BLOODY AXE WOUND (2024)

New streaming on Shudder!
Directed/Written by Matthew John Lawrence.
Check out the trailer here!!

Life for Abbie Bladecut (Sari Arambulo) is tough being the adopted daughter of serial killer Roger Bladecut (Billy Burke) who has terrorized the town of Clover Falls for a very long time. Roger runs a video store which releases nothing but slasher movies, most of them featuring Roger doing his thing to local teens. In this alternate universe, the video tapes of Roger’s murders just show up on the video store’s doorstep, predicting the latest killing spree that seemingly never ends. Roger also has a yearbook where red circles appear around specific students, pointing him in the direction of his next victim. With Roger getting older, Abbie is eager to take over for Roger as the town serial killer, but Roger has doubts that a girl could evoke the amount of fear and terror needed for such a role. But when Roger gets laid up from an old wound, he gives Abbie her chance to show her serial killer stuff. Instead Abbie meets Sam (Molly Brown) who she immediately feels an attraction to and is reluctant to kill. Therein lies the predicament; should Abbie fulfill her destiny and pick up the reigns of her father’s profession or follow her heart and begin a relationship with Sam?

Imagine if Jason somehow had a daughter. I guess that’s not exactly a valid comparison since Jason is a silent killer and lacks to social skills to hook up with a lady-friend. Billy Burke’s Roger Bladecut may not have hooked up either as Abbie is adopted—a story that is left untold in this cute little twist on the slasher flick. BLOODY AXE WOUND is a good time if you don’t think too hard about it. Once you get the premise—and it requires a mighty lead in logic to do so as it is multi-tiered. Not only do you have to buy that Bladecut lives in a town that is oblivious that he is living a normal life as a video store owner by day and slasher by night. But he also receives magic video cassettes predicting his murder sprees and has a magic yearbook predicting his victims. As long as you can buy that and don’t ask too many questions like; how did Roger meet Abbie? Why are they in this situation where the magic powers-that-be give Roger these tapes? Why do the cops seem to turn a blind eye to all of this? Why do some people know about the existence of the killer and the video store and some don’t? And most importantly, how does Abbie think she can ever be a serial killer if she falls in love with her intended victim on the first night of her first killing spree? I had a lot of questions, but I feel that the folks behind BLOODY AXE WOUND would simply say, “You’re thinking too hard about this?” which basically admits that they didn’t really want to flesh out the world the characters live in that much and just get to the stuff that counts.

And while these logical questions and maybe even geeky questions might pop up in the brain pans of horror-philes like you and I, I don’t think this film was intended for hardcore horror fans who like to get into that kind of stuff. This film is made for the newer, younger horror crowd. And that’s ok. Not all horror has to be made specifically for me. I’d file this under the same category of recent teenage horror films like FREAKY, HAPPY DEATH DAY, IT’S A WONDERFUL KNIFE, and TOTALLY KILLER. And while I liked some of these films (HAPPY DEATH DAY, FREAKY), not all of them spoke to me. And a couple of them I found to be downright unwatchable (IT’S A WONDERFUL KNIFE, TOTALLY KILLER). I would put BLOODY AXE WOUND in the former category as while it does seem to target a younger audience, it still manages to add some elements like the respect for 80’s slashers, some solid gore, and the fun member berries the video store brought out of me.

It also helps that our lead, Sari Arambulo as Abbie, is likable as all get out. She has this admiration for her pop that slasher fans can relate to. Not that we want to go out and kill, but just the kind of anti-hero worship slasher icons like Jason, Freddy, Michael, and Leatherface get from most fans of slasher flicks. Arambulo isn’t obnoxious and more importantly, she’s not perfect. She’s not correcting her father or putting him down for not being cool. Quite the opposite, she wants to follow in his footsteps. And while trying to do so, she actually fails and proves to be a pretty awful serial killer. By giving Abbie these faults, it makes her infinitely more relatable and makes you want to root for her to succeed because we’ve seen her fail. More modern horror movies with female protagonists should take note. This is how you make your lead (male or female) likable.

There are also some fun performances from the rest of the cast. Billy Burke is great as the serial killer who is just a skosh away from saying “I’m too old for this shit.” He’s not ready to hang up the hockey mask yet, but man is he getting close and I loved seeing him be both a vicious killer and a loving father. Yes, it is mostly played for comedic effect. Yes, this is supposed to be a heartwarming relationship, even though I feel it misses the landing in the end. But more on that later. Other standouts are Molly Brown (who is currently playing a young Deb in the most recent DEXTER origin season). She’s cool and confident and you can understand why Abbie would fall for her. I also liked Abbie’s friend Glenn (Eddie Leavy) who supplies some pretty funny scenes while he is trying to land a part in the movie being made around these killings, though not all of his scenes land, the bulk of them provide some nice comic relief so things don’t get too teenage angsty.

The problem with BLOODY AXE WOUND is in the script which feels only half cooked. I think many of the aforementioned questions should have been addressed. Any time people are scratching their heads and trying to wrap their heads around the premise, it is a distraction from the movie itself. The movie does a decent job of not outright explaining the rules of the universe with boring discourse, but I do feel that not enough details were given. What happens if the movie doesn’t turn out the way it plays out on the video? Why is Roger so adamant that his daughter be a killer when he at first doesn’t want her to be one? Also, the stakes are never really established. Does it hurt Roger when Abbie doesn’t kill the intended victims? And how did this scenario begin with the video tapes and the yearbook and all of that? There’s just too much the audience is required to swallow and no explanation to make the meal smoother.

The biggest problem is that the film does resolve the problem between Abbie and Sam’s relationship, but it never really gets to address the issues between Abbie and her father Roger. Which really lets you know what is important to the filmmakers. Not that I mind a lesbian teen horror film, but unfortunately, it’s not something new, especially in this day and age. At least it isn’t one of those films that crams some kind of agenda down the viewer’s throats. Sure, Abbie is attracted to Sam and that’s a challenge for Abbie as she is supposed to kill her. But the thing that makes this movie different is that it is about a serial killer and his daughter. And unfortunately, that relationship is never fleshed out enough, making the choice between Sam or her father no choice at all. In fact, the reluctance Roger had about his daughter not having what it takes to be a serial killer because she is a girl might not have been the most PC of concerns from pop, but the way things turn out, it seems like he’s right about it all. And I just don’t think that’s the intention this movie was going for.

BLOODY AXE WOUND is from Matthew John Lawrence who did another fun horror comedy a few years back called UNCLE PECKERHEAD. That one felt a little more fully thought out than this one. Again, if you don’t think too much about BLOODY AXE WOUND, it is a perfectly fine little teenage horror flick. It’s even got some cool grossout effects and a solid handling of action to keep the pace moving. But once you start asking questions and thinking a bit deeper than the surface with this one, it’s going to fall apart for you. So I suggest just not straining your brain on this one. It’s fun and cute and occasionally gruesome (I love it that the corpse of their grandma sits at the dinner table with them) and has some great acting and some fun cameos. And sometimes that’s enough to get a recommendation from me.

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Music & Arrangement by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy https://youtu.be/PDySbxQgZMg
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