Shudder Brief - Edge of the Axe (1988)

 I'll be dropping my old very negative review for this film on Sunday afternoon. Although a female killer who is unstable and a mental hospital release isn't that significant a surprise, her being so young, in the form of pretty, blonde, seemingly innocuous and virginal Patty Shepard was a decent twist. Barton Faulks as a rather calm, approachable, even-keeled and pleasant chap she bonds with, until he offers to be a reliable person to trust with her "secret", only to be betrayed by her and pursued by her in a very malevolent way results with a gut-punch tragic ending I credit as quite a disturbing close to the film. The film goes out of its way to bring these two young adults together, only for this underlying psychosis that surfaces towards past victims associated with her history at a hospital to fracture them. The cops have no reason to suspect her and he's got just enough suspicious about him to cause alarm to law enforcement trying to find and stop a serial killer in their small town and surrounding backwoods haven. Really helpful to this film are the Big Bear Lake locations. This is all over Shudder channels, including consistent rotation right now on Slashics and It Came from Shudder even had it featured. Edge of the Axe got a nice Blu-ray release not too long ago, with some attention given it as a result. One major impression and punch is the impact of those ax killings. While the killer seems to have the figure of a man, the twist is a swerve I can still appreciate enough. How the film frames those wild swings of the ax, so frenzied and manic, is a reason behind why I gave this film a better rating than before. My feelings towards this film and rating of it were very harsh and vitriolic. That's not the case anymore. Those ax attacks pull no punches. Those poor women can't get away or protect themselves...and they can't fight the killer off, either. The attacks are furious, fierce, and brute force. I guess I'll give this 2.5/5. The discover of a dead body hideously brutalized and a severed head in the water show what the killer can and will do.