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AXE
PLOT
Three criminals murder a pair of gay men and flee to the countryside
to hide out. They take refuge in an old farmhouse inhabited by a
strange, silent girl named Lisa and her catatonic grandfather. The
men take advantage of Lisa and her hospitality, but she's not she
proves to have a few designs of her own.
REVIEW
Don't be fooled by the "Massacre" sometimes added to the title...to me, it felt
like director Friedel was going for more of a mood piece/rural thriller.
I hated this movie the first time I saw it, mainly because I felt
cheated out of the gory slasher movie I was expecting. After seeing it
again, I didn't exactly develop a love for it, but already knowing
what I was getting into took a load off my shoulders. Instead of
focusing on the story or bloody mayhem (which, if you've seen enough
exploitation movies from the seventies, isn't very interesting or
different from anything we haven't seen before or done better) I found
myself more drawn to the combination of the oddball soundtrack and
the claustrophobic, almost canned, atmosphere. There is definitely
a mood here, but unfortunately for us, it's mostly boredom.
As it starts out, one might think that they had accidentally rented
some kind of seventies crime-drama potboiler as the leads murder
and make their way out of "the city", intercut with scenes of Lisa
going about the thankless tasks of her day. Along the way from
point A to B, the crooks make a pitstop at a grocery store and force
the clerk to play a little William Tell with a gun. Instead of
killing the poor girl, the man purposely shoots a bottle of ketchup
sitting above her head (which I found a little more than ironic,
considering that most of the blood used in the movie LOOKS like runny
ketchup). The men make their way into Lisa's home pretty much by
walking in the front door. Lisa seems to be accommodating, if not a
bit blank, to everything that is going on...more concentrated on just
ending it all and getting out of her already shitty existence.
As night wears on, two of the men prove that they aren't going to be
so nice and try to attack Lisa...who comes out of her stupor to exact
some sort of revenge on them.
Not an uncommon rendition of the typical "Last House on the Left"-esque,
rape/revenge cycle of movies that were so popular around it's time,
"California Axe Massacre" takes an ambivalent stance rather than a gory
shockfest (although I suspect this is more because of lack of budget
and original ideas). While the violence IS a bit repugnant, that feeling
is pretty much laced throughout the entire movie. What else is
interesting about this movie is that it doesn't bog us down with usual
narrative and subplot...we never really find out what the crooks are
running from and we don't get the requisite scenes of blowhard cops
trying to find them...we're also not informed as to what's wrong with
Lisa, her past, or what she's really thinking or feeling.
Unfortunately, none of these things add up to anything at all and I
felt like I had just sat through a 60-minute mental masturbation
exercise by its makers.
Technically it's horrible...I noticed quite a few jump cuts and odd
close-ups, obviously to create some sort of tension, but even these
are horribly paced (did I mention that the movie drags like your ass
after a heavy night of drinking?). Director Friedel worked on both
sides of the camera and his direction seems to be almost non-existent.
Surprisingly, the performances aren't awful (Leslie Lee as the
disturbed Lisa gives much better presence than performance) but nobody
seems to be thrilled about being here either. The sound quality is
horrible and the years haven't exactly been kind to the print (although
I suspect that it's already made it's way to DVD; as if that could
improve things).
Interestingly enough, this ended up on the British "Video Nasties" list.
Amazing, because there doesn't seem like there was much to object to or
cut out...shit, banning this movie could possibly be the biggest compliment
you could give it. But as I said before, I don't sincerely believe that
this was ever intended to be the type of movie that the title suggests.
A cheat? You betcha...but maybe in some alternate universe this passes
for entertainment.
GORE
Um...not an "Axe Massacre" that's for sure...Lisa uses her hatchet to
behead a chicken (!) and later to chop up an already dead body...we get
a throat slashing and the result of an offscreen murder...most of the
blood amounts to pools of thick tomato soup (wink, wink).
SOUNDTRACK
Seriously, one of the things in this movie that gives it a bit of a kick
in the ass...much better than hearing the audio hiss in between...a hypnotic
mixture of high-pitched organ, piano, subtle percussion, and bongo beats...
a little bit of country music...and sometimes sound FX are amplified.
You may find it either fascinating or headache-inducing.
BOTTOM LINE
If you're a sane person, you should probably just avoid this one...if you
insist on watching it, don't get your hopes up and ONLY watch it at night.
I gave this one at least one star (even though there are many movies that
are much more entertaining for their sheer stupidity that I've awarded one
star) for it's weird and mundane (how these words manage to come together
to describe something makes no sense, but that's this movie in a nutshell)
atmosphere, interesting soundtrack, and an ending that is better than
anything proceeding it. But these sure as hell aren't reasons to recommend
"California Axe Massacre" to anyone.
Review
By: The ScareMaker
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