Abbie Bladecut (Sari Arambulo) is the daughter of a serial killer. Her father Roger (Billy Burke), butchers kids from the local town and films their murders, passing them off as horror movies in his video store. Keen to follow in her father’s footsteps, and often there to witness his dastardly deeds, Abbie begins to wonder if her chosen path is the right one when she falls into a new crowd of friends. Attracted to her confident classmate Sam (Molly Brown), Abbie struggles between her father’s expectations and what she truly wants from her life.
‘Bloody Axe Wound’ is a horror from director and writer Matthew John Lawrence. Bordering on black comedy, the film has a ridiculous premise which it never truly fully embraces. It’s implausible to think that someone could film themselves murdering teenagers from their town, provide them as movie rentals and no one figure out what is going on; yet that’s what happens here. Abbie’s determination to follow in her father’s footsteps is an under-developed plot strand and there’s no real reason why she would want to kill people too.
The focus of the film really is on Abbie’s moral journey. As she becomes friends with Sam and a circle of outcasts from her school, she starts to realise that maybe what she’s looking for in life is acceptance and belonging, not murder. Her father is keen to dismiss her concerns, which makes it hard to root for the father-daughter duo when there’s no attempt to humanise what they’re involved with. We don’t understand the motivations behind their actions and it’s hard to buy what transpires.
Tonally the film seems to be trying to strike a ‘Friday the 13th’ meets ‘Scream’ vibe, with self-referential moments peppered throughout and plenty of stalk-and-slash action. Unfortunately, this is pretty jarring for the audience. The film doesn’t have the smarts of the ‘Scream’ franchise nor does it have the edge-of-the-seat kills from the ‘Friday the 13th’ franchise. That leaves it in an odd place somewhere in the middle, suggesting that the film never truly knows what it wants to be.
The film is mostly held together by its young cast. Sari Arambulo is perfectly cast as an awkward teenager not sure about her path in life, and her co-star Molly Brown (seen recently in ‘Dexter: Original Sin) brings her trademark no-nonsense confidence to the proceedings. Both actors are great and they deserved much better material than what they’re given here. Billy Burke is wasted under prosthetics and a cameo from Jeffrey Dean Morgan doesn’t really have the impact it was probably intended to have.
‘Bloody Axe Wound’ spends so much time trying to be everything to everyone that it ends up being not much of anything. It’s not particularly scary, it’s not really smart and it’s not all that entertaining. Wasting a talented young cast, the film is just an average watch. It could have been so much more if it had fully embraced how ridiculous it is but sadly it never realises its potential.
Cast: Sari Arambulo, Billy Burke, Molly Brown Director: Matthew John Lawrence Writer: Matthew John Lawrence Certificate: TBC Duration: 83 mins Released by: Shudder Release date: 21st March 2025
