Film Review: Night of the Axe (short film) (2019)

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SYNOPSIS:

A group of girls having one last get together are stalked one by one by a sadistic, masked killer.

REVIEW:

More short films, kiddies! Today we have NIGHT OF THE AXE, written and directed by Shawn Wright. From what I can tell, this is Mr. Wright’s first film.  This was filmed in Severn, Maryland  for a budget of 3,000.

Yay! Local filmmakers! Local to me, anyway. Maryland loves its indie filmmakers!

So in the interest of full disclosure, I would like to state that I personally know the special effects team who worked on this film.  I didn’t realize that until I saw the credits, but I feel it only proper to state that up front.

The cast and crew are all first timers, at least this is the only IMDB listing for every last one of them. So that makes me happy. If you don’t try, you’ll never know. Take the risk, says I.

Anyway, moving on….

Our story begins with two young girls, Allison (Patricia Lewis) and Ashley (Stephanie Krebs) on their way to a “moving out” party at the house of their friend Emily (Myranda Saylor). Em’s parents are gone until late the next day, so girls night is on!

Once at Emily’s house, the arrival of their friend Sarah (Sam Pseudo) completes the group. Liquor in the car, a certain green smokable plant in the pocket, and all the movies they can watch. One last hurrah before Emily leaves for college.

Alas, there is a complication…a serial axe killer has been reported in the area. But what are the chances he would come to this particular house?

Well, pretty good since its a horror movie.

This film hits all the expected “slumber party massacre” type tropes. Since its a short film, it doesn’t waste any time getting to them, either. The special effects, created by Gary Williamson and Emily McCown, are perhaps not the the best anyone has ever seen. However, being a super low-budget indie film, the effects are pretty damn good all things considered. I’ve seen far worse. On a film like this, one has to get clever with the effects, and I feel they succeeded in that respect. We all gotta start somewhere and we make due with what we got.

Our killer is pretty groovy. Played by Randy Meehan, he totally sells the lumbering, unstoppable killing machine that we have come to expect of our axe-wielding killers. As I said, all the proper tropes are in place, this one included.

Basically, 20 minutes of murder and mayhem, and a naked teen or two, and you’ve got a pretty decent way to burn some spare time.