Horror Movie Review: Axe (1974)
Axe aka Lisa, Lisa aka California Axe Massacre is a 1974 exploitation horror/thriller written and directed by Frederick R. Friedel and starring Leslie Lee. A super-low budget movie that became infamous because of its placement on the UK DPP list of video nasties in the 80s.
Yes, Axe is a nasty that avoided the ban hammer but received heavy cuts to at least three major scenes and sequences. Eventually, as times changed, the movie would be re-released in 1999 with only 19 seconds of cuts before it was finally released uncut in 2005.
Sounds like it must have some brutal content, right?
The movie begins by introducing a trio of villains. The deviant and violent Lomax (Ray Green), the cruel and aggressive Steele (Jack Canon) and the unsure ‘tag along’ Billy (Frederick R. Friedel). We quickly learn they are villains as they attack and murder a man who owes them money.
After leaving the crime scene, they stop at a convenience store where they assault and humiliate the female clerk. Needing to lay low for a while, they eventually find a remote farmhouse where the young woman Lisa (Leslie Lee) and her disabled grandfather (Douglas Powers) live. She is a passive woman and the group take advantage of this.
Something they will come to regret as Lisa is not as innocent and weak as she seems.
Axe is a better film than expected, partially because it is short and partially because it takes some risks. The main one being the plot switch as Lisa becomes the aggressor and commits some serious violent acts.
Of course, the film justifies her actions and not just with the home invasion aspect of things. It’s how that plays out and the violence that follows that really saw this movie get into bother with the censors. By today’s standards? Utterly tame and uneventful, it doesn’t hold up. Little does. It looks cheap and the gore effects are poor, it sounds horrible, the story still has slow points and some of the writing for the characters is flawed.
It feels like a movie from the mid-70s but that is exactly what it is. Keep that in mind and it is surprisingly impressive for that period.
Axe (1974)
-
The Final Score - 6/10
6/10