In Bloody Axe Wound, director Matthew John Lawrence and producer Jeffrey Dean Morgan attempt to stitch together a blood-soaked tribute to ’80s slasher films and a tender queer coming-of-age story, and while the seams are showing, the result still manages to charm. Centered on Abbie Bladecut (Sari Arambulo), daughter of infamous serial killer Roger Bladecut (Billy Burke), the film follows her attempt to carry on the family tradition of murder — until teen romance throws a wrench into her homicidal aspirations. With a killer premise and no shortage of gory set pieces, the film gleefully riffs on genre tropes, but its inconsistent tone and undercooked world-building keep it from reaching cult classic status.
On paper, Bloody Axe Wound is a slasher fan’s dream. There’s a gruesome masked killer who won’t stay dead, a creepy old-school video rental store selling real snuff films, and a town that somehow hasn’t caught on after decades of teen murders. These are fun ideas, but the film never quite figures out how they all fit together. Logic holes abound, how is no one questioning a video store that literally sells footage of local kids being murdered? The movie leans hard into its high-concept absurdity, but never deep enough to feel truly self-aware or satisfyingly satirical. It wants to be Scream and The Final Girls but lands somewhere closer to Scary Movie with better performances.
Still, the film is undeniably buoyed by its cast. Arambulo is magnetic as Abbie, equally capable of delivering deadpan one-liners and navigating sincere emotional beats. Her chemistry with Molly Brown’s rebellious Sam is sweet and believable, giving the film its most grounded and endearing moments. Billy Burke, clad in gnarly prosthetics and delivering Jason Voorhees-meets-Freddy Krueger energy, plays her dad with just enough menace and humor to make the father-daughter dynamic feel real. Even when the script falters, their scenes together spark with personality.
Where Bloody Axe Wound truly shines is in its practical gore and punk rock attitude. Each kill is over-the-top and playfully executed, with elaborate setups that nod to Final Destination and EC Comics mayhem. The blood is plentiful, the effects are tactile, and the kills are outrageous enough to inspire laughs rather than winces. There’s a Looney Tunes energy to the violence, goofy, gruesome, and always one beat away from a pratfall. A riot grrrl-heavy soundtrack reinforces the film’s gleeful chaos, though it’s occasionally undercut by disjointed pacing and awkward tonal shifts.
The biggest frustration is that you can see the better movie hiding inside this one. The premise. a teenage girl caught between the legacy of generational violence and the freedom of self-discovery, has real emotional potential. And the romance between Abbie and Sam is tender and refreshingly earnest for a film this soaked in blood. But the movie never slows down long enough to explore its themes with depth, opting instead to sprint from reference to reference without ever fully committing to any of them. It’s caught somewhere between parody and homage, unsure whether it wants to laugh at slashers or live inside one.
Ultimately, Bloody Axe Wound is a fun, messy love letter to horror with a heart that’s as big as its body count. It doesn’t always work, but it swings hard and you can’t help but admire the attempt. If you’re willing to overlook some logic gaps and narrative clutter, there’s a bloody good time to be had and a surprisingly sweet one, too. Just don’t think too hard about how the video store works.
3/5 Stars
