BLOODY AXE WOUND movie poster | ©2025 RLJE Films/Shudder

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Sari Arambulo, Billy Burke, Molly Brown, Eddie Leavy, Margot Anderson-Song, Taylor Seupel, Angel Theory, Matt Hopkins, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Writer: Matthew John Lawrence
Director: Matthew John Lawrence
Distributor: RLJE Films/Shudder
Release Date: December 27, 2024 (theatrical); March 21, 2025 (Shudder streaming)

With apologies to Stephen Graham Jones, who wrote an unrelated novel with this title, I WAS A TEENAGE SLASHER would have been a more informative moniker for BLOODY AXE WOUND.

The initial set-up for BLOODY AXE WOUND, which we’ll get to in a bit, suggests that the film is going to head in one direction, only to switch gears shortly thereafter.

In the days when tape ruled the world and TVs still had 1:3:3 ratios, adolescent Abbie Bladecut (Sari Arambulo) works in her father Roger’s (Billy Burke) video rental store. But what Abbie really wants to do is follow in Roger’s footsteps as the masked serial killer decimating the high school population of Clover Falls, year after year.

Roger’s real face is heavily scarred and distorted, and even though he resurrects regularly, age seems to be taking a toll on him. After trying unsuccessfully to pass the mantle on to a less than qualified male employee (Matt Hopkins), Roger concedes that Abbie has what it takes and lets her have a shot at the family business.

Abbie is first-rate at being a slasher. However, when one intended victim, Sam (Molly Brown), fights back, Abbie finds herself falling for her target, despite serious parental pressure from Roger.

Writer/director Matthew John Lawrence draws from a variety of genre fare for inspiration. The most obvious reference is FRIDAY THE 13^TH, though there are nods to HALLOWEEN (especially the latest trilogy, with an aging Michael Myers), A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (stay awake!),CREEP, and of course the self-aware SCREAM franchise.

But, with the exception of one camp character, BLOODY AXE WOUND isn’t elbow-in-the-ribs parody. Lawrence lets the natural absurdity of what it would really be like to be stuck in the universe of one of these movies speak for itself. He proves skillful at romantic teen drama as well, as we find ourselves rooting for Abbie and Sam to somehow make it as a couple.

Lawrence doesn’t stint on the gore. However, he is also after something else that doesn’t come up often in either slashers or their parodies, which is the notion of general empathy, how isolation stifles it and how socialization can help it bloom. He does a better job of depicting it here than many straight dramas or comedies manage.

Arambulo adroitly handles all aspects of Abbie’s persona, from professional excitement (about killing) to extreme frustration to confusion to defiance to adoration. Burke, under a ton of makeup, plays the strict dad with the appropriate mixture of gruffness and affection. Brown makes Sam the perfect non-innocent final girl.

Now, about that set-up, which Abbie explains to us in the opening. Roger Bladecut’s rampages have been filmed/videotaped, with the results then made into the BLADECUT slasher movies, which are the most popular rentals at Bladecut’s store.

In the videos, Bladecut is played by a non-mask-wearing actor, Butch Slater (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), although the victims and bystanders are real. (An early father/daughter clash occurs after Roger spots a masked Abbie in the background of a scene.)

This makes us begin by thinking that we’re going to get into how all this works – who’s doing the videotaping and why, how it is that there’s actor Butch in with the otherwise documentary footage, etc. Instead, none of this is discussed once it’s revealed, which makes it all highly baffling. (This is without factoring in how even the most incompetent law enforcement wouldn’t make a connection between the snuff films and the video store.)

We come in ready to suspend disbelief on a lot of issues, but when some really WTF elements are tackled upfront and subsequently ignored, it takes us awhile to find our footing.

Once BLOODY AXE WOUND properly gets underway, it’s worthwhile, but the way it ties its narrative shoelaces together on some points is noticeable.

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