Bloody Axe Wound

Save your money and watch In a Violent Nature for a significantly better homage to slasher movies

This movie's failings are numerous but above all it was boring and lame, and just doesn't keep up with the golden age of horror we have going with released such as Terrifier, Oddity, Skinamarink, Late Night with the Devil etc..

• corny plot trying to explore empathy and friendship at the expense of creating a compelling horror movie with excitement. Completely fails to capture the magic of the genre it makes meta commentary on
• no good kills, so tame and afraid to push any boundaries
• humor is completely random and is just thrown in gags (not in the good crazy way like terrifier)
• massive pacing issues. First 10 mins are interesting and then the rest of the movie is a hallmark drama

Please skip, do not encourage shudder to continue making these lame stream milquetoast releases.

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.

I found this to be a mediocre movie that I watched. The story itself is interesting with a teenage girl wanting to be like her dad who is a serial killer, until something happened. Unfortunately, it goes through a generic trope when after meeting someone she starts to feel it is wrong doing what her dad wants her to do and to be someone else. It's definitely an interesting type for a horror movie to do and is somewhat decently executed decent. One major flaw is that the movie doesn't know what type of genre it wants to do. The movie is a comedy, but it tries to do different types of comedy which doesn't work out and the slapstick isn't that funny. Also, it seems like it goes for more seriousness on the subject matter that the main character goes through. And the climax is underwhelming.

While the characters do have a factor into the movie, they're not that interesting to remember about.

Abbie is the main character who first wants to be like her adopted dad, but soon changes after meeting Sam. She plays your typical role as a teenager who first wants to follow her guardian steps, but changes after one event. I didn't found her to be that interesting.

Sam is the girl who she met and grows attraction to her. She is basically the reason why she wants to stop doing what her father does and acts like a generic love interest.

Roger Bladecut is basically the main villain of the movie who is a serial killer who wants Abbie to follow his steps. I want to point out that he doesn't appear that much in the movie and mostly tells her the same thing throughout the movie on how she shouldn't hang out with the Sam girl. Billy Burke does a pretty good job with his performance as the character.

Bloody Axe Wound might have an interesting premise and good kills, but is a mediocre movie that doesn't know what type of genre it's going for.

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 can't figure out how to edit this, but Chet Siegel is listed for Molly Brown's role). It wasn't a bad movie--characters are likable, the chemistry between the leads (again, that is MOLLY BROWN, not Chet Siegel, and Sari Arambulo) is great, the premise is cool...but like too many horror-comedies, the creators just couldn't really commit to going hard. I get it--you want people to like your characters. But if your characters are a family of slashers, you're entitled to some dark, dark, wicked humor. Had the humor been less broad, it would've made a huge difference in the quality of the film.

Other than that and a criminal underuse of Jeffrey Dean Morgan, it isn't a bad movie. The worst thing about it is that it could've been great...but pulled its punches, instead.