Written and directed by Matthew John Lawrence, the primary reason why Bloody Axe Wound draws me in is its recollection of the memory of the time when VHS covers were splashed with unhinged campy aesthetics. The film could well be yet another slasher B-horror, furthering the tradition of Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger. The comedy, however, lies in the trivial treatment that the horror receives in the film. Instead of devoting time to building atmospheric tension and chills surrounding a small-town killer, the narrative domesticized the slasher killer by bringing everything down to his family dynamics and material cash on hand business of rental videos.
Spoilers Ahead
Why does Clover Falls make for an interesting setting?
The fictional town of Clover Falls, located in an unspecified American county, has been infamous for decades for its grisly mass massacres. What is even more interesting is the fact that all these killings—whether slashing people in the lake or frying people on a burger greaser—have been carefully filmed, archived, and produced for mass consumption in tapes. The legendary killer who supervises all these crimes and trades with the tapes as rentals is Roger Bladecut. Bladecut’s choice of victims consists of the generations of elite American teens that occupy Clover Falls. However, sustaining a livelihood by banking on just a washed-up business proves challenging for Bladecut. His teen daughter, Abigail, or Abby, runs the rental store with her father and secretly wants to be the successor, in both killing and starring, in the legends of Bladecut.
However, Bladecut has a different plan. Much to the chagrin of Abby, he contemplates the plan of having his part-time employee, Mackenzie, star in the additional seasons of the Bladecut killings. When Abby tries to argue with her father over his decision, Roger Bladecut says that a teenage girl as a killer is not a commercially profitable choice for him. Witnessing Abby’s enthusiasm to become the next Bladecut killer, Roger offers for her to assist him in his next killing. Roger and Abby hack two rich teens to death and call the movie, “The Resurrection of Bladecut.”
Soon Roger realizes that he really is a washed-up killer now. One injury and he is left on the couch fighting for his life. Roger sees this as an apt time to launch Mackenzie and asks Abby to accompany him instead. Mackenzie and Abby venture out in the dark seeking their next prey. Mackenzie wears the original Bladecut mask and proceeds to kill a teen couple inside their residence. However, he is met with a horrible end when the pointed end of a trophy stabs through his face and smashes his skull. Mackenzie’s unfinished job is executed perfectly by Abby, who executes the axing job wearing a wolf mask. She begins a killing spree, trying to tick off every teen in the yearbook. One of them catches her fancy. It is Abby’s first unsuccessful killing as the girl, Sam Crane, ends up injuring Abby in turn.
Will Abby kill Sam Crane?
With her father’s guidance, Abby is on her path to stardom as the lone scion of the Bladecut house of horrors. Looking for her next prey, she ends up enrolling herself at Clover Falls High School. For Abby, it is the beginning of a romantic tryst with Sam that distracts her from her primary aim of killing her. She is haunted by the possibility of her father finding this out. She tries to negotiate for Sam’s life with her father in a roundabout manner, ensuring he does not find out the truth. Abby’s next target is the popular hip-hop kid, Izzy Moxie. She pushes Izzy out of her bedroom window and finishes her off. Roger drives her away from school to show her the end product of her act — Abby has left Izzy paraplegic but not at all dead.
During Bloody Axe Wound’s ending, Abby tries to uphold her father’s vision and mission while trying her best to ensure that Sam remains unharmed. On their camping trip, Abby narrates the rise of Roger Bladecut to her friends. Soon, Abby is unmasked by the geek girl, Patty. Patty does not survive to tell the truth to the town as she is gunned down by Sam and eventually left disemboweled. Roger Bladecut announces himself at the forest cabin where the kids have been camping. Sam does not know about Abby’s secret. Sam, oblivious to the killer’s identity, asks Abby to run the killer over with their car. However, Roger gets Sam and tries to kill her despite Abby’s desperate protests. Sam hacks right through the middle of Roger’s head and kills him. Despite that, Sam is not spared as Roger gathers the little life left in him and hacks her to death.
Will There Be A Sequel?
As much as it is the story of Roger Bladecut and Abby, Bloody Axe Wound also looks at the metaphorical growth spurts that Abby faces and her own way of coming to terms with the loss of her father. We accompany Abby as she makes the difficult choice of following her dreams, which are at a tangent to her familial aspirations, a journey that is universal to the kindred youth around the world. After Bladecut’s passing, Abby clears out the shelves and shuts her family rental shop. With both her father and her only friend and lover gone, Abby tries to gulp down her grief and move on with her life. One night, a sudden thunderstorm startles Abby. As she goes out in the dark to check the grave, she finds that it is empty. Abby is overjoyed when she finds that Sam has dug herself out of the grave.
A supernatural reunion between the two teens, one dead and the other being the bearer of death, means that we can anticipate further installments in the Bladecut saga. Since Sam has returned from the dead, Abby can possibly now reopen her real-life slasher production business with her lover by her side, who might like having her own cinematic universe.