Very well executed

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I wish this was one of the slashers that fell into the public domain, if only so it could distributed on DVD. I mean really. There is only one bad thing about this movie, and that's the lame song they made for it (also, the fact it plays louder than all the other music). The acting is actually pretty good, not feeling too stiff, the story is intriguing and fun, and most of the music is pretty good. Just the beginning to this movie feels brilliant, building up unreal amounts of tension with so little effort (sadly, this tension seems to go to waste). I love the look of the killer with the distinct, skull-like mask that would have worked well in the Halloween sequels. The gore is nice and the axing is satisfying. Hopefully it will get a nice restored release one day.

A masked serial-killer spends his time offing the locals of a small tight knit Californian town. Red herrings, nerd-loving girls, severed pig heads, and a duo of sexist neadrethals about. What does not abound though, is anything resembling entertainment value. This was one of the more forgettable slasher films from the late 1980's, having nothing special to distinguish it from any myriad of similar sub-par slashers. Not worth your time or money. Oh and another things, it's a complete boob free slashing movie, whats the point in that?? Something like that is all too commonplace for films of this ilk nowadays, but this was the 80's.... Unacceptable.

I had never heard of this before, probably because it was a Spanish production and may not have had a broad release... It borrows so much from other films but still remains enjoyable. At times its seems laughable but at others the action is gruesome and engrossing. There are characters you love to hate, campy dialog, deplorable acting and funny voice overs, but some quality effects, good sound design and locations...its like an 80s time capsule that's so bad its good. The pacing and cinematography was far better than most. Great if not cringe-worthy midnight movie and overall worth seeking out for any fan of the genre.

"Edge of the Axe" is a fun, if little uneven slasher.**SPOILERS**Arriving in a small town, Gerald Martin, (Barton Faulks) decides to put his past behind him and starts to rejoin friend Richard Simmons, (Page Mosely) in his pest-removal service. They manage to meet up with local Lillian Nebbs, (Christina Lane) who gives them the advice of checking out a nearby house. Discovering a dead body there, Police Chief Frank McIntosh, (Fred Holliday) suspects them of the crime, while they protest their innocence. When it becomes apparent that a series of murders occurs around town could not be done by them, they set out to try to find the killer in town. Finally finding the killer and their motive, as revenge for a deep-seated psychological trauma from childhood, they try to put a stop to it before ending up on the list of victims.The Good News: This one here is actually pretty decent when it counts. The American feeling of this one works wonders for this one, as it fits in perfectly with American standards of slashers. This one isn't out of place with anything else going on, and it works because it fits in. It's at it's best, though, when dealing with the traditional slasher elements. The murders are pretty brutal and we actually see the ax strike the victims again and again which adds an explicit reality to the deaths. The scene of one woman having an ax stuck into her back and then pulled out is a nasty highlight, as is a very well done finger-chopping scene. That's not to include all the other ones found in the film, where the ax is hacked into lots of different areas of the body, resulting in plenty of nice blood-splatter to go around. There's also the typical killer POV shoots showing the killer through the town chasing after the victims as they are being stalked, which are quite fun and well-done. The main one where it prowls around a house to get at a victim trapped inside has a nice air of suspense to it and gets across the feeling of dread and urgency to it, especially when the brutal attack occurs at the end. Another attack in a car wash is entirely shocking and gets a good jolt out it. The killer is not overly obvious and the two main suspects interchange pretty well with the viewers suspicions, which is the best part about it, as it plays expectations quite well as well as the fact that it keeps the guessing going along the way. Even the mask itself is quite impressive, with the white ski mask that goes around the whole face is quite effective and makes for some effective scenes. There's even a strange scene at a burial where the camera zooms in on the distorted faces of the various suspects, which is one of the most interesting shots in the entire film, and is highly memorable for it's inventiveness. Overall, these here really make the film pretty decent.The Bad News: This here wasn't that bad, but there are some really big problems. One is the increasingly clichéd feeling it has the longer it goes on. It plays out like any other slasher out there that came from the period, and as such, very little sticks out due to the clichéd deal with the film. This one feels like almost every other masked slasher around at the time, with the typical victims being stalked in a typical town with the typical sharpened instruments in a claustrophobic location with the police figuring on the two heroes as suspects as one falls into a romance with a local in town. That is something that makes it very hard to remember what's going on in the film, as there's a large portion that feels like every other film in the genre, which is what really strikes this one down so much, by feeling so clichéd and unoriginal that there's very little to set this one apart. It's other minor flaw is that it contains a couple of scenes that look like they would've played parts in the story but just get dropped. The opening scene with the upset farmer goes nowhere and includes a blatant non-sympathetic turn by the police for no reason, the early scenes with the grandfather go nowhere and several times it introduces others for no reason to put some on screen. It's a little distracting, but in the end, these here are the film's flaws.The Final Verdict: While this isn't a shining example of the genre, the fact that the good parts are the necessary parts of the genre to enjoy make it worthwhile. Recommended to the hardcore slasher fans or modern European slashers, while those that aren't that big on the style would be well-advised to seek caution.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language and brief animal violence aftermath