IMDb RATING
4.8/10
1.5K
YOUR RATING
Three criminals on a murder spree arrives at a farmhouse, where a girl is living with her paralyzed grandfather.Three criminals on a murder spree arrives at a farmhouse, where a girl is living with her paralyzed grandfather.Three criminals on a murder spree arrives at a farmhouse, where a girl is living with her paralyzed grandfather.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaLeslie Lee had done some modeling prior to playing her sole lead role as Lisa. Lee declined an offer to be interviewed for the release of this movie by Severin Films in both the DVD and Blu-ray formats.
- GoofsWhen Lomax is making holes in clothes with his cigar, the amount of holes, his position and position of the clothes is not synchronized between shots.
- Alternate versionsFor its original UK cinema release (as "California Axe Massacre") cuts were made to a razor slashing during a rape scene, the beating of Aubrey, and heavy edits to the infamous scene where the salesgirl is shot at and splashed with ketchup, and the film later found itself on the official DPP list of video nasties in the 80s. It was eventually issued on the Exploited video label, under its cinema title, in 1999 but received 19 secs of cuts to the previous razor slashing scene. The BBFC said they would have passed it uncut but previous illegal distribution of the uncut version led to a prosecution under the obscene publications act (the same reason The House by the Cemetery (1981) and Blood Feast (1963) were slightly cut). The cuts were fully waived for the 2005 ILC release and the film reverted to its original title of "Axe".
- ConnectionsEdited into Bloody Brothers (2007)
- SoundtracksSmellin' Up The Kitchen
Written and Sung by George Newman Shaw and John Willhelm
Featured review
Unusual regional thriller
My review was written in March 1983 after a Greenwich Village screening.
Filmed in Charlotte, North Carolina, about a decade ago (picture was rate by the MPAA in 1974), "Axe" (its alternate title: "Lisa, Lisa") is a fascinating but totally uncommercial film noir exercise in the horror genre, recently reissued to take advantage of public's appetite for gore-shockers. Recalling the B-films of old in its one-hour (plus elongated credits) running time, picture will be of more interest to film students than exploitation-film fans.
Filmmaker Frederick R. Friedel, working on apparently a student film budget, emphasizes detail close shots and inserts with punchy, accelerating editing to maintain tension in the absence of a strong narrative.
Picture opens with abstract tracking shots and moody closeups as a trio of gangsters terrorize an underling in a seedy hotel room. Typical of a no-budgeter, his falling out the 12th-story window takes place entirely off-screen, with a scream and sound effect.
Rest of the film has the gangsters hiding out down south, invading the remote house inhabited by a shy young girl Lisa (Leslie Lee) and her paralyzed, catatonic grandpa.
As the gangsters singly try to attack her, Lisa dispatches two of them with a straight razor and the title axe, while the third (played by director Friedel in an evident economy move) is accidentally offed by the police at film's end.
Abstracting his minimal material, Friedel evidences a good camera eye here. A piano, ondioline-style electronic keyboard and percussion score help to sustain the hypnotic mood, but for general audiences , lack of solid story values combined with amateur acting are bound to be disappointing. One example of the latter is that both Friedel and attractive heroine Lee fall back upon the device of gazing floorward to appear shy and vulnerable.
Little has been heard of Friedel since his promising effort, but cameraman Austin McKinney has made many low-budgeters and makeup man Worth Keeter is still in North Carolina, directing Eal Owenby's 3-D extravaganzas.
Filmed in Charlotte, North Carolina, about a decade ago (picture was rate by the MPAA in 1974), "Axe" (its alternate title: "Lisa, Lisa") is a fascinating but totally uncommercial film noir exercise in the horror genre, recently reissued to take advantage of public's appetite for gore-shockers. Recalling the B-films of old in its one-hour (plus elongated credits) running time, picture will be of more interest to film students than exploitation-film fans.
Filmmaker Frederick R. Friedel, working on apparently a student film budget, emphasizes detail close shots and inserts with punchy, accelerating editing to maintain tension in the absence of a strong narrative.
Picture opens with abstract tracking shots and moody closeups as a trio of gangsters terrorize an underling in a seedy hotel room. Typical of a no-budgeter, his falling out the 12th-story window takes place entirely off-screen, with a scream and sound effect.
Rest of the film has the gangsters hiding out down south, invading the remote house inhabited by a shy young girl Lisa (Leslie Lee) and her paralyzed, catatonic grandpa.
As the gangsters singly try to attack her, Lisa dispatches two of them with a straight razor and the title axe, while the third (played by director Friedel in an evident economy move) is accidentally offed by the police at film's end.
Abstracting his minimal material, Friedel evidences a good camera eye here. A piano, ondioline-style electronic keyboard and percussion score help to sustain the hypnotic mood, but for general audiences , lack of solid story values combined with amateur acting are bound to be disappointing. One example of the latter is that both Friedel and attractive heroine Lee fall back upon the device of gazing floorward to appear shy and vulnerable.
Little has been heard of Friedel since his promising effort, but cameraman Austin McKinney has made many low-budgeters and makeup man Worth Keeter is still in North Carolina, directing Eal Owenby's 3-D extravaganzas.
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- lor_
- Jan 24, 2023
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