Filthy Review - Axed

Axed (2010)

Review by Jude Felton

Just a quick look at the accompanying artwork to this Australian release and you can tell immediately where Writer/Director Joshua Long’s heart is. The faux-VHS style sleeve, complete with rental price, is a real gem and harks back to the glorious days in the 1980’s where VHS ruled. The film itself is a further love letter to a time where horror flicks were as much about fun and enjoyment as they were about limbs flying about or scary you shitless. Axed is all about having a good time.

Five years or so in the making, Axed is about an outbreak of the living dead that has swept across the land Down Under, and quite possibly the rest of the world. Military types are scouring the countryside looking for survivors that may or may not be infected in order to neutralize them. In the midst of this steps our hero Bruce who manages to escape this foe, only to find he’s ass-deep in bloodthirsty zombies. I really don’t need to say any more than this in terms of plot, for one thing the movie is only a taut 30 minutes or so and secondly, it’s called Axed and involves one man and a shitload of zombies.

If I asked you to imagine a cross between The Evil Dead, to which Axed pays homage to several times, Peter Jackson’s Brain Dead and a smattering of The Crazies (either version) you might get a rough idea of what to expect. This is a good time fun flick that is drenched head to rotting foot in blood and viscera. The dialogue is minimal, the action is ferocious and gore is non-stop.

Actor Kazuya Wright plays the part of Bruce perfectly, coming across as Ash with an axe, and played dead straight throughout. The film itself has a slightly washed out look to it and plays like a ropey old video cassette. I’m not talking the missing reel school of film, but more the look of how you had to adjust the tracking on those old cassettes. Showing my age? Well I am sure there are some of you out there that know what I am talking about. If not just put “tracking” and “video cassette” in a search engine and you’ll quickly find out. Anyway, this works wonderfully and adds a nostalgic edge to the frenetic onscreen action.

Axed might wear its influences heavily on its sleeves but that is the whole point. Films can be influenced by, and pay homage to, other films yet still retain their own identity, and this is such a case. I mean there is one zombie that will look very familiar to most viewers, but it is all done in good taste.

It all boils down to the fact that Axed is a hell of a good time. It has its over the top blood and guts, and even has a slight nastiness to it in places. Overall though it is a blast from start to finish.

The release date of 2011 might be a little misleading as, to the best of my knowledge, Axed doesn’t actually have a U.S. release as of right now, which surely needs to be rectified quick-sharpish.

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