DAY OF THE AXE

**** (out of 5)

Written, Directed, and Produced by Ryan Cavalline

Staring:

Nathan Assalone
Shawn Meyer
Scott Surra
Ryan Cavalline

“In the summer of 1977, a small boy by the name of J.R. Sorg murdered his entire family with an axe. He then ate the remains of their bodies. He was only 12 years old.

“He was sentenced to life in a mental ward.

“ On March 8, 1999 Serial Killer J.R. Sorg ESCAPED.”

Thus begins DAY OF THE AX, a short film produced by 4th Floor Pictures which clocks in at just under 10 minutes. The short is included on both The 3 EVIL TALES anthology.

Having worked mostly within the confines of the short film myself, I have a certain fondness for them. In order for the filmmaker to tell his story he must be less restrained and more direct. One can not spend too much time on such things as character development. Everything has to be established right up front.

Mr. Cavalline seems to agree with me. The three title cards from above are all the set up and back-story you need. From there we go right to ax swinging J. R. Sorg’s rampage on a snow filled afternoon as he tries to take out everyone he comes across.

I was surprised at how effectively Cavalline was able to build suspense. He uses well thought out camera placement and movement along with some terrifically moody music to create the atmosphere. Usually I find shots of blood-spattered scenery to be lazy and amateurish. Here they work well with set against the vibrant, white snow. The images take on more resonance and remain with the viewer after the film is finished.

The only real flaws I found are due to me knit-picking. There were two shots where the edits could have been tightened up (sorry, I specialized in film editing). This slows the pacing for the final confrontation, but ultimately doesn’t undermine the solidity of the piece.

What I dismissed originally as a simple homage to Halloween, DAY OF THE AXE quickly rises to stand on it’s own to two feet and seems act more like more of a prologue for the upcoming DAY OF THE AXE 2 rather it’s own self contained story. I would like to see this short included on its feature length sequel’s release. It’s always interesting to see the evolution of story from initial concept for final showpiece. And DAY OF THE AXE is overall a very fine initial concept.

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You can order 3 EVIL TALES directly from the 4th Floor Pictures website by clicking here.