Edge of the Ax (1988; 2022 revisit)

 This Shudder find was all over their live TV channels in early 2021 so I found myself stumbling on it here and there, just sort of letting it run while goofing off and such. I wanted something right before my first viewing of White of the Eye and after Sleepaway Camp, so I settled on another viewing of this. The Big Bear locations can be quite catchy to my rural mountain appeal. If I visited California, the Northern part would be more of interest to me. Setting a slasher there with a horrible sheriff with no interest in investigating anything despite signs something is very badly wrong and some very likable non-name American actors mixed with familiar Spanish actors of the horror genre was ideal to me. The twist is a bit WTF considering the masked, ax-wielding maniac seems built different than the killer ultimately revealed to us. Larraz had said this is his worst film; maybe he felt that way because of how generic the slasher plot is. He always went more for a European erotica story with his horror.

I will say that the killer is really explosive, sadistic, and has gusto behind the ax chopping. I felt some of those murder scenes were done in Spain by a Spanish stand-in for the American killer. The selection of victims and ties to a church were always peculiar to me...the degree of savagery and vicious nature really stand this film out. Larraz successfully editing the footage and variety of actors from different parts of the world into a cohesive whole would seem to be some small miracle.

The soap opera melodrama of adultery, missing parents, police coverups, little-black-book prostitution, and psychiatric hospital secrets are mixed in for flavor.

Gerald an outsider living in Big Bear not very open about his past creates some mystery and Lillian mentioning being off her meds offers the possibility for a type of issue unresolved due to a swing incident resulting in injury.

I really am thirsty for a Coca-Cola Classic.