Désaxé

"Axed" is an absolute mess. While the premise is somewhat interesting and the film clearly tries to be shocking and impactful, it fails miserably on almost every level. The violence, though both physical and psychologically intense, becomes tedious and repetitive over time, losing any real effect it might have had. What's worse are the characters' decisions - so absurd and senseless that they shatter any attempt at immersion or emotional involvement. Instead of delivering a disturbing thriller, "Axed" ends up being a frustrating, painfully ineffective experience. A good idea wasted by poor execution, incoherent storytelling, and a complete lack of tension or depth.

Saw this at this year's Bram Stoker Film Festival where it played to a very receptive audience of horror movie fans and picked up the award for Best Screenplay.

Works well as a disturbing psycho-drama based around a man who loses his job and then his mind, much to the increasing horror of his family.

A great music score and moody cinematography helps to build the atmosphere.

Jonathan Hansler is the true star of the show here, obviously relishing the dark humour of his part as the dejected father with one last project to manage up his sleeve. Well it's certainly one way to downsize!

Axed – TRASH IT (C-) Axed is about a crazy father, who thinks his family is ungrateful and its time to teach them a lesson. He takes his wife, son and daughter in the middle of nowhere and then the violence of a crazy demented father starts. I defiantly liked the story and that's the reason I decided to watch this but the movie is too long and too tedious. There are so many chances everyone to kill him they all leave him half alive for no reason to be attacked by him again. Performance by all crazy British cast is good at times and mediocre most of the times. There is nothing good about it. I wish I could say it's mediocre but it's not because it becomes unbearably boring towards the end. Trash it!

This film was not bad, it had an okay storyline and some good old fashioned blood spilling. The plot, although not too original, moves along quite good and the characters are actually kind of likable. It is a low budget movie which does well compared to some higher budget films. I did get in to this movie as it kept me interested the whole way through, but it wasn't ground breaking or edge-of-your-seat kind of stuff. As I said, I did like as it was one of the better lower budget films around, but it had moments of lackluster acting which did let it down a bit. They had the right idea for a great movie here but they let it down in the delivery. But overall I give it a 6 out of 10.

I recently had great fortune to watch 'Axed' at a local film festival. This psychological thriller was greatly received and I can see why.

I am so pleased to have finally seen a film in recent years that I did NOT know the ending to. The genuine twists and turns kept me intrigued throughout the film, the Homage to classical horror films is clear and well done. The relationship between the unhinged father and his children is superbly acted (ignoring some over acting from the lead actor at times), I would highly recommend watching more from this particular cast.

It was not the gore fest I was expected, the director, quite rightly, left a lot to your own imagination, which in my experience makes the film much scarier.

The DOP should be highly congratulated on their skills in presenting this film so well, despite some shots that felt as though they should have been lightened; the use of natural light was cleverly done.

I even found out afterwards that some of this film used C.G.I. and green screen to enhance some shots, which was fabulous, as it was done in such a way that people were completely unaware, which is more than I can say for most low budget horror films being reviewed recently.

The only thing I would say is that It almost needed to be longer to build the father's mental break down to make it more intense in the cottage scenes when he finally snaps.

Despite some of the sound quality being poor in parts and minimal continuity errors I would highly recommend watching this as a good example of how a good low budget film can be made.