The name of Harry Novak invariably crops up while researching anything concerning trashy exploitation cinema along with such luminaries as H.G.Lewis and Don Friedman. This particular early 70’s Novak entry has become arguably his best known film due to the notoriety it has managed to muster over the years, thanks largely to the manic British Censors of the Mary Whitehouse era who managed to slap a ban on the film as one of the 40 odd original “Video Nasties” – films too vile and corrupting to be viewed in the land of Queen Victoria.

The film shares the gritty, edgy “feel” of Last House on the Left and the tacky, grimy and somewhat sleazy aura that surrounds I Spit on Your Grave and Death Weekend. The super cheap budget and dodgy gore effects as well as the amateurish acting may detract from the film’s edge but can be little denying that this is indeed a thoroughly nasty little shocker and though perhaps undeserving of a “Nasties” ban, one can easily see why the Whitehouse brigade got into a flap over it.

The film follows the exploits of a gang of thugs who brutally terrorize various innocents for no reason at all. First they murder a gay man they appear to know after subjecting him to the most ghastly tortures, and then they turn on his friend who commits suicide. The next target is a helpless girl at the counter of a deserted supermarket who is attacked with fruit projectiles before being subjected to some serious humiliation. The gang moves on into the country seeking out a home to shelter in and they strike it lucky with the very first house they stop at as it appears to be inhabited only by a meek teen age girl and her virtually comatose old grandfather. Lisa, the young girl appears to be a strange, sullen sort of girl whose only role in life is to care for her grandfather which she does by feeding him meals of raw eggs and Campbell’s Tomato soup blended with fresh blood – either that of a freshly killed chicken or whatever might come in handy at the time.

The grandfather sits in front of his wreck of a television, seeing nothing at all, just barely staying alive through the sustenance provided by the diet of raw eggs, tomato soup and blood. Lisa washes, changes and shaves him every day, even though there seems little point. Young Lisa is naturally traumatized by the intrusion of the thugs and is a moment from topping herself but fate intervenes. One of the brutes finds Lisa irresistible and rapes her one night only to have the tables turned on him in the most horrifyingly appropriate manner. Lisa uses her grandfather’s razor to fantastic effect showing that all that practice beheading chickens to drain them of their blood would come in handy some day. Late that night the meek, mild mannered Lisa takes out her Axe and does her chicken thing, but not with a chickens body this time around.

Encouraged by her success at eliminating one third of the threat she now dismisses all suicidal thoughts deciding that this vengeance thing is much more her scene, and then why waste that lovely Axe that keeps popping up so conveniently all around the house begging to be used. Frustratingly though, by the end of the film we are no better informed about Lisa and her strange existence then we are at any stage of the film.

Despite the almost universal panning the film has received at the hands of the few critics who have actually seen it, the film does have certain merits – at least we think so! Firstly there is an edginess to the film that is largely derived through excellent editing and once or twice the director shows he is capable of injecting decent amounts of tension and energy through the innovative editing he has employed. This twisted energy, the cheap gritty “Last House” approach also lend an element of realism that might be lost in a slicker film and the poor acting somehow only add to the effectiveness rather than detract from it. The film is oddly compelling and the violence though utterly unrealistic manages to shock nonetheless simply for its audacity and sheer nastiness. The background music is often jarring and irritating but at times it is innovative and totally appropriate in creating the uneasy, maniacal atmosphere that pervades. Then there are lingering shots of cracked eggs wasting away in the fridge – nothing exceptional, yet somehow a memorable image and completely evocative of the layers of madness that make up this epic tale of twisted fate.

Thee film also features some remarkably odd dubbing in the initial scenes when one can see that words are coming from people who clearly aren’t speaking and also during the scene when the poor gay is trashed, the punches sound rather dull and un-cinematic – maybe that’s how real punches do actually sound!? Harry Novak’s Axe is very much a cousin of Last House on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave and certainly not a worse film than either of those two – yet it remains relatively unheard of compared to the infamy that that Last House and I Spit have managed to generate despite joining them on the famed list of Nasties. A grisly, nastly little shocker, not without its merits and perhaps deserving more of the limelight that appears to have been hogged by Last House on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave and even Death Weekend……..all of which are similarly grim revenge shockers of hideous repute.