Axe to Grind

Director - Matt Zettell (The Cellar Door)
Starring - Debbie Rochon (The Legend of Six Fingers), Guy Torry (Dead and Deader), and Matthew James Gulbranson (Salt)
Release Date - 2015
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Lights, Camera. Revenge"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     The world of horror does not have enough horror films with a strong, all female cast that can appeal to the male audience.  I'm not talking about a film about strippers and prostitutes but a film that was serious in nature and followed a typical horror story.  What I hate is how silly and petty most horror films are that house an all female cast.  A month or so ago I was sent word that Midnight Releasing would be releasing the film Axe to Grind.  I thought the film was your typical slasher but I was wrong.  A few weeks ago I put in a film to review and the trailer for AtG was on it and I quickly learned that, for the most part, the film was an all female flick.  This really intrigued me. Lucky for me, Midnight Releasing was kind enough to send me over a review copy.  Thanks guys!
     The film follows Debbie Wilkins (Rochon) who is an aging actress who was once married to a b-movie producer.  He recently left her for a much younger up and coming scream queen.  She pays him a visit to try to get him back and discovers that he is about to start work on a brand new film.  She makes her way on to set and creates a role for herself along with three other beautiful women confusing many members of the crew.  She then slowly and methodically starts killing them one by one before we learn that she kidnapped her ex-husband and she is responsible for the murders of her family way back in the 1980s.  With the help of the unstable Norman, she is able to kill everyone on set before she is apprehended.  Her story makes the news and she becomes a sensation.  Her ex-husband wants to cash in on her fame and hires a lawyer to get off so they can make a movie about her life but she learns that she has been fucking her husband as well...
     I hate when I watch a trailer for a movie and it completely misleads you.  It makes you think the film is going to go down one way and the movie is actually different.  The trailer made me think that Debbie Rochon's character was a director of a snuff film and she was killing the cast for entertainment.  Though the story has been done before, I was excited to see how a mostly female cast would turn this story out.  However, once the film started I quickly realized this was not the case.  The acting in this one is solid by the entire cast but it did have room for improvement.  Debbie Rochon, the film's protagonist, is spot on in so many scenes but in others she is just spitting out her lines and hopes of hearing the director say cut.  Her performance is not consistent and the film shows that.  The remainder of the cast is solid as well but they are a little more consistent than Rochon is.  The story for this one is one we have seen countless times before.  We have seen it before when a woman or a man was left for someone younger only to snap and murder in the name of love.  However, this one is just a little bit more detailed and than and tossed in a murderous backstory.  I enjoyed that portion but the film failed to keep a solid pace which resulted in a lot of drag in the middle that needed to be cut out completely. Finally, the film is full of brutal on screen deaths and beautiful practical effects.  The kills are some we have seen before but girl on girl murder makes it entertaining.  Overall, Axe to Grind is a bloody film that offers up the entertainment and skips on the originality.  The film does drag on at times and the scenes are a little too long but if you are patient the film does pay off.  Check it out.