, though. Puppet Master X: Axis Rising is every bit as terrible as you might think, and then some.” Matt Serafini, Dread Central
” …in militantly low-budget affairs like these a concept means everything, and having an enemy team of puppets is such a good idea it’s shocking it wasn’t done in, say, 4 and 5, which were handicapped with aggressively boring antagonists. Also the acting was slightly better, with more professional actors in the pot, and it felt like it actually had much more going on, albeit a plot where one of the villains’ motivations change with every act.” Chad, Trash Culture
“Most of the films have featured the puppets quite prominently and yet this time around they were more like props to accentuate the main protagonist, in this case Danny. Perhaps if the majority of the film was not so bad, the average viewer would not mind so much…” The Telltale Mind
“Neither the script nor the acting is good enough to carry the film without more action and focus on the puppets. The fight scenes are, perhaps, the worst offense. A puppet fighting a human – not killing, but actually engaging in hand-to-hand combat – is cheesy enough, but the cheap puppet-on-puppet fights are eye roll-inducing.” Alex DiVincenzo, HorrorNews.net
Cast and characters:
- Kip Canyon as Danny
- Jean Louise O’Sullivan as Beth
- Terumi Shimazu as Ozu
- Scott Anthony King as Kommandant Moebius
- Paul Thomas Arnold as General Porter
- Brad Potts as Sergeant Stone
- Stephanie Sanditz as Uschi
- Kurt Sinclair as Major Collins
- Oto Brezina as Dr. Freuhoffer
- Glenn Zhang as Chinese Man
- Ian Roberts as SS Soldier #1
- Jesse Hlubik as SS Soldier #2
- Michael Ulmer as SS Soldier #3
- Danielle Stewart as Leech Woman (voice)
- Kenichi Iwabuchi as Kamikaze (voice)
