User Reviews

I watched this last night and while the actors, cinematography and basic plot of the film was good, the script was totally unbelievable. It had the potential to be a good film, but it wasn't. The basic premise of a man losing his job and then killing his family is quite believable, as it happens in real life unfortunately far to often, but the reaction of the children to what is happening around them is not. They must have realised that their father had gone insane, and was going to kill them all. They had the opportunity to escape, and could have hit their father over the head with something after he had killed their mother, but do not. Also the girl had a hidden phone, and could have called the emergency services, but does not. The kids just carry on obeying their father after he did the most terrible things. Sorry, but this is not how people, especially teenagers, react in such a situation. Eventually they do defend themselves against their father, but it took far too long. Also, the girl pierces her fathers leg with a garden fork, and pins his leg to the ground. She then leaves him and he manages to take the garden fork out of his leg and run after her! And she a teenager and he in his forties, he manages to catch up with her! Completely unbelievable, as the man would have been in agony with probably either a bleeding artery in the leg or fractured leg.

British Businessman Kurt Wendell (Hansler) loses his job and he literally snaps. He takes his wife Steph (Gordon) and his sexually active daughter Megan (Poesner) along with wimpy son Jay (Rithin) out to a house in the English countryside. This is where he attempts to act out a murderous plan on his entire family and his boss (Henry Douthwaite) who is tied up in the attic and has been having an affair with his wife. The family knows daddy is up to no good when he gives them all insulting gifts and himself a nice new Axe. Trapped in the middle of nowhere Kurt threatens and abuses his family and eventually stabs to death his boss in a bloody knifing. No one is safe at this point as the mentally unstable Kurt attacks his family through the rest of the running time. Writer/Producer/Director Ryan Lee Driscoll explores the family's hidden secrets and uses the family's indiscretions as fuel for Kurt to 'correct' them. Comparisons will be made between "The Shining's" Jack Torrance and this film's Kurt Wendell character as Dad's who went off the deep end and tried to kill their family. In actuality, he has more in common with the crazy father Jerry Blake of "The Stepfather" films in that the disappointing actions of his family inspire his rage. That is of course looking past that both characters are completely off their rockers. There are a few moments of inspired bloodshed and even some suspense but Driscoll's film loses some credibility along the way. There is a giant pick Ax sitting right outside the door that the victims consistently run past while being helpless terrorized by good old Dad but none of them think to pick it up. There seems to be plenty of other opportunities for the family members to escape and none are taken. These things hurt the overall effectiveness of the film which in the end is still entertaining in a time wasting way.

First, I am highly surprised to be the first french to comment this film. Why anyone from UK has not commented this yet? I wonder if this movie has been released in Great Britain, theatres or DVD. Hmmm...

Anyway, I am not a horror film specialist, although I have seen thousands of them in my film buff life. I expected a little more from this one, when I read the topic. I waited for a sort of "hardgore" version of FALLING DOWN, telling the story of a business man in total distress, who decides one day to bring his whole family in the lost countryside and...

Well, I almost forgot what I just watched yesterday night. Nothing special here. But that doesn't mean it's a bad product. Characters are well described, filming OK, but I nearly fell asleep before the end.

No, really nothing special.

But I am sure it will please many of you.

I'd read reviews about this film and was intrigued by the conflicting opinions so I had to watch it and find out for myself, being English I love films with a British feel to them. I was majorly disappointed.

The plot is thin, the acting is...OK, the character flaws are too many to mention, the filming is mediocre, the script is completely benign.

Firstly the plot is intriguing and potentially a good basis for a psychological thriller and drama. This is completely wiped away by the sheer lack of believability of some of the events as the film unfolds.

After his first kill, no-one tries to get away or get help. This continues throughout the film, and it's annoying to the point of being ridiculous. No human being would sit and watch someone murdering their mother and then go and sit down for dinner. RIDICULOUS.

Furthermore, an iron gardening fork through the foot/ankle and he takes it out and walks (with a bit of a limp), carrying an axe with arm that's connected directly to the chest muscles he got stabbed 3 times in just minutes before.

He harps on about this big project going according to plan, to kill everyone and himself by 6am, and then has a monologue about how he wants to see his daughter get married. Before stabbing her.

And the stereotypical gay son/abusive father dynamic could have been utilized so much more in this. It was pretty much just an abusive bloke with a wimpy son by the end. They had multiple chances to kill him, but didn't. Didn't even taunt him or get angry with him. They also had MANY chances to flee. And in what looked to be about 15 acres of forest, they finally run away, and daddy finds them in about 5 seconds flat.

Utter drivel. The gore wasn't even realistic or satisfyingly gruesome. Neither was the ending. Oh, and *SPOILER ALERT* one last thing. Four pills (count them) in the bowl, he takes five out one at a time and pops them.

Only genuine reason for following this all the way through to the end was to see Christopher Rithin put on a good performance.

Complete waste of time. Don't bother with it.

So says one part of the closing credits for AXED. If you read carefully, you will note that this disclaimer does NOT say one way or the other if any fully functioning brains were harmed making the movie, let alone later as the paying public began to watch this sorry excuse for a horror flick. I mean, how can anyone root for the chick to take her top off, when such an occurrence would be tantamount to incest? Not that the cringe-inducing family sex issue is totally avoided here, as the daughter penetrates her dad with chortles of orgiastic ecstasy (by means of a kitchen knife to the belly), just because he killed her boyfriend (or, maybe it's because he killed her mom and her mom's lover?). At any rate, this British offering is SO low-budget it begins to run out of potential victims about halfway through, necessitating the offing of some characters two or three times each. Jonathan Hansler as down-sized (by wife's lover) dad Kurt Wendell is more convincing in psycho mode than loving dad mood. Plus, the opening snippets of radio news readers announcing world-wide financial Armageddon is mere clutter, as it has nothing to do with the actual plot (contradicting it, if anything). All in all, the title is about the only thing clever about this movie. SPOILER: Seemingly working cell phones are boiled, axed, and stomped on throughout this film--prompting the disclaimer--but even the hot daughter does NOT have an iPhone!

I am not sure what the movie Axed was supposed to be. I mean, it starts off as a socially and relevant statement of layoffs and the pain associated with that. Then it shoots in multiple directions in 10 minutes and finally settles down to a fairly simple straight line of a horror film.

OK. I'll concur, since the majority of the film is that straight-lined plot is the horror story, that's what this is meant to convey.

There is a problem, uh, well, many problems, with the feature production. It's probably best to dive into the synopsis first:

Man: Husband and Father, loses job and even though he's enormously abusive – both verbal and physically – toward his son, daughter and wife, he decides it's time to take a holiday to the middle of Nowhere, England. While there, his car breaks down, works and then is dead again, and the family sets up camp in a cottage as part of Daddy's "surprise" vacation.

Well, his plan, as the title suggests, is to axe off his family and then die himself. All thanks to the layoff and maybe one other plot twist.

I mentioned there was a problem, or a few. The kids and spouse might have come accustomed to his outraging and domineering personality, but when they notice a changeover from Angry Dad to Killer Dad, they had more than plenty of chances to escape. Naturally, they would have to save that for the climax (no real spoiler there – watch a horror movie or two before complaining to me) but it was utterly ridiculous that not one of the three "normal" family members don't take advantage of the 1,500 opportunities to flee.

While that's weird, at least you can take in the crisp countryside cinematography. The movie was very nicely shot – the filmmakers knew what they were doing, but sadly didn't coordinate well with the writer.

Luckily, in addition to the rich landscaping, the acting wasn't too bad and I did believe the character existed. It was just hard to believe they didn't react.

But, then again, I've never been in this situation. So what do I know?

Barely recommended – when your Netflix Queue is almost at its end of other horror recommendations.

I am literally shocked at how low a rating this film has. Before I go on I want to mention that I actually really enjoyed this as a horror fan who has seen so much low budget crap lately. No film makers seem to know how use a low budget and still make a good solid movie like John Carpenter used to or people of his calibre. The film isn't perfect, some of it is laughable but that's par for the course when it comes to horror. The film is reminiscent of The Shining in some ways as we watch a man lose his mind and torture his own family. The performances in the film were first rate...I was extremely impressed with this small and very effective cast. The setting was brilliant, creepy and isolated and setting the tone. Perhaps the only complaint (but it is a pretty big complaint) is that you really have to suspend belief and ignore some massive plot holes to find it enjoyable. I know that is absolutely the cast with 99.9% (perhaps 100%) of horror films but I just felt like the script could have paved over those plot holes just a little bit better. Following the climax of the film into the last scenes it definitely treads on some cheesy moments but its so much fun and there is enough tension to keep it plugging along. This, in my opinion, was a solid slasher flick with some very different twists.

Jonathan Hansler is outstanding as Kurt Wendell who loses his job and literally spirals out of control until he is a sputtering, raving mad lunatic torturing his own family. His emotional spiral is fast but significant and really well done on his part. His wide eyed, creepy maniac is right up there with any great horror performance. Andrea Gordon is decent as his wife. She shows some great chops in the intense scenes during the climax and her chemistry with Hansler and the two actors playing her children is very good. Christopher Rithin is also very good as the meek and bullied son. He perhaps has the biggest range as a character next to Hansler but at the same time he also feeds a couple of the more cheesy moments in the film. He is still very good in his part. Nicola Posener plays the daughter and does so decently well. She is, in some ways, the weakest member of the cast if not just for the reason that her character has the least range from beginning to end. Her and Rithin have really great chemistry as brother and sister at odds and then working together to survive. In all honesty, this might be one of the strongest low budget casts in a horror flick I have ever seen.

It appears as though director and writer Ryan Lee Driscoll has a history in documentaries so this would be his first real foray into fictional film making and horror. I think he shows some incredible talent behind the camera and with the script. It isn't often you can find a unique horror film like this let alone one shot on a low budget that is entertaining and fun to watch. The plot holes that kept nagging at me were how long his family takes before actually trying to get away. I mean he is a middle aged, average shape joe and yet they don't even try to run or overpower him even after finding someone bound and gagged and cut up in their attic. He seems to gain on them no matter how badly hurt he is and no matter how fast they run. Its sort of typical horror movie plot holes but it still bothered me to some extent. I think some slight editing to the screenplay could have perhaps filled in some of these oversights. Regardless, if you like low budget horror than I think this one will really surprise you. For what it is and for what it was made for this one is a keeper!! Far from perfect and yet satisfying and well made. 7.5/10

I have a youtube account called Treehuggersunite! that I may do a review for this movie, IDK, This movie is just.... UGH! This movie was so (bleep, if y'all even care)king bad that it will give you cancer to watch it. Jonathan Hansler does good only because he is able to bring some jokes to his horribly written villain, The mom is awful, The daughter and her boyfriend were some of the worst characters I've seen in a British movie of all time, The son however, is quite possibly the worst character in Cinema. His character was so bad I wanted to strangle him to death, HE WAS THAT BAD. The lighting is off half the time, The Cinematography would make any cinematographer squeal, the screenplay feels like if you forced a two year old to write a horror thriller (plot holes and underdeveloped subplots a whole!), the whole thing was so imcompentant and boring (AND REALLY, REALLY LAZY!) that I'd rather blow my brains out and drown in a volcano of lava then be strangled by my own mother than watch a single second of this godawful movie. If you like this movie, Do me a favor and message me on Xbox Live: rocketrider2065 or on Wii U: same username as the Xbox Live one to explain to me just why and how you like this film that worse than the coronavirus. Don't even get me started on the ending (I wanted the dad to kill everyone just to make the movie over). Overall rating, Zero out of Four Stars.

this film deals with a subject that make headlines every week sadly.but here it is dealt with darkly black humour.johnathon hansler does a great job as the head of the wendell family. a man who succumbs to the pressures of modern life after losing his job.he takes his family on what they think is an ideal weekend in the country. once there he begins his reign of terror upon his loved ones . the violent scenes could have been a bit more gory which would have added more humour to a grim situation.overall i enjoyed this film and the negative comments don't add up. what do you expect from a film called axed?the director shows real potential and i look forward to more films from him.

The first third promised something different :being fired is humiliating for a proud man who cannot stand it and goes mad with his family ,and his own boss .

Jonathan Hansler shines in the scene of the breakfast and mainly that of the "gifts", a cruel but effective sequence ; the nice house in the country is a wonderful way of spending some time away from the trouble and the strife , and perhaps to rebuild a united family. Violence is purely psychological and kept to a minimum level (the prisoner).

Unfortunately ,things begin to deteriorate by the second third ,and the screenplay becomes bloody ,repetitive and eventually terribly dull ; "the shining " cum "the night of the hunter" best describes this escalation of violence ,with tricks a la "Friday the Thirteenth" to secure a not-so-horrible ending : sonny has become a man, hasn't he? Sister has lost her boyfriend (no sooner had he appeared than he was slain)but she's safe thanks to her sibling's bravery .

1/3 good ;2/3 rubbish.