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There's nothing ever happening in Paddock County, a rural community
with little to distinguish it from other rural communities of its ilk -
until a woman of the night (Alicia Moro) turns up, hacked to pieces. And
when more women turn up killed in a similar fashion, it becomes clear that
Paddock County has its own serial killer, a mask wearing maniac carrying
an axe. The case leaves Sheriff McIntosh (Fred Holliday) baffled, only
young Lillian (Christina Marie Lane) thinks she has an idea what's going
on. It all has to do with Charlie, a boy she pushed so hard on the swings
that he fell off and got his brain damaged. That was several years back,
and he is said to have been institutionalized ever since, but Lillian
thinks he has now gotten out. So with the help of her new boyfriend Gerald
(Barton Faulks), a computer expert, she gets into the files of the
sanitarium he was kept at and finds out all the murdered women were linked
to the case. Gerald though is sceptical about her findings. This almost
discourages her, but then she finds a scar on the back of Gerald's head,
just where Charlie bumped his head back when ... Now apart from
a great resolution that probably nobody has seen coming until late in the
film, Edge of the Axe isn't exactly a genre classic but rather a
routine slasher that serves more as a document of its time than stand out
as anything special. And indeed, the film's mixture of brutal killings,
then current pop culture references, and soap opera-like subplots really
feels like pure 1980s (yet without employing too many bad clichés). On
the plus side, the film has its suspense bits and jump scares in all the
right places, is fittingly gruesome, and especially the finale is
extremely tense. So no, no masterpiece, but good genre entertainment at
least, and an even nicer trip down memory lane.
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