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There aren’t enough horror films with a strong female cast that appeal to male audiences. I’m not referring to a movie about strip clubs and prostitutes, but rather a serious one that follows a set structure like a classic horror film. What bothers me the most is how trivial and absurd most horror films featuring an all-female cast are.
About a month ago, I received news that Midnight Releasing would be distributing the film Axe to Grind. I had assumed that this film was a pretty generic slasher movie, but I was mistaken. A few weeks ago, I reviewed a film, and the trailer for AtG came on, I soon found out that the movie was mostly an all-women cast production. That was intriguing. Fortunately for me, Midnight Releasing was kind enough to send me a review copy so I can go over it. Thank you!
The movie tells the story of Debbie Wilkins (Rochon), an aging actress who was married to a B-movie producer. He recently left her for a much younger and coming scream queen. Debbie braves her ex-husband’s new wife’s jealousy by trying to get back to him and to her surprise, learns he is starting work on a new movie.
She enters the set and immediately creates a position with two of the most beautiful women which bewilders some of the crew members. She then begins to kill them one by one before we realize she has taken hostage an ex-husband and she is the one who murdered her family ages ago in the 1980’s. She manages to kill everyone on set with the assistance of the crazy Norman, however, she gets arrested in the end. Her story gets on the news making her a sensation overnight.
Her ex-husband tries to take away the ‘money’ part of her fame by cashing in with a lawyer so they can create a film about her life but not until she finds out that he has some skeletons in the closet, like having sex with her too.
I absolutely hate it when I watch a film’s trailer and it does a complete diversion from the theme of the movie. It beguiles you into believing that the film is headed towards a specific direction while in reality, it is nothing like that. I, for one, was totally tricked into believing that Debbie Rochon’s character actually was the director of a snuff film who kills the cast for non-stage entertainment, only to find out she actually discusses the film that she is supposed to direct. Although the concept is quite cliché, I was really looking forward to the execution of this movie simply because of the mostly female cast. Alas as soon as the film commenced, it took me a rather painful jaw-drop as I had this assumption.
Everyone in the cast gave solid performances, although it was a bit lacking. Debbie Rochon, who is the film’s star, nails quite a number of scenes, but in other scenes she seems to just be waiting for the cut to be yelled at her. She is not showing any range in her performance and that is evident in the film. The rest of the cast do a decent job too but are slightly better head than head in comparison to Rochon.
This one has a storyline that has been done too many times. How many times has a man or a woman gone on a killing spree after being cheated on just to get their so-called lover? This one has an added twist of a backstory but this one is more detailed than that and I’ll give it credit for that. I appreciate that, however, this film did not progress at all at the afforded pace which led to a lot of slow pacing in the middle which needed heavy trimming.
Finally, the movie shines with its use of practical effects and stunning, brutal on-screen deaths. There is girl-on-girl murder, which adds to the entertainment value, even though some of the kills are quite basic. In summary, Axe to Grind is a bloody film that serves plenty of laughs at the cost of originality. The movie does feel painfully dragged out at points and the scenes are quite long but it eventually catches up and rewards your patience. Go ahead and take a look.
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