Sean Parker
If you’d ever considered a world where slasher movies are real, have I got the film for you. A late 2024 entry, horror-comedy Bloody Axe Wound makes its way into theaters this weekend, and it’s a bloody good time worth the price of admission. The film takes place in the fictional location of Clover Falls, an almost idyllic community, except being a teenager can be a death sentence. The meta offering suggests that high school is hard enough already without the need to contend with death on a daily basis, speaking to the violence plaguing schools throughout the country, similar to the way Spontaneous carried the trauma of childhood friends sitting beside you one day only to be gone the next. On the surface, Bloody Axe Wound is a different take on slasher cinema, but if you’re not looking for a deeper well, you may only find gaping plot holes.
At the center of the film, Abbie Bladecut (A.P. Bio’s Sari Arambulo) is waiting for her slasher dad, Roger Bladecut (Lights Out’s Billy Burke), to pass his illustrious mantle and let Abbie take over the family business. That business also includes a video store and an additional point that some overseer is always editing together a final cut of the events. Roger still hasn’t fully healed from his last few outings and wonders if he ever will, and Abbie’s dreams of being the first female slasher grind to a halt when she learns that he’s setting up a new film featuring her arrogant co-worker (Matt Hopkins). However, she starts blazing her own trail when he has some performance issues. But her aspirations fall off when she arrives in the bedroom of Sam Crane (Dexter: Original Sin’s Molly Brown), with whom Abbie becomes enamored at first sight.
After Abbie recovers from her run-in with Sam, it’s decided that Abbie may be able to get closer to her and her friends if she enrolls in the local high school. Through this lens, we’re able to see The Breakfast Club archetypes emerge in people who don’t conform to the status quo: The punk, the nerd, the stoner, and the expressionist dancer. It pretty much defines Linnea Quigley in any number of late ’80s performances. And they’re all a part of some cosmic yearbook revealing the names of people Bladecut is compelled to kill. However, as Abbie gets closer to Sam and her friends, she begins asking questions that may end up adding her name to the list in the process.
Now, the first thing you’re probably asking about is The Walking Dead’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan. His name is plastered all over the movie, and you’ll see him featured predominantly in the film’s trailer. Morgan and his wife Hilarie are both producers on the film, but his role within Bloody Axe Wound is limited to very few scenes. While this is a tactic I usually hate in indie horror and an indication of the shaky ground the film stands on, the Morgans have produced a certified banger of a movie, with Uncle Peckerhead director Matthew John Lawrence writing one of the most clever slasher comedies in decades.
As I previously stated, plot holes abound in Bloody Axe Wound. But, where the film offers a spoof of tropes and provides meta-commentary on horror movies, the rising concerns become almost endearing because they fit the elements of the subgenre. Bloody Axe Wound even leans in where it can. Another A.P. Bio alum, Eddie Leary, provides a charming amount of comic relief in his character’s quest to become a noteworthy part of the background in the Bladecut franchise. His continual costume changes and lavishly outlandish character traits play like a love letter to the minor characters and bit parts we literally cannot forget in some of our favorite horror films, like the “you’re all doomed” guy from Friday the 13th.
While Eddie provides Bloody Axe Wound with his fair share of charisma, the whole ensemble is to die for, and Sari Arambulo is the glue that keeps it together. As Abbie, Arambulo has chemistry with just about everyone. She’s perfectly cast as a teenager with a foot in two worlds: one where she desires to be the most destructive serial killer Clover Falls has ever seen and the other who just wants to explore who she is as a teenager. As Molly Brown’s Sam Crane enters the film, a coming-of-age story blossoms, and viewers cheer for the wonderfully rounded characters to get together, creating discourse in the storyline and building tension between Abbie and her father until her dad returns to help her finish the assignment.
I cannot state enough how out of left field Bloody Axe Wound found me. There was little talk or buzz surrounding the film until a few weeks ago when Shudder and RLJE Films released the movie’s trailer. But here we are naming our favorite films of 2024 as the remaining days wane when Bloody Axe Wound should be in contention for those 2024 listicles. Horror fans will gush about the multitude of references in the film, the fantastic effects artistry, and gory kills, while writers and story advocates will appreciate the film’s multi-layered subtext regarding being uniquely original in spaces that seek to suppress it.
Between the misogynist take of “superhuman” slashers needing to be male to be “believable” and the romantic entanglement characteristics of a killer and the final girl, there’s plenty worth discussing about Bloody Axe Wound once the credits roll. One, in particular, is a divisive thought about people who want to see others dead without bothering to consider life from their perspective. There’s a lot more to Bloody Axe Wound than meets the eye, and for that alone, it’s worth a watch. Once you do, I think you’ll really fall for it.
Bloody Axe Wound is currently playing in select theaters.
Bloody Axe Wound Official Trailer | HD | RLJE Films | Ft. Sari Arambulo, Molly Brown, Billy Burke
In Theaters Only December 27 Starring Sari Arambulo, Molly Brown, Eddie Leavy with Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Billy Burke Written and Directed by Matthew John Lawrence Abbie Bladecut is a teenager torn between the macabre traditions of her family’s bloody trade and the tender stirrings of her first crush.
