Bloody Axe Wound

Bloody Axe Wound initially comes across as another subversively interesting slasher that aims to have fun with the rules of the sub-genre, but eventually becomes a wasted idea executed in a fun enough way to keep it watchable.

Acting is decent from the Bladecuts, with Billy Burke being an easy highlight of the movie as he handles the humour and the intensity to an impressively balanced degree as the fatherly killer Roger Bladecut. Moreover, Sari Arambulo is really fitting in the lead role of Abbie Bladecut; she is able to convey the struggles and aspirations to follow in her father's footsteps in a straight-faced and very comical way that is still funny but never comes across as silly or overacting. On a more technical note, the cinematography, lighting, and practical gore effects are all very well done. And the story itself starts out pretty strong, with an interestingly funny set up, and the balancing between the jokes and the killings is done to an effective degree.

However, that is also where it seems to be a point of struggle for the film. It can't consistently maintain its aforementioned balance, where the second act very much becomes a high school romance story that very nearly hijacks the main premise several times. The third act, in an attempt the balance the scales again, instead tips them entirely to being a straight up generic slasher flick with a strange and underwhelmingly unrewarding ending.

But it's biggest weakness is by far the world building, with several aspects and plot mechanisms left either unexplored or unexplained. Furthermore, the script can never decide how it works, and it leaves the audience with an utterly baffled sense of confusion as to how particular mechanisms drive the narrative.

Overall, it is funny enough to keep you entertained, but not interesting enough to stick with you and leave any kind of lasting impression.

Abigail is the daughter of legendary serial killer (and snuff film maker) Roger Bladekill. When Roger starts to see the effects of age slow him down, he entrusts Abbie to follow in his footsteps - killing teens on video. Upon entering high school to scope out her victims, she encounters friendship and more, snagging her plans of a murder spree. And Dad isn't happy.

Now, that's my synopsis. A good pitch right? If I was a Shudder exec, I would also be putting money behind this. It sounds pretty damn awesome.

Sadly, this falls victim to oh so much. The writing is not coherent in its genre or mood, the characters are given some depth, but it's not delivered right and they still feel 2D, the whole snuff subplot is kinda forgotten for the most part? And something that bothered me to the nth degree: this seems to be set in the 90's, but I'm not sure the costume or set department got the memo.

That bothered me probably more than it should. The 90s have this specific...touch. Taste. Vibe. The clothes used here seem to be repurposed modern day pieces layered to appear grunge-esque. Sam Crane wears a chain as a belt, but it looks like cheap crap bought from Hot Topic. It doesn't look NATURAL. They look like your average current day citizens.

I started noticing corded phones, cassettes, wood-panelled cars, corded headphones, and I realised this is either satirising the popularity of slasher flicks in the 90s or, more likely, supposed to be set in that decade. The integration of old tech didn't make it pass though, too many things were too clean, too cheap, too flimsy, all aspects that are more common to modern day items. This is very specific but it did distract a whole lot, and possibly changed the mood of the whole film.

Most acting is pretty average, with the exception of Margo Anderson-Song, Eddie Leavy, and Billy Burke (yes, Bella Swan's dad in Twilight). These three really seemed to feel their characters. They were much more into it and managed to land their jokes.

That's a whole other problem. The writing. This film doesn't quite know where it wants to sit when it comes to mood. Are we serious? Are we comedic? Are we going into slapstick humour? We can have all of it in one scene, for sure, but the way these bits are written, they mostly fall flat on the floor. It's the sort of jokes where you nod, you don't laugh. You know it's meant to be a joke, but it's terribly unfunny. And it happens every few minutes. It's unbearable. The writers didn't leave time for us to breathe. Just, maybe space the comedy out next time, okay?

I think, overall, I wish there had been a bit of reworking this script before even shooting it. With some changes, it could have even more potential. It might've even been a good film.

I don't think this should be the end for the filmmakers, I do think they clearly have a vision, but it wasn't realised here. Maybe next time.

I watch tons of horrible movies. I'm always open to independent and low-budget movies (although the huge influx from streaming services has made me hesitant). Bloody Axe Wound could have been just another one of those bad low-budget movies that I would rate low and immediately forget about.

The problem is, it has such a cool concept for the premise and an interesting spin on the subgenre. The premise of them actually doing murders so they could make movies about it is pretty awesome. And the idea of a female slasher villain sounds highly intriguing.

That's why I'm so disappointed in this. It could have been great. And I wish they saved this idea until they could get better funding, writers, directors, etc. If done right, this had the potential to be a movie I loved. Instead, I couldn't make it past the 26-minute mark.

(1 viewing, 1/14/2025)

Working in a video store, a teen wanting to follow in her father's footsteps as the town slasher for their rental service line of horror films finally gets her chance when an accident forces her to go to high school to follow her intended victims, but complications arise that threaten to derail the experience.

This was a massively enjoyable and fantastic genre commentary. One of the finer aspects of this one is the spectacular atmosphere created here involving the killer haunting the town and how it operates. Creating the kind of environment offering the father figure as a maniacal serial killer using the rules of slasher films as a guide for how to operate, the resulting work being distributed as a rental tape in their video shop for clueless customers to rent, and the resulting chaos that emerges as she tries to force her way into the family business, the main setup her is immensely intriguing with quite a lot to like. The ease with which they openly discuss the subject matter and how they operate their lives in the town allows for a lively tone in the beginning with how it sets up the mindset of a film-slasher rather than a serial killer with how they're shown to operate in the heat of the moment. The fact that it goes from that into a spectacular build-up of friendship that goes on while attempting to go about the traditional rules of a slasher film. Forced to go to high school to scout her prey, the idea of her taking an interest in the rebellious student the more they hang out makes for a nice bit of conflict with her father as that conflicts with the rules of a slasher villain. The reckless behavior and free-spirited nature exhibited should paint her as a classic victim in a slasher film and going about it here where her personal feelings towards them makes it harder to knock them off as there's a fine mix of comedic interactions and genuine pathos experienced while this plays out. Going for the romantic subtext as well over this section while trying to paint the rules of the slasher film villain who has to take over the mantel for her infirmed father is a fun touch and creates further disillusion between everyone for how it tries to change up the traditional formula in these films. The finale here, involving the surviving group heading off to a local campground for safety only to realize that they've stumbled into his birthplace, the way it goes against those traditional formulas by having the group far more cognizant of the rules than they expect and use that to undermine her attempts at bringing them together for following the rules of the films. These are based on the series of encounters at the campsite which not only takes on the type of wild confrontations and over-the-top stalking present in the rest of the film which has a slew of disgustingly brutal and wild kill scenes featuring equally wild gore and deaths that are as similarly over-the-top. The setup takes a bit to buy into how the whole series of exploits are captured on videotape for others to watch as films that no one else in town seems to recognize at all, but if that's not much of an issue there's little to dislike here.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

This was a very silly movie that parodies slasher flicks that revolves around a slasher dad who has a family business in creates slasher films and owns a film rental store who is trying to groom his adopted daughter to rise up and take over the business and save it before it goes under. It was very campy and corny at times but some parts were entertaining and there was some kind of underlying message about breaking the status quo of being a typical slasher when you start letting your emotions run wild. For what it is, if you're into seeing a mock up flick that pokes fun at slasher flicks while showcasing what it would be like to be the kid of a Jason Voorhees like character then check this one out.