Edge Of The Axe (1988) - Reviewed by Scabboy
Reviewed By: Scabboy
Directed by: José Ramón Larraz
Distributed by: Forum Home Video
Original title: Al filo del hacha
2.5 out of 5 skulls
Made in Mexico, an unorthodox place to film a slasher film, we get the great Southern Texas (or Northern California) feel and atmosphere which really adds a barren hot feel this movie. That same feel I think most movies get when shot on locations in places like this- movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Devil’s Rejects and The Hills Have Eyes (1977). The only problem is that with a working atmosphere we need an actually good movie to make it a good experience. Each time I watch this film I come away with a different opinion regarding the movie’s success.
The plot is fairly simple, like almost every slasher movie we have the pre-credit sequence usually establishing the killer, the killer’s modus operandi, or the location in which the killer will wreak his (or her) havoc. In this case it’s a car wash where an unknown female is laying back in her car and relaxing while the car wash does her work. Out of nowhere we see a white-masked figure approach the front and for no reason at all swings his ax at her windows and ultimately killing her. After that the plot slows down dramatically establishing the main characters, potential Red Herrings, and soon to be victims. 
The plot takes us through many locations- a farm house where a man’s pigs are being slaughtered and left in his bed, the local law enforcement (who of course nay says everything and pretty much makes himself useless), a local bar where a mummified corpse is found and the home of the main characters with every now and then useless characters are introduced to be killed off.
Later on we learn the main character and his girlfriend are computer wizards, and they use their shitty 50MHZ computers to calculate possibilities of who’s the killer (yeah right), instant message each other (those shitty things had I.M.?) and of course his crappy computer as artificial intelligence- it talks! Cheesy, right? Reminds me of that shitty Craven flick “Deadly Friend”.
There’s so many great points to this movie, yet so many bad. The movie does a great job establishing pretty much every character as the killer. In typical slasher fashion the killer is pretty much the least likely person in the movie and the sort of twist ending was great- the killer actually pins it on someone else and gets away. Perhaps they were smelling a sequel?
The deaths weren’t well done at all, but some were very convincing. A couple of the deaths involved contact with an ax, and it really looked like these girls were being hit with an ax. Of course it was rubber, but with the cut aways (with a real ax) and a little blood, I thought it was really well done. The movie wasn’t bloody at all- could have used more but just enough to get by. The killer was pretty much a Michael Myers clone, good but overdone. Finally, the climax of the movie- every slasher movie needs one. Well, don’t count on edge-of-the-seat action. By this time we have an idea the killer is 
one of two people and the ending (besides the twist) falls flat. Good thing we are left with a cheesy end credits theme song. I swear someone needs to release an album of these cheesy end credits theme songs. They are pure gold.
Recommended for true slasher fans. Maybe people who were entertained by movies like Humongous, The Final Terror, Bloody Moon or Bay Of Blood. Not available on DVD.