The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Jose Larraz made the entertaining film Vampyres but this slasher film is merely average. I tend to like the stalk and slash sub-genre but there is nothing about Edge of the Axe to make it stand out from many others of its type. Women in a small community are being killed off by someone with an ax. The (incompetent) police chief can't see the connection and seems somewhat resigned as bodies pile up in his small town. A computer genius (1988 model) takes up the investigation. Frequent genre star Jack Taylor turns up briefly. I counted nine deaths with four being partially or completely off screen (and that is including two bodies that are discovered post-murder). No nudity, no soothsayer, a half pint of blood, the killer wears a mask similar to the one in Torso. (shrug)

Late 80s slasher Edge of the Axe not only features quite a few brutal, bloody murders, each involving several hefty whacks from the killer's shiny axe, but also the discovery of a severed pig's head, and the gruesome, decomposed remains of a couple of earlier victims, (which naturally pop into shot all of a sudden to provide some cheap scares). Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, it would be, if only the bits in-between the murders weren't so incredibly dull.José Ramón Larraz, the director best known for his 70s lesbian vampire classic 'Vampyres', pads out the non-horrific parts of his film with some incredibly boring guff that introduces several possible suspects and has them engage in some particularly lame activities, such as boating on a lake and playing video games, whilst sharing banal banter (which I suppose at least has the effect of making the killings seem that bit more exciting); meanwhile, the town's useless sheriff makes zero progress in solving the case.To make matters worse, Larraz can't even be bothered to include any of that staple of the slasher genre, gratuitous nudity—surprising considering that the two other Larraz films that I have seen so far, the aforementioned Vampyres and soft-core sex comedy El Periscopio, were loaded with T&A.

Edge of the Axe has a lot of basic slasher elements. Plenty of murders by somebody in a creepy mask, a couple chase scenes, and a cute leading lady. So what is it about this movie that makes it so underrated? Well unlike most slasher films the acting is actually not too grotesquely bad (at least the two main characters are okay actors), the murders are actually pretty shocking because they happen at times you don't expect like a woman being murdered in a car wash during broad daylight, the killer is a HUGE surprise and you never see it coming (in which the ending to this movie is pretty similar to the ending in The Dorm that Dripped Blood, Cheerleader Camp, and even somewhat like Unhinged). The plot is pretty simple and generic. Somebody is whacking off locals in a small suburban town and nobody has any idea who the killer is. The main suspect in the crime is a guy named Gerald, who meanwhile is having a relationship with a cute blonde girl named Lilly. Lilly and Gerald do a little investigating of their own to find out who the killer is while more people are getting killed off. And the more people get killed, the more red herrings come along. So after a while the killer starts to target Lilly and Gerald.One of the best things about the murder scenes is that they have really good cat-and-mouse scenes that add suspense and make you wonder if the person being chased might actually survive or not. Another thing is that even though the killer resembles Michael Myers they're creepy because the person being murdered does know who it is before they're killed (like a woman saying "Oh, it's you" before the killer puts on the mask and kills her) Another thing about this movie is that it ends very abruptly. That might not seem like a positive thing but the movie ends RIGHT when you realize who the killer is. And the way you find out they're the killer is in a very strange subtle way which consists of them making a demented smile at the camera as the final shot of the film. So basically if you really like slasher movies get this. It's tricky, it's kind of unusual compared to other slashers, it's a pretty good slasher movie.

Well I'm not a big fan of slasher flicks and the reason for that is mostly because they're all too similar. This film didn't do anything to change my opinion of slashers or like the genre any more than I did before seeing it; but as a strictly by the book slash-fest, it's not too bad and I have seen worse. The film is a Spanish and American co-production and is directed by one José Ramón Larraz - the man behind a number of trash 'classics' including Vampyres and Black Candles. Being a partly Spanish film, the film does seem to take a little bit of influence from Giallo tradition (that being prominent mostly in Italy, but also in Spain) as we do get a little bit of mystery towards the killer's identity. The plot is very simple as you would expect from a film like this and simply follows a man that goes round hacking up women with an axe. Naturally this soon attracts some attention from the local police force and an inept investigation into the murders is started.The title suggests that the murders will be committed with an axe - and indeed they are, and this is the film's strongest element. There are a couple of sequences that are quite brutal, but there's not a great deal of blood and this is unfortunate. The main problem with the film is the parts between the murders, which are largely very boring. The story surrounding the main characters is lacklustre at best and doesn't do much to hold the audience's interest. The mystery towards the killer's identity is slightly more interesting than the characters themselves; but even this is spoiled by the fact that it becomes obvious who the killer is far too early. The direction courtesy of José Ramón Larraz is decent enough - he builds suspense well in places, although the low budget gets in the way often and the film never rises above its trashiness. Overall, I really wouldn't recommend anyone goes out of their way to find this one. Slasher fans may find something to like but it's not one of the best of the genre.