Trying to ride the coattails of 1974's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Axe (aka The California Axe Massacre as well as the original title Lisa, Lisa) didn't deliver as much as the previously mentioned title, and is one of those movies that people like or they don't. Personally, I love it! I also can see where people would hate it and claim that it tests their patience. When I stop to think about why I like it so much, I'm guessing it's pretty much only because I have nostalgia for it. Well, that and I like the look of the movie for its '70s quality. Sometimes that's enough for me. Rating movies doesn't really give the full report, but I would give this a 7/10, and here's why...
Getting the privilege of being one of the infamous "video nasties", it makes you wonder why the hell it made it on that list. At the time, those who were out to get the horror video underground were aiming for anything and everything at the time, and with a title simply called Axe how could this slip by the clueless crowd of anti-horror groups. Had they watched the movie they probably wouldn't have bothered. Is it totally devoid of blood and gore? No, but there are far bloodier and far gorier movies out there.
So basically, three criminals, Steele, Lomax, and Billy (who looks like Bob Ross) are on a murderous rampage and running from the law. They take it upon themselves to target a small town for their horrendous antics. One memorable scene is when they invade a grocery store and harass the female worker there, making her take off her blouse and then placing an apple on her head in which the lead asshole is going to shoot off once he walks 10 paces. The lady's acting in the scene is pretty unconvincing and this is where some of those rating points start to come off. They don't kill her, at least I don't think they do, but there's a moment where you think she's been shot. It turns out that it's just ketchup from the bottle he shot above her head. More unconvincing acting ensues.
Let's introduce the other characters which soon come into play. Lisa (Leslie Lee) is an introvert living in an isolated farmhouse with her paralyzed grandfather (Douglas Powers). Their relationship is essentially Lisa taking care of him and all the household needs. Their moments alone are a little strange. You feel uneasy watching some of the things that she does for him. Things like feeding him raw eggs, shaving him, bathing him, feeding him; it's a little bit of uncomfortable and a whole lotta weird. Once the idiots leave the town, they make a mistake by venturing onto Lisa's land and of course they terrorize her.When the three men arrive at the house, Lisa can be seen looking down at them from one of the top windows of the house which prompts the men to intrude. Lisa feeds them, runs the cops away so they aren't caught, and they thank her by hinting a sexual attack on her. Except for Bob Ross' doppelganger Billy; he protests by slamming his hands down on the dinner table and running away.
The '70s quality that I referred to earlier comes in midpoint of the film where Lisa is staring at herself in the mirror and hallucinates herself standing there with blood splattered on the mirror. As she stands in the bathroom looking into the mirror, she is then seen holding a straight razor to her wrist. I call this the '70s symbololgy technique. It makes you realize that she's already unhinged and these three men are about to push her more over the edge. Well, yeah, that is the premise of the movie after all! Basically, they're about to fuck up real bad.
The first to go is Lomax. He decides to pay Lisa a visit while everyone is asleep and rapes her. Lisa grabs the straight razor she had in the bathroom that she had placed in the top drawer of the nightstand by her bed and slashes the back of his neck from one side to the other. His agonizing screams are hilarious and you can't help but laugh as she saws the blade back and forth across the back of his neck. She lies in bed covered in blood and clearly in shock. She snaps out pretty fast and drags his body to the bathroom where she takes an axe and starts hacking away. This is obviously where the movie starts to pay off. It gets even better when she stuffs his body in a large trunk and Bob Ross wants to help her move it. He pushes it all the way up the stairs and finally notices that blood had been leaking from it. He opens the trunk and his reaction is pretty underwhelming and he stupidly asks who did it. She replies by saying the other guy did it and I guess he believes her...? They go out into the woods to talk and he asks for her help. She raises up the razor and acts as if she is going to kill him but he takes it from her and says he needs it. Um...did he not realize that she was about to waste him? What an unobservant fool. He tells her to go back to the house and tell Steele that she doesn't know where he went. Again, this is where the movie pays off.
Steele is not really concerned with where Bob Ross aka Billy is and is more concerned with raping Lisa in front of her paralyzed grandfather. It's a good thing the axe was conveniently laying on the firewood in the same room where this is happening because she needs it right about now. After a few minutes of bizarre struggling, she grabs hold and whacks the fucker to death while blood splashes all over her catatonic gramps. She goes on with her day as if nothing happened, making lunch for grandpa and then telling Billy that Steele was gone when she returned. He believes her...again! This guy is a doof. He sits down to eat tomato soup but realizes it's a bowl of blood and that he's about to eat Steele's ring. He looks up just in time to see Steele's dead body fall from the fireplace.
SPOILER ALERT!
The police are driving up to the house and Billy runs out screaming. Instead of getting away or getting help he gets shot down. The cops confirm that he's one of the men they've been looking for and that Lisa described them perfectly when she called for help. The movie ends with her feeding her grandfather what looks like blood stew.
As I said before, being one of the video nasties, you'd expect a lot from this and though it falls short of delivering a classic, it's still worth watching. Some will say it's boring and tedious, some will say that it's a moody, atmospheric backwoods tale and I would agree with the latter. I love the style and I love the moog synthesizer music that was present in the late '70s films of the time. This isn't a movie I can just put on at any time, but it's definitely a great flick to put on if you're looking to have a couple of drinks and enjoy a slow-burner. Besides all that, you should just watch it to say that you've seen all of the video nasties.
IMDB tidbit: The movie was shot in 11 days and retakes were not an option in most cases due to lack of film stock.
