fbpx
Wikipedia

Axe (film)

October 27, 2023

"Lisa, Lisa" redirects here. For the American singer, see Lisa Lisa.

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 attempt to rape her, she enacts revenge.

Axe
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFrederick R. Friedel
Written byFrederick R. Friedel
Produced byJ.G. Patterson Jr.
Starring
  • Leslie Lee
  • Hart Smith
  • Carol Miller
CinematographyAustin McKinney
Edited by
  • Frederick R. Friedel
  • J.G. Patterson Jr.
Music by
  • George Newman Shaw
  • John Willhelm
Production
companies
  • Frederick Productions
  • Empire Studios
Distributed byBoxoffice International Pictures (BIP)
Release dates
  • December 9, 1974 (1974-12-09) (Greenville, South Carolina)[1]
Running time
67 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25,000

Originally titled Lisa, Lisa, the film is one of the famous "video nasties" that was banned in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s.

Plot edit

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 with his male lover shortly after, and Lomax shoves a burning cigar down his throat before beating him to death. Aubrey's lover leaps to his death from the 12th-floor window. Afterward, Steele, Lomax, and Billy drive through the countryside. Billy is remorseful for their crime, while Steele and Lomax are indifferent. 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 during a stop at a grocery store.

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.

Lomax attempts to rape Lisa while she sleeps in the middle of the night, but she stops the assault by slashing his neck with a straight razor, killing him. She drags his body to the bathtub and 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. She calmly unveils a straight razor, but Billy takes it from her hand, presuming she passed it over to him to arm himself against Steele. Lisa makes Steele a sandwich in the kitchen upon returning to the house. He comments on her physical beauty, to which she does not respond, which 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 the police, searching for the trio.

Cast edit

  • Leslie Lee as Lisa
  • Jack Canon as Steele
  • Ray Green as Lomax
  • Frederick R. Friedel as Billy
  • Douglas Powers as Grandfather
  • Frank Jones as Aubrey
  • Carol Miller as Storewoman
  • George J. Monaghan as Harold
  • Hart Smith as Detective
  • Scott Smith as Policeman

Production edit

Inspiration edit

Writer-director Frederick R. Friedel had aspired to make a feature film by age 25, an aspiration fueled by Orson Welles's having directed Citizen Kane (1941) at that age.[3] "I had no pretensions that I was directing Citizen Kane," Friedel recalled, but he had long wanted to make a film, and had been living in Los Angeles trying to break into the film business.[3] Friedel pitched his idea for a horror film to producer J.G. Patterson; at the time, Friedel was entirely inexperienced, having never been on a film set, never cast a film, nor worked in a film production.[4] He credited Paterson as "setting everything in motion" in terms of getting the production started.[5]

Filming edit

Axe was shot over a period of nine days[6] in the winter of 1974.[7] It was shot on 35 mm film stock,[8] largely consisting of short-end film that had been returned to the Kodak distributor, which was cheaper than new rolls of film.[9]

Principal photography took place on location in a farmhouse outside Charlotte, North Carolina[10] on a budget of US$25,000.[3] The production paid a total of $25 to shoot in the house for around three days,[11] and much of the decorations and dressings inside were already present.[12] The Charlotte area was chosen by Friedel due to the low productions costs; J.G. Patterson, the film's producer had used the area for past films he had produced because of this.[13] The film's opening sequence was shot on location at the Hotel Charlotte.[14]

Casting edit

Ray Green portrayed Lomax, the leader of the gang,[15] while Jack Cannon portrayed Steele, one of Lomax's henchmen.[16] Director Friedel cast himself in the role of Billy, the guilt-ridden third member of the gang, primarily to help alleviate the production cost of hiring another actor.[17] Frank Jones, who appears as Aubrey, was in fact a local regional film distributor.[18] Carol Miller appears as the storewoman who is terrorized by the gang, and was cast because Friedel felt she possessed a natural shyness.[19]

Leslie Lee, who portrayed the withdrawn teenage Lisa, was actually 23 years old at the time of filming.[3] According to Friedel, Lee had claimed to have done modeling prior to auditioning for the role, and he felt she embodied "a lot of the feeling" he envisioned for the character.[20] "The key sometimes is just casting people who embody the character, and not somebody who has to act it—and I think, walking into the room, she really was Lisa."[21] A myth circulated that Lee died after the production, which was false; according to Friedel, as of 2015, Lee was alive and operated a diving boat in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with her husband.[22] As Lisa's grandfather, Douglas Powers was cast by Friedel due to his "evocative" face, as his character's facial expressions would serve as his only form of communication.[23]

Post-production edit

Friedel recalled that the production sought to extend individual scenes "by any means possible" to give the film a longer running time, which included the extended opening and closing credits sequences.[24] Some dubbing was completed in post-production, particularly for the scenes in the car, as the crew had no means of capturing sound in a moving vehicle.[25]

Release edit

Theatrical distribution edit

Axe was originally released under the title Lisa, Lisa,[26] under which it screened in Greenville, South Carolina, beginning December 9, 1974.[1] It was re-released four years later in January 1978 under the title Axe, premiering in Los Angeles.[27] Friedel did not favor the title as he felt it lacked the subtlety, "surprise, and irony" of Lisa, Lisa; executive Harry Novak of Boxoffice International Pictures, chose to release the film in 1978 as Axe due to it being a more sensationalistic title.[28]

Critical response edit

Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times praised the film's "angst-ridden" score and cinematography, which she felt "conveys rural isolation and sterility well." However, Gross was critical of the film's featuring a young girl committing violent acts, deeming the film ultimately exploitative and adding that its "slow pace and style emphasize sensationalism and ugliness."[29] Variety deemed the film "a fascinating but totally uncommercial film noir exercise in the horror genre."[30]

Sean Leonard from HorrorNews.net gave the film a mixed review, writing, "I have a hard time coming to an opinion on a film like this. At one point, I certainly won’t say it’s horrible, as it does have enough good moments to raise it above being classified as a waste of time."[31] Justin Kerswell from Hysteria Lives! awarded the film a negative 1.5 out of 5 stars, calling it "amaturish", and "mind numbingly dull". In his review, Kerswell criticized the film's plot, pacing, and soundtrack.[32]

Frank Lovece of TV Guide gave the film three out of four stars, calling it "a well-photographed, refreshingly naturalistic drama of almost mythic retribution and victimization. [...] The psychological narrative can be slack, and the acting and technical aspects are uneven. But overall, the film makes you wish Friedel had directed more pictures."[33]

Home media edit

The film was released on DVD by Image Entertainment on September 25, 2001.[34] In 2006, it was released by ILC Prime on March 27, April 10, and October 9. It was later released by 4Digital Media on October 20, 2008. The film was released for the first time on Blu-ray by Severin on December 15, 2015, as a double-feature alongside Friedel's Kidnapped Coed. The double-feature was also released on DVD that same day.[34]

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Belmont Outdoor Cinema: First Showing Tonight: "Lisa, Lisa"". The Greenville News. Greenville, South Carolina. December 9, 1974. p. 20 – via Newspapers.com.  
  2. ^ Axe/Kidnapped Coed (Blu-ray). Severin Films. 2015. ASIN B016QVK6G4.
  3. ^ a b c d At Last... Total Terror!: The Amazing True Story of the Making of Axe and Kidnapped Coed (Documentary featurette). Severin Films. 2015.
  4. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 10:26.
  5. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 10:37.
  6. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 3:20.
  7. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 3:13.
  8. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 3:47.
  9. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 5:00.
  10. ^ Albright 2012, pp. 273–274.
  11. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 34:57.
  12. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 39:37.
  13. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 10:00.
  14. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 2:58.
  15. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 5:30.
  16. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 5:35.
  17. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 11:01.
  18. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 8:21.
  19. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 14:17.
  20. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 21:25.
  21. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 39:10.
  22. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 23:12.
  23. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 21:01.
  24. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 4:22.
  25. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 11:32.
  26. ^ "Axe (1977)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
  27. ^ "Axe (1978)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
  28. ^ Friedel et al. 2015, event occurs at 7:00.
  29. ^ Gross, Linda (January 24, 1978). "'Axe' – An Exercise in Screen Sadism". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.  
  30. ^ "Variety's Film Reviews: 1983–1984". Variety. R.R. Bowker. 18: 31. 1985. ISBN 978-0-835-22798-8.
  31. ^ Leonard, Sean (January 23, 2015). "Film Review: Axe (1977)". HorrorNews.net. Sean Leonard. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  32. ^ Kerswell, Justin. "SILENT NIGHT BLOODY NIGHT". Hysteria Lives.co.uk. Justin Kerswell. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  33. ^ Lovece, Frank. "Axe Review". TV Guide. Archived from the original on December 8, 2014. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
  34. ^ a b "Axe (1974)". AllMovie. AllRovi. Archived from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2018.

Works cited edit

  • Albright, Brian (2012). Regional Horror Films, 1958–1990: A State-by-State Guide with Interviews. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-786-47227-7.
  • Friedel, Frederick J.; Smoot, Philip; Helms, Rick; Keeter, Worth (2015). Axe (Audio commentary). Severin Films.

External links edit

October 27, 2023
film, lisa, lisa, redirects, here, american, singer, lisa, lisa, 1974, american, independent, horror, film, written, directed, frederick, friedel, starring, leslie, plot, follows, trio, criminals, lodge, rural, farmhouse, where, teenage, girl, resides, with, d. Lisa Lisa redirects here For the American singer see Lisa Lisa 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 attempt to rape her she enacts revenge AxeTheatrical release posterDirected byFrederick R FriedelWritten byFrederick R FriedelProduced byJ G Patterson Jr StarringLeslie Lee Hart Smith Carol MillerCinematographyAustin McKinneyEdited byFrederick R Friedel J G Patterson Jr Music byGeorge Newman Shaw John WillhelmProductioncompaniesFrederick Productions Empire StudiosDistributed byBoxoffice International Pictures BIP Release datesDecember 9 1974 1974 12 09 Greenville South Carolina 1 Running time67 minutes 2 CountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget 25 000Originally titled Lisa Lisa the film is one of the famous video nasties that was banned in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3 1 Inspiration 3 2 Filming 3 3 Casting 3 4 Post production 4 Release 4 1 Theatrical distribution 4 2 Critical response 4 3 Home media 5 References 6 Works cited 7 External linksPlot editA group of three mobsters Steele Lomax and Billy enter a hotel room and await Aubrey a local man who owes them money Aubrey arrives with his male lover shortly after and Lomax shoves a burning cigar down his throat before beating him to death Aubrey s lover leaps to his death from the 12th floor window Afterward Steele Lomax and Billy drive through the countryside Billy is remorseful for their crime while Steele and Lomax are indifferent 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 during a stop at a grocery store 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 Lomax attempts to rape Lisa while she sleeps in the middle of the night but she stops the assault by slashing his neck with a straight razor killing him She drags his body to the bathtub and 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 She calmly unveils a straight razor but Billy takes it from her hand presuming she passed it over to him to arm himself against Steele Lisa makes Steele a sandwich in the kitchen upon returning to the house He comments on her physical beauty to which she does not respond which 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 the police searching for the trio Cast editLeslie Lee as Lisa Jack Canon as Steele Ray Green as Lomax Frederick R Friedel as Billy Douglas Powers as Grandfather Frank Jones as Aubrey Carol Miller as Storewoman George J Monaghan as Harold Hart Smith as Detective Scott Smith as PolicemanProduction editInspiration edit Writer director Frederick R Friedel had aspired to make a feature film by age 25 an aspiration fueled by Orson Welles s having directed Citizen Kane 1941 at that age 3 I had no pretensions that I was directing Citizen Kane Friedel recalled but he had long wanted to make a film and had been living in Los Angeles trying to break into the film business 3 Friedel pitched his idea for a horror film to producer J G Patterson at the time Friedel was entirely inexperienced having never been on a film set never cast a film nor worked in a film production 4 He credited Paterson as setting everything in motion in terms of getting the production started 5 Filming edit Axe was shot over a period of nine days 6 in the winter of 1974 7 It was shot on 35 mm film stock 8 largely consisting of short end film that had been returned to the Kodak distributor which was cheaper than new rolls of film 9 Principal photography took place on location in a farmhouse outside Charlotte North Carolina 10 on a budget of US 25 000 3 The production paid a total of 25 to shoot in the house for around three days 11 and much of the decorations and dressings inside were already present 12 The Charlotte area was chosen by Friedel due to the low productions costs J G Patterson the film s producer had used the area for past films he had produced because of this 13 The film s opening sequence was shot on location at the Hotel Charlotte 14 Casting edit Ray Green portrayed Lomax the leader of the gang 15 while Jack Cannon portrayed Steele one of Lomax s henchmen 16 Director Friedel cast himself in the role of Billy the guilt ridden third member of the gang primarily to help alleviate the production cost of hiring another actor 17 Frank Jones who appears as Aubrey was in fact a local regional film distributor 18 Carol Miller appears as the storewoman who is terrorized by the gang and was cast because Friedel felt she possessed a natural shyness 19 Leslie Lee who portrayed the withdrawn teenage Lisa was actually 23 years old at the time of filming 3 According to Friedel Lee had claimed to have done modeling prior to auditioning for the role and he felt she embodied a lot of the feeling he envisioned for the character 20 The key sometimes is just casting people who embody the character and not somebody who has to act it and I think walking into the room she really was Lisa 21 A myth circulated that Lee died after the production which was false according to Friedel as of 2015 Lee was alive and operated a diving boat in Cabo San Lucas Mexico with her husband 22 As Lisa s grandfather Douglas Powers was cast by Friedel due to his evocative face as his character s facial expressions would serve as his only form of communication 23 Post production edit Friedel recalled that the production sought to extend individual scenes by any means possible to give the film a longer running time which included the extended opening and closing credits sequences 24 Some dubbing was completed in post production particularly for the scenes in the car as the crew had no means of capturing sound in a moving vehicle 25 Release editTheatrical distribution edit Axe was originally released under the title Lisa Lisa 26 under which it screened in Greenville South Carolina beginning December 9 1974 1 It was re released four years later in January 1978 under the title Axe premiering in Los Angeles 27 Friedel did not favor the title as he felt it lacked the subtlety surprise and irony of Lisa Lisa executive Harry Novak of Boxoffice International Pictures chose to release the film in 1978 as Axe due to it being a more sensationalistic title 28 Critical response edit Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times praised the film s angst ridden score and cinematography which she felt conveys rural isolation and sterility well However Gross was critical of the film s featuring a young girl committing violent acts deeming the film ultimately exploitative and adding that its slow pace and style emphasize sensationalism and ugliness 29 Variety deemed the film a fascinating but totally uncommercial film noir exercise in the horror genre 30 Sean Leonard from HorrorNews net gave the film a mixed review writing I have a hard time coming to an opinion on a film like this At one point I certainly won t say it s horrible as it does have enough good moments to raise it above being classified as a waste of time 31 Justin Kerswell from Hysteria Lives awarded the film a negative 1 5 out of 5 stars calling it amaturish and mind numbingly dull In his review Kerswell criticized the film s plot pacing and soundtrack 32 Frank Lovece of TV Guide gave the film three out of four stars calling it a well photographed refreshingly naturalistic drama of almost mythic retribution and victimization The psychological narrative can be slack and the acting and technical aspects are uneven But overall the film makes you wish Friedel had directed more pictures 33 Home media edit The film was released on DVD by Image Entertainment on September 25 2001 34 In 2006 it was released by ILC Prime on March 27 April 10 and October 9 It was later released by 4Digital Media on October 20 2008 The film was released for the first time on Blu ray by Severin on December 15 2015 as a double feature alongside Friedel s Kidnapped Coed The double feature was also released on DVD that same day 34 References edit a b Belmont Outdoor Cinema First Showing Tonight Lisa Lisa The Greenville News Greenville South Carolina December 9 1974 p 20 via Newspapers com nbsp Axe Kidnapped Coed Blu ray Severin Films 2015 ASIN B016QVK6G4 a b c d At Last Total Terror The Amazing True Story of the Making ofAxeandKidnapped Coed Documentary featurette Severin Films 2015 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 10 26 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 10 37 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 3 20 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 3 13 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 3 47 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 5 00 Albright 2012 pp 273 274 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 34 57 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 39 37 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 10 00 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 2 58 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 5 30 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 5 35 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 11 01 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 8 21 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 14 17 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 21 25 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 39 10 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 23 12 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 21 01 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 4 22 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 11 32 Axe 1977 British Film Institute Archived from the original on November 6 2018 Retrieved November 6 2018 Axe 1978 AFI Catalog of Feature Films American Film Institute Archived from the original on November 6 2018 Retrieved November 6 2018 Friedel et al 2015 event occurs at 7 00 Gross Linda January 24 1978 Axe An Exercise in Screen Sadism Los Angeles Times Los Angeles California p 9 via Newspapers com nbsp Variety s Film Reviews 1983 1984 Variety R R Bowker 18 31 1985 ISBN 978 0 835 22798 8 Leonard Sean January 23 2015 Film Review Axe 1977 HorrorNews net Sean Leonard Retrieved June 25 2018 Kerswell Justin SILENT NIGHT BLOODY NIGHT Hysteria Lives co uk Justin Kerswell Retrieved June 25 2018 Lovece Frank Axe Review TV Guide Archived from the original on December 8 2014 Retrieved December 8 2014 a b Axe 1974 AllMovie AllRovi Archived from the original on November 6 2018 Retrieved June 25 2018 Works cited editAlbright Brian 2012 Regional Horror Films 1958 1990 A State by State Guide with Interviews Jefferson North Carolina McFarland ISBN 978 0 786 47227 7 Friedel Frederick J Smoot Philip Helms Rick Keeter Worth 2015 Axe Audio commentary Severin Films External links editAxe at AllMovie Axe at IMDb Axe at Rotten Tomatoes Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Axe film amp oldid 1181631333, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.