The Pick-Axe Murders Part III: The Final Chapter

The story keeps with a classic theme of a supernatural slasher. It is straightforward, methodic and light-hearted. Jeremy Sumrall celebrates those VHS horror tropes from 80's horror with fun enthusiasm. Although the film does have flaws, it is still a commendable ode. It keeps with a simple slice-n-dice format, there is a formidable killer, and plenty of flesh and blood.

With a couple recognizable indie names attached, "Pickaxe" receives some cred. Tiffany Shepis is a indie horror staple. Baldwin does a great job as the sheriff. The rest of the cast don't quite equal these two's performances, but they do well enough to move the story. There is some dialog issues and a few moments that feel contrived. I also found a few of the asthenic scenes tacky, set in a way that takes away from the moment than the intended effect.

The horror elements of the film are really notable, commendable aspects of the film. It is low budget affair, but the practice choices seemed to be approached with care. Reminiscent of 80's slasher gore films like "The Burning" and "Madman". I really enjoyed the kill scenes in "Pickaxe". Some of the setups to the kill sequences seemed a bit hokey, missing to create an added anticipation, and did more to lower the energy of otherwise cool kills.

Overall "Pickaxe" is a straightforward low budget slasher that only works in the indie horror community. It probably will disappoint mainstream movie goers with its low scale production, indie acting and 'on a dime' practical effects. Still there is some fun gore elements, a strong slasher and cool, creepy atmosphere. Check it out if you dig low budget movie making.

First and foremost, of course this movie isn't good. I watched it because I was bored and hadn't seen Tiffany Shepis in anything in a while. Shepis was a B list scream queen in the 2000s appearing in low budget movies that were sometimes goofy (The Hazing), sometimes entertaining (Nightmare Man), and sometimes unwatchable (Nympha). Anyway, I've always liked her and her output has slowed in recent years.

She appears in this with A. Michael Baldwin, the other other guy from the Phantasm movies, as the sole survivors of a notorious rampage that ended with the killer being put down and them going their separate ways. He became a Sheriff, she became an obsessed alcoholic. Then some naked girl with no motivation resurrects the killer and he emerges, looking like a giant guy in a Halloween costume and nowhere near as cool as he does on the poster. Unsurprisingly.

Cut to a group of dumb, really dumb, people (I refuse to call them high schoolers) on their way to some screamo rock show. They holed up in a cabin and find themselves right in the path of the pickax wielding killer. And their only hope is Shepis and Baldwin, who are in the movie enough not to irritate their fans who only saw the thing because of them.

Positives for the movie are that it is relatively ambitious, with numerous locations and many different characters. So, it never gets boring. There is a fair amount of gore, some laughs that are so stupid you might smirk, really trashy women flashing skin left and right, and just general stupidity abound. In short, the movie's a hoot if you like low tier, cheesy horror.

The biggest downside is the image quality, which is relatively poor.

But I'd watch a sequel.

This movie reminds me of a Rob Zombie film, except with half of his budget and only a fraction of his imagination. Every single character is written exactly the same; each person, man or woman, is a *foul-mouthed *beer-swilling *drug-induced *sex-crazed *garbage human

That's pretty much the formula for Zombie films, and it's the same here. This one even has that same Zombie grit and filth to it on all the sets that Zombie and his fans seem to love. I'm actually surprised he didn't have anything to do with this.

Anyway, nothing new to see. On top of that, a less-than-captivating bad guy, less-than-inspiring heroes, subpar special effects, and tired story threads are a recipe for a stinker of a movie.

The traumatized survivor girl turns in a decent performance, I should say. Not enough to save the film, but enough for me to mention it.

As said, seen it before, done far better elsewhere. D grade.

This movie is a Friday The 13th wanna-be. God knows how many times I rolled my eyes at hearing how many try-hard references there was to the name Cunningham in this. However, being a Jason fan, and tolerating quite a lot of wanna-be and intentionally a tribute to F13th films, this one fails on many levels.

For starters, the cast is not believable, and I couldn't care less about them. One lead looks like Katherine Tate trying to pull off being a high school student again. Maybe if she was cast in Grease she could get away with it, but her age is as obvious to the veiwer as her non-existent acting skills. Then they have thrown in two guys who look like a cross between Artie Lang and John Belushi, without the charisma, and we're expected to beleive they're sexy leading men that all women can't get enough of. Then there is Poindexter and Mr Sweetchucks son who the plot tried to make you care and feel sorry for, but fails miserably at how forced and lame it was done.

Despite terrible actors and poor dialog, the cutting of the film seems rushed or unfinished. It cuts between one shot, to a shot that should have had a bit more in between to make it a smooth transition. But no, we get someone trying to drive away from the killer, to the killer hanging on the side of the van like he teleported there. It's just bad, and not even laugh out loud bad.

The gore effects are really amateurish. Apparently anyone who gets killed in this movie spits blood out their mouth and let's it flow down their chin. Even amatuers know to mix things up, not have everyone's death scene do the same spitting blood out routine.

With too many rushed cuts and bad edits, probably missing scenes needed, or ran out of money to shoot, mixed with the poor visual effects and pathetic acting, writing, directing, sound department, I can't really say anyone did a good job at anything on this film... Maybe just the cameraman/men. That's about it.

Even if you don't mind a F13th try-hard rip-off, don't bother with this one. It's not worth your time.

Heading out for a concert together, a group of friends picks up a group of hitchhikers also looking to attend the same concert and head out to a local cabin in the woods to party in preparation for it, but when they realize that a local legend involving a deranged indestructible serial killer is true they try to get away from the madman.

This was quite an enjoyable slasher throwback effort. The big thing about this one that works is the wholly enjoyable backstory setup which gives this a strong entry-point. The opening monologue about the history of the killer affecting the town and his rampages in the past gives the film an impressive enough backstory about the killer stalking the residents, while the first sequence about the couple resurrecting the killer out in the woods is a spectacular surprise with a shocking reveal and tons of fun occult rituals to get everything in motion. Given that everything is shown to have affected everyone in the town and explains their behavior manages to come across quite nicely, this has a solid starting point to get into. The other big plus to be had here is the enjoyably cheesy style of slashing scenes throughout here. The idea of the film eschewing the traditional stalking in favor of quick ambushes out of nowhere to deliver a brutal and rapid-fire attacks which offer up plenty of brutal, gory kills is a fun factor running through here. The series of attacks are enhanced at the end where it focuses on the stellar rampage at the concert and the subsequent attack at the house where he takes out the cast in fun fashion, mixing those quick ambushes and some much bigger stalking that takes place in the woods, providing a lot of fun. These are what hold the film up over it's few drawbacks that show up. There are a few minor flaws to be had here. One of its biggest issues is the disproportionate pacing that still keeps this one going nicely enough yet does have quite a lot of down-time in between the kill scenes. It comes off way too late in the film for them to understand the killer's loose as the film does run through a few extraneous subplots and side-stories that really stand-out as padding. From the unrealistic and grating scenes about the various couples cheating on each other or the arrival at the cabin playing games with each other that just goes too long, these end up keeping the killer's antics until quite late in the film which is short enough as it is that holding off for that long isn't all that worthwhile. With the obvious low-budget feel that comes up prominently in here, these are what hold the film overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Language, Full Nudity, Graphic Violence, sex scenes and heavy drug use.