A Horror Films - Axe 'Em - Axe

AXE ‘EM (THE WEEKEND IT LIVES) – The film follows a group of teenagers on a weekend retreat at a remote cabin in the woods who become the targets of a crazed killer. A weekend retreat at a remote cabin the woods for a group of childhood pals turns into a terrifying fight for survival, as a former friend whose family was killed years earlier comes along looking for revenge.  

💎💎AXE💎💎 – Axe is a 1974 American independent horror film written and directed by Frederick R. Friedel and starring Leslie Lee. Its plot follows a trio of criminals who lodge at a rural farmhouse where a teenage girl resides with her disabled grandfather. After one of the men attempts to rape her, she enacts revenge. Originally titled Lisa, Lisa, the film is one of the famous “video nasties” that was banned in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s. Three criminals on a murder spree arrive at a farmhouse, where a girl is living with her paralyzed grandfather. A group of three criminals on the run from the law, go about terrorizing the local townsfolk of a small community, before descending on an isolated farm which is home to a young girl named Lisa and her paralyzed grandfather. After being sexually assaulted by two of the gangsters, she retaliates using an axe and a razor blade.

A group of three mobsters – Steele, Lomax and Billy – enter a hotel room and await Aubrey, a local man who owes them money. Aubrey arrives shortly after with his male lover and Lomax shoves a burning cigar down his throat before beating him to death. Aubrey’s lover leaps to his death from the 12^th-floor window. Afterward, Steele, Lomax and Billy drive through the countryside. Billy is remorseful for the crime they have perpetrated, while Steele and Lomax are indifferent. During a stop at a grocery store, Steele and Lomax relentlessly terrorize a female clerk, tearing off her blouse before firing a gun above her head and pouring Coca-Cola on her. The next day, the three men seek lodging at a remote farmhouse where an impassive young woman, Lisa, lives a solitary existence with her disabled grandfather. She is notably evasive toward the men but agrees to allow them to spend the night when they claim that Billy has fallen ill. When the police arrive searching for the men, Lomax and Steele threaten Lisa with a gun and she wards the officers away, assuring them she has not seen the criminals. At dinner, Lisa serves the three men a chicken she slaughtered that morning. While the men eat, Lisa attempts to cut herself in the upstairs bathroom, but is interrupted by Billy, who knocks on the door. In the middle of the night, Lomax attempts to rape Lisa while she sleeps, but she stops the assault by slashing his neck with a straight razor, killing him. She drags his body to the bathtub, where she dismembers it with a hatchet. She stuffs Lomax’s dismembered body parts into a steamer trunk. The following morning, Billy helps her carry the trunk into the attic, unaware of its contents. When he discovers blood dripping out of it, he opens the lid to find Lomax’s body inside. Lisa lies and claims that Steele killed him. Billy and Lisa go into the woods to talk about the incident away from Steele. Lisa calmly unveils a straight razor, but Billy takes it from her hand, presuming she was passing it over to him to arm himself against Steele. Upon returning to the house, Lisa makes Steele a sandwich in the kitchen. He comments on her physical beauty, to which she does not respond and this enrages him. Steele drags Lisa upstairs to the parlor where her grandfather is watching television and the two scuffle. She manages to grab a hatchet near the fireplace and kills him with it. When Billy returns, he finds Steele missing; Lisa claims he was gone when she returned. Lisa prepares tomato soup for Billy and her grandfather in the upstairs parlor. While eating the soup, Billy finds Steele’s ring inside his bowl. He watches in horror as Steele’s body dislodges from the chimney flue and tumbles out of the fireplace. Lisa pays no attention, quietly humming while feeding her grandfather. Billy flees in horror and runs outside where he is shot to death by police who have returned in search of the trio.

Released originally under the title Lisa, Lisa, this seedy murder-fest was later retitled during drive-in circulation then again for its video release in 1985 as The California Axe Massacre to capitalize on the hype of another new arrival to video, Tobe Hooper’s cult classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The film itself (actually filmed in North Carolina, not California) has little in common with Hooper’s hit, the bloody revenge scenario is more reminiscent of Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left. It involves a gang of grimy fugitives who hole up in the rural abode of a pretty but unstable young woman (Leslie Lee) and proceed to abuse her and her grandfather. Of course, things get out of hand from there and the hoods kill the old fogey, which brings gory retribution as the sweet young thing brandishes the title implement. Painfully cheap-looking, this tawdry exploiter is too slow-moving to sustain the interest of chop-em-up fans who might be lured by the title.