EDGE OF THE AXE (1988)

EDGE OF THE AXE (1988)

Tagline: It takes a lot of guts to make a movie like this

(Horror, Slasher, Moma Weer All Crazee Now) [R]

Well now you got two more Doug, I tell you this place stinks of death. 

In this one, Gerald is a hot-headed computer geek who is the second biggest jerk in town next to Richard who is an even bigger jerk. Richard is married to a rich older woman named Laura Simmons, but he’s pretty bored of her and really only wants her money. Gerald ends up meeting Lillian Nebbs and the two hit it off. Apparently Gerald like younger women so he goes for Lillian’s younger sister Susan Nebbs. What do you give the girl of your dreams on date number 2? A computer, get with the times' kids. In the meantime, several women are getting hacked up around the community and almost no one is ready to believe this small quaint little town by the lake has a murderer out for revenge that can only be exacted at the EDGE OF THE AXE.

First off, this is definitely one of those movies where you can kind of feel yourself not liking anyone but the old dude that Gerald lives by. Both of the main characters Gerald (played by Barton Faulks) and Richard (played by Page Mosely) are total jerks. It’s so bad that you start to question if one of them is the killer. Oh yeah, that is actually one of the several interesting things about this movie that set it above a lot of other slashers. We don’t find out who the killer is until there is about 5 minutes left in the movie. Some people probably figured it out well before that, but I am really just easy to trick I guess because I never seem to get the person right. It’s either that or I would just “rather” the person was a particular person just to see them go down in flames at the end. 

Where this movie struggles, is in the acting department when it comes to its two male leads. 8 out of 10 people walking down the street might have done better than Barton Faulks in this. He only ended up doing two movies until very recently where it looks like he’s got a 3 credit in the works for a movie “FREEZE”. Page Mosely fairs much better career-wise acting till 1996, but he is also just really freakin bad in this. You just can’t have your two leads absolutely phone it in, not even in the 80s. It does get a little better with the rest of the cast, Joy Blackburn actually does a decent job in this as Susan Nebbs as does Christina Marie Lane as Lillian Nebbs. Lane by the way only had 2 acting credits, so you can kind of see a bit of a pattern here. I do have to give a nod to Fred Holliday who probably outshines everyone in this. He plays Frank McIntosh and had a very successful career in Hollywood, especially when it came to TV starring in everything from “Days of Our Lives” to “Dallas”. 

Storyline wise this one is actually pretty interesting. Gerald is fairly mysterious even if he’s a jerk, Susan is intriguing and we even get introduced to an early form of texting or chat room. Basically, Gerald gives Susan a computer on his network and they can instantly message enough outside of an email structure. The other interesting thing about this movie is that the killer is pretty darn picky when it comes to weapons. If the axe store is out of axes that day…sorry…we don’t have a movie. It’s either an axe or it’s nothing. There are some pretty grisly effects in this and overall it’s a pretty effective slasher when you put this thing up against a LOT of the other slasher flicks out there. I also like that we got a mask. Slashers where you can see the person's face, for me are always going to be less than because it strips you of any “whodunit” element and I really want a bit of story if I am going to watch a horror flick. 

Overall I get that the director thought this was his worst film, but whatever, I am giving it a 5 out of 7. The ending by itself puts this way up there in my book. I am coming to the end of my run on slashers I feel might be worth a watch, but this one had my attention the whole time.
 

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