Getting back into the swing of blogging and further making my way through the Video Nasty list brings me to talk about Frederick R. Friedel's Axe, also known as Lisa, Lisa, California Axe Murders, The Axe Murders and The Virgin Slaughter.

Over at the IMDB page I read an interesting tidbit of information regarding the shooting of Axe. It was allegedly shot in 11 days and due to the limited amount of film stock, it was largely shot without retakes, or even the option of, and it shows, Axe is rough around the edges. But, that is not necessarily a bad thing and it's certainly not lacking any charm.

Starring: Leslie Lee, Jack Canon, Ray Green, Frederick R. Friedel and Douglas Powers.

Produced by Harry Novak, a legendary (s)exploitation producer and the distributor of numerous '60s and '70s softcore sleazoid pictures, Axe, is the second of two '70s movies by director Frederick R. Friedel - the first being Date with a Kidnapper (a.k.a. Kidnapped Coed - 1976) - both of which star Jack Canon.

The plot of Axe concerns a strange young girl named Lisa (Leslie Lee) who lives on an isolated farm along with her paralysed grandfather (Douglas Powers). In the town nearby a group of 3 criminals are terrorizing the townsfolk, soon after leaving the town they stumble upon Lisa's house. The group look more like a duo of PBS producers out for a business lunch with Bob Ross that's somehow taken a psychotic turn for the worst. Lisa allows the 3 men to stay at the house and serves them dinner. Two of the gangsters sexually assault her, she retaliates using a straight razor and an axe.



Clocking in at just over an hour, Axe is a short but sweet affair and I think if you were to stretch the plot, or draw-out any of the scenes it would become intolerably boring. It's also not as strong, or nearly as graphic as some other movies from the era, spare a few bloodied close-ups. The performances from the cast are actually pretty good, what makes the movie uneven is the to-ing and fro-ing between seriousness and comedic beats; tonally, it's over the place. The soundtrack feels akin to that of a H.G. Lewis picture, which is actually pretty cool, and I suppose the abrupt ending does come as a bit of a dead stop.

Axe is worth checking out, it doesn't outstay its welcome, it ain't nuthin' you ain't seen before, but it is fairly well paced and entertaining. Unfortunately there's real bare-bones plot, several things go unexplained, such as Lisa's self-destructive habits and the gangsters motives, or backstory. If you want to watch all of the glorified 'Nasties' then I guess you may as well start with this!

Here's a link to the trailer which contains one of the most unenthusiastic voice-overs I've ever heard.