Die Axt

"Axe" is an oddball piece of work that seems to avoid a lot of the horror standards. The flow of the film has a refreshing feeling of randomness that makes it work. Not a lot is explained in this film so viewers are left to discuss the who, what and why amongst themselves and die hard 70's low budget sleaze fans might even try to pick out a story after repeated viewings. "Axe" is competently shot and edited. As an aficionado of 70's b movies I personally felt that it has a great look to it. An atmosphere of paranoid weirdness is developed early on and digs in on the viewer. The film also scores points for it's original soundtracking although the main hook from the intro theme gets a little over used at times. The acting is on par for the course, no remarkable talent here, but some cool characters. The one guy who looks like Bob Ross adds an interesting dynamic to the group of thugs, it's hard to figure out why exactly he's rolling with them. The girl who plays Lisa is rather pretty and her performance is effective enough to draw sympathy from the viewer during the more tense scenes.

Nothing mindblowing here, but fans of the era and genre who have a bit of patience will enjoy this one. Gore fanatics might feel cheated by Axe but lovers of strange "wtf is going on here" movies should give this one a swing.

As it happens, I was on the crew of LISA,LISA, which has been re-released as AXE (among other titles). I'm billed as Richard W. Helms. I did gaffing, focus pulling, and some sound, as well as some of the driving stunts (there weren't many, and most of them were not included in the finished film).

A lot of the reviewers have mentioned Frederick Friedel's choppy and cryptic direction of this film. Much of this may be due to the contributions by J.G 'Pat' Patterson who, with his wife Nita, performed most of the producing duties. Pat also did most of the cutting on the film - I recall visiting him in the editing bay at his Westinghouse Boulevard studios (actually just a warehouse) while he was piecing the film together. While my memory of events might be tainted after forty years, it does seem that there was a great deal of plot left on the cutting-room floor, because of time constraints placed on Patterson by his distributor. LISA,LISA was planned to play as part of a three-or-four film bill at local drive-ins, and the owners of those drive-ins didn't want people hanging in their cars TOO long without making a trip to the concession counter. It may be that the film's lack of characterization is attributable more to overenthusiastic editing than to inept directing or an incomplete screenplay.

To give you an idea just how low-budget this film was, all of the principle filming was completed in a little over a week and a half, at four locations - the soon-to-be torn down Hotel Charlotte in uptown Charlotte, NC; a convenience store in Charlotte; a lovely and very expensive Tudor home on Queens Road in Charlotte; and a vacated farmhouse near Waxhaw, south of Charlotte.

Most of the crew was paid a flat rate of $80-$100. That's not a per diem. It was $80 - $100 for the entire shooting schedule. This was late 1973, and a hundred bucks meant a lot more back then than it does now, but it was still chickenfeed. I have no idea what the actors were paid, but it wouldn't have been much more - certainly no more than a thousand for the principles and somewhat less for day players.

The film stock was rationed like water in a desert. Most of it was bought as left-over surplus stock from better-heeled production companies, and kept in a refrigerator in Pat Patterson's office. Retakes were discouraged.

The target audience, as has been noted several times by other reviewers, was the drive-in crowd who needed some background noise while they made out. For that reason, Patterson - through Rick Friedel - may have seen little need for such dramatic devices as back story and character development. In those days, people attending drive-in movies paid for darkness and privacy, not great cinema. Some have already alluded to Harry Novak's exploitation films, and he was involved with the distribution of this little gem.

One very important note is that the Director of Photography was Austin McKinney, who went on to work on a number of James Cameron films, including the Terminator series, and with John Carpenter in Escape From New York. Sadly, McKinney passed away late in 2013.

Some interesting notes - several people associated with this film died quite soon after it was completed, including Leslie Lee who played the main character, Lisa. She committed suicide sometime in the late 1970s.(NOTE!!!! Update 01/06/2013: I later discovered that this was not the case. This was the result of a conversation I had with another crew member in the 1980s, in which I was told that Leslie had killed herself. Leslie Lee, I am happy to say, is still alive and well, and lives alternately in Southern California and in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico). Two crew members, George Shaw and John Willhelm, died in a car crash on the way to Columbia, SC, in mid-1976. Pat Patterson died of cancer sometime in 1975, as memory serves. Rick Friedel, the titular director, was alive the last time I checked, but his career in feature films was pretty scant after the release of LISA, LISA / AXE.

LISA, LISA premiered at the Viking Twin Drive-In Theatre on Freedom Drive in Charlotte, NC, sometime in the fall of 1974. It played on a bill with a really silly movie called WHEN WOMEN HAD TAILS, or HOW WOMEN LOST THEIR TAILS - I can't recall the exact title - and a re-release of one of the PREACHERMAN films.

Despite the film's weaknesses - and there are many - I distinctly recall a strong sense among the crew at the time that we were doing something creative and interesting. Many crew members went on to work on other low-budget films, so we clearly didn't find this to be a negative experience.

For true fans of the bizarre drive-in exploitation films of the late 1960s and early 1970s, I'd suggest getting a copy of AXE. If nothing else, it shows that a bunch of college students can put together a movie that will last at least forty years.

My review was written in March 1983 after a Greenwich Village screening.

Filmed in Charlotte, North Carolina, about a decade ago (picture was rate by the MPAA in 1974), "Axe" (its alternate title: "Lisa, Lisa") is a fascinating but totally uncommercial film noir exercise in the horror genre, recently reissued to take advantage of public's appetite for gore-shockers. Recalling the B-films of old in its one-hour (plus elongated credits) running time, picture will be of more interest to film students than exploitation-film fans.

Filmmaker Frederick R. Friedel, working on apparently a student film budget, emphasizes detail close shots and inserts with punchy, accelerating editing to maintain tension in the absence of a strong narrative.

Picture opens with abstract tracking shots and moody closeups as a trio of gangsters terrorize an underling in a seedy hotel room. Typical of a no-budgeter, his falling out the 12th-story window takes place entirely off-screen, with a scream and sound effect.

Rest of the film has the gangsters hiding out down south, invading the remote house inhabited by a shy young girl Lisa (Leslie Lee) and her paralyzed, catatonic grandpa.

As the gangsters singly try to attack her, Lisa dispatches two of them with a straight razor and the title axe, while the third (played by director Friedel in an evident economy move) is accidentally offed by the police at film's end.

Abstracting his minimal material, Friedel evidences a good camera eye here. A piano, ondioline-style electronic keyboard and percussion score help to sustain the hypnotic mood, but for general audiences , lack of solid story values combined with amateur acting are bound to be disappointing. One example of the latter is that both Friedel and attractive heroine Lee fall back upon the device of gazing floorward to appear shy and vulnerable.

Little has been heard of Friedel since his promising effort, but cameraman Austin McKinney has made many low-budgeters and makeup man Worth Keeter is still in North Carolina, directing Eal Owenby's 3-D extravaganzas.

"Lisa,Lisa" AKA "Axe" is a weird film to say the least.it a suspense thriller,guess.i think it's more a Gothic horror than any hing.it's not really terrifying,but there are a few images that will likely stick with you for awhile.this is really a minimalist film.there are only 5 main actors for the bulk of the movie and most of the movie takes place in one location.the budget is really low for this one,and for some reason, i find really fake looking blood more disturbing than if it's more realistic.i find it sicker,foe whatever reason.anyway,the movie,besides being a Gothic horror,is also very psychological.it's almost a character study of one girl,"Lisa""(Leslie Lee) and her inner demons.she is much more scary than the bad guys in the movie.Leslie Lee gives a very effective performance.the movie is not that long,but it is ponderously slow at times,where it seems very little is happening.this movie is not for those who like a lot happening in their movies.if you don't have a lot of patience,avoid this movie.i found it interesting,though very twisted.For me "Lisa,Lisa" is a 6/10

Three gangsters commit murder, then take to the road where they end up at the farm of a disturbed young woman.

An effectively spooky character portrayal by Leslie Lee and some good filming locations, doesn't quite save this ultra low-budgeter from being an unsatisfying horror flick. While it does have the occasional moment of gore, Axe a.k.a. Lisa, Lisa makes for an uneven slasher film and is a bit too light on the violence to really be considered a true exploitation thriller. It's pretty much a mixed bag, that never really finds its effectiveness. The films choppy editing and stilted direction definitely takes away from it too.

So, all in all it's kind of hard to find a place for this weird B flick, the curious may find something of interest in it, but don't expect another Last House on the Left (1972).

* 1/2 out of ****