Edge of the Axe - 1988

Okay, well IMDb and Wikipedia are not in agreement again, and I usually take Wiki's side, but in this case I will take IMDb's because it makes my guess at the year correct.

I am of course going to watch Halloween related films all month, movies that are horror based and may get reviews or not. I'm also waffling with the choice of what to watch ON Halloween, but I may decide to go classic and watch the original Halloween, on VHS. Stick with the classics, right?

Edge of the Axe was a Spain and American co-production low budget horror entry made in the late 80s with intention and some basics. It stars no one but the actors don't suck, it has some atmosphere but the script is trash, and it has a surprisingly cool looking villain with sort of a papier-mache mask.

Edge of the Axe starts with the usual sort of scenario, a woodsy town somewhere is terrorized by a man with an axe, as shown in the opening kill scene where a woman is axed while going through a car wash(?) A local sorta nerdy dumbass kid Gerald is one of our unlikely stars, he's trying to get with this girl in town and we follow them as their relationship grows. I'm having a real problem remembering the plot, but it don't matter: there's a guy, he has an axe, and there's a small town that basically has only one cop. You know how this is going to go.

Except you don't. The unexpected part of this are the parts that make it so bad it's good, and also the parts that are just plain ol' good. The script is so dumb but it's hilarious, the characters are stupid but not self aware, the computer sub-plot is hilarious, and the movie doesn't focus on the killer or the horror elements a lot, so we're just left with these good parts. Those are so much fun to watch, and the movie moves quickly enough and isn't rank amateur so there's nothing to bring it down. I had a fucking great time! This is a movie I'd watch again, and again it made me really think of which movies got sequels and which didn't. This was too late 80's to have a horror franchise spring from it, but it's really solid!

Edge of the Axe was too late to the party and I think got mixed in with all the others coming out at this time, but this is why you dig and sift through movies for years: to find ones that you missed. Hidden gems. This is one of them. Give it a watch if you're a slasher afficionado.