Horror Movie Review: Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan (2013)

From writer, producer and director Gary Jones comes Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan. A 2013 movie that feels like a parody of similar horror movies but inevitably falls foul of many of the same problems.

Who is Paul Bunyan? Well the legend says he is a murderous lumber jack who lives in the mountains. One who slaughtered an entire village many years before when the people killed his best friend, Babe the Blue Ox.

It is that event we witness at the start, easily the best part of the movie especially as we have a wild Dan Haggerty in attendance.

Jump to an undetermined time forward and we have a set-up that has been done to death. A load of ‘troubled’ teens are taken into the mountains as part of a course to avoid jail time. The group of rascals are your cookie-cutter characterless walking bags of dead meat. Some are more important than others, but it hardly matters, character development is non-existent.

While out hiking, one of the group comes across the remains of Babe the Blue Ox and decides to take one of its horns. A bad move as Paul Bunyan is still upset about his friend’s death. Angry at the defilement of its body, he sets about cutting and slashing his way through the group.

Did we mention that Paul suffers from a genetic disorder that has left him deformed and enormous? No. We didn’t because the film just sort of glosses over that.

Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan is not a good movie and the more it goes on, the more its problems become apparent.

With these sorts of films you never really expect deep or detailed characters but Axe Giant doesn’t even try. In turn, the actors barely try, and the end result is a group where you really won’t care about who lives or dies. The story can’t hide them either as it’s very bare and really doesn’t answer enough questions about the titular killer.

However, what really stands out for all the wrong reasons are the effects. Stuffed with CGI effects that will destroy any immersion. The sight of the muppet-like effect that is one of the women being carried by her ankles in the air is downright hilarious.

A chuckle or two at the poor quality isn’t enough to make this a recommendation though. Avoid, even if you’re after an ‘unchain your brain’ kind of movie, you can do much better than this.