Axe

(aka Lisa, Lisa; California Axe Massacre; The Virgin Slaughter)

Saved from obscurity by it's inclusion on the UK 'Video Nasties' banned list, AXE is a curious little film that shouldn't work but does ... almost.

The film opens with three thugs waiting in an empty apartment for it's owner to return. Upon his arrival, two of the thugs beat him to a pulp (one of them uses a plastic doll, no less!). The third hoodlum - the film's director, Frederick Friedel - looks on shocked, and half-heartedly tries to stop the violence. Upon discovering their victim is dead (and witnessing his petrified boyfriend leap out of the apartment window to certain death), the three men go on the run. They happen upon a small town where they humiliate the cashier of a local convenience store by stripping her to her underwear, balancing tomatoes on her head and shooting them off.

Meanwhile, in an isolated farmhouse, young Lisa busies herself by decapitating chickens, feeding her paralyzed grandfather raw eggs and hallucinating about slicing her wrists open. Before too long the inevitable happens - the three convicts turn up on Lisa's doorstep and demand a room for the night.

The ever-morose Lisa welcomes the men in and even makes them a sandwich. Upon establishing that Lisa lives alone with her grandfather and that they have no immediate neighbours, the men settle into their new home. It's here that Friedel constantly shows us his character is the 'sensitive' one; every time he and Lisa are alone, he aplogises for the aggressive nature of his cohorts and promises to help her.

On the first night, one of the thugs decides to slip into Lisa's room while the rest of the household sleeps, and attempts to rape her. Unfortunately for him, Lisa has a cut-throat razor blade hidden under the mattress and promptly puts it to good use. This is the scene that was shortened for the Exploited VHS release a couple of years back. The disposal of the body - Lisa hacking it up in a bathtub, then getting Friedel to unwittingly help her carry it to the cellar in a large chest - is handled well. The gore is largely off-screen, but this scene is effective nontheless.

From then on in, the film has a couple of minor twists as Lisa attempts to play the two surviving convicts against each other. The final twist is quite ironic but a bit of an abrupt ending to an already brief film.

Overall, this is low budget 70s cinema that reeks of bad taste, worse music and sleazy characters. But AXE has it's moments. The fact that the heroine is in fact a psycho is a nice touch. The two hardened thugs are convincing and the grandfather does a good job of not laughing when Friedel mutters "No ... no ... no ..." during the worst bit of acting I've seen in aeons (if you've seen the film you'll know the bit I mean. If not, I don't want to spoil it cos it's right near the end). But if you're looking for sex & violence, the film will be considered tame by most.

The disc is typical of Something Weird. A full-frame presentation which is quite nice to look at, considering the low budget origins. As always with SW, there's loads of extras. As always, they're pretty bad. There's a full 80 minute film called "The Electric Chair" which is dull for the most part, but does contain an effective scene of a guy being prepared to fry in the, er, electric chair! Very thorough ...! There's loads of trailers for really bad exploitation titles like THE MAD BUTCHER and BEHIND LOCKED DOORS. A couple of short public information films that have nothing to do with the main feature, a gallery of exploitation art and 3 original trailers for AXE.

Surprisingly dark in spirit, this is perhaps best recommended as a curiosity piece, and certainly not the worst film ever to be called a 'video nasty' (surely BLOOD RITES or GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY hold that honour?). Oh, and Something Weird have finally started releasing their films in keepcases.

Review by Stuart Willis