A trio of murderous mobsters take refuge in a farmhouse that houses a young girl, Lisa and her wheelchair-bound grandfather.

There must have been something in the water when Axe was made as I see a lot of similarities between it and Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left. Both are gritty, low-budget to the point that they feel almost documentary-like (as opposed to amateurish) and both explore people who possess not a shred of humanity. There is also the shared premise of criminals seeking refuge but coming to a sticky end because of it.

I love the fact that the gangsters are shown to be utterly without empathy but how the power dynamic shifts as it’s becomes apparent that Lisa matches them for this quality but in a very different context.

The look of the film is very simplistic, basic and utterly compelling because of it. There’s a lot of red here as in tomato ketchup (the early scene involving the supermarket worker is excruciating to watch, just like some of Last House), the tomato soup, and, of course, blood. The red is pop art red and aesthetically beautiful because of it. Axe feels like a lost Andy Warhol/Paul Morrissey film which is set out in the sticks rather than the New York of the 60’s. Axe is also very progressive for it’s era in other ways. The man who owes the gangsters money is seen with his male lover in the film’s opening scene. This was extremely edgy back then, even for exploitation cinema.

Bizarrely, I’m glad Axe was placed on the Video Nasties. It ensured that more people will see it and it resulted in the restoration carried out by the ever- brilliant Severin Films label. Mary Whitehouse and the DPP, again, did us all a favour.

Axe was originally released under the title Lisa, Lisa.

4 out of 5 stars