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DAY OF THE AXE 2: SERIAL KILLER
Written, Produced, and Directed by Ryan Cavalline
Shawn Meyer
Nathan Assalone
Jack FlynnJ.R. Sorg first made an appearance in the original DAY OF THE AXE, a masterfully moody homage to the HALLOWEEN series. DAY OF THE AXE 2 picks up right where the first film left off, with J.R. dead on the ground. How can that be you ask? Well, according to the intercut titlecards, it's J.R. is still alive simply because he wills it so. It just goes to show that you can't keep a good slasher down!
The government is aware of J.R.'s newly mentioned psychic abilities. Directed Cavalline himself plays a tracker not yet convinced of the killer's demise. Unfortunately for Cavalline, he's all to correct in his assumptions.
Cavalline throws an even better twist into the mix. Remember all that talk for the better part of the last decade concerning a FRIDAY THE 13TH/A MIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET crossover which would have pitted everybody's favorite hockey mask wearing maniac against the long revered gloved wonder? Well Cavalline apparently couldn't take the wait and pits his ax wielding monster against another wondering serial killer.
DAY OF THE AXE 2 was made sometime before Cavalline's most recent effort, SHUDDER. The quality shows. As with the first DAY OF THE AXE, we all the signs of an amateur production including actors looking directly into the camera, fighting to keep from smiling. The most glaring of which is done by the director himself.
He's young. He's still learning. He just needs to learn to work with real actors.
If SHUDDER is any indication of where things might lead for Cavalline, snafus like a bit of camera watching can be overlooked, right? Only if he wants retain his amateur filmmaker status.
As you watch DAY OF THE AXE 2 pay close attention to way it's shot. It plays out like a deconstructionist slasher film or perhaps a modernist slasher. The action is very segmented and isolated; the majority of the shots are all done in close-up. It's as if Cavalline is trying to break the slasher film down into it' most rudimentary of conventions. The ax goes up. Feet scurry about. The ax enters a body. A mouth opens bleeding pain. All done in close-up. It's an interesting approach that lends credibility to Cavalline as a filmmaker. He wants to make a movie in the worst way. Something more than what it is, entertainment. He just needs to perfect his craft.
Give him time.