Ax 'Em (originally titled The Weekend It Lives) is a 1992 American slasher film directed by and starring Michael Mfume, son of United States RepresentativeKweisi Mfume.[2] The film follows a group of friends on a weekend retreat at a remote cabin in the woods who become the targets of a crazed killer.
In 1990, Mister Mason arrived home from work, armed himself with a shotgun, and killed his wife and two of his children. Mister Mason proceeded to turn the gun on himself, leaving his mentally ill son, Harry Mason, alive. When the police arrived to the scene of the crime, Harry Mason and the bodies of his dead siblings were missing.
In 2003, college student Michael decides to take his girlfriend Kea and their friends to his Granddad's house in the woods for the weekend. Joining Michael and Kea on the trip are Kevin, Michelle and Tonya, along with couples Shawn and Erika, Tony and Kendra, and Rock and Nikki.
A grown up Harry Mason arrives at the house of Michael’s Granddad, breaking in and killing him. The following day, the group arrives to the house, with Michael and the others not questioning where his Granddad is. Nikki and Erika discover a revolver in one of the kitchen drawers before deciding to put it back.
Later that night, Michael takes everyone to the backyard, starts a fire, and recounts the story of the Masons for everyone. Michael explains how he was a childhood friend and neighbor to the Mason children growing up. Michael and his Granddad were among the search party looking for the missing Harry Mason in their own backyard 13 years prior. During the search, Michael got distracted by a coin tossed on the ground towards him, and when he looked up, the bodies of Harry's siblings were propped up in front of him. Michael ran to get his granddad, but when they returned, the bodies were gone. The story spooks some of the group out, and they all turn in for the night.
The next day, a group of young adults named Brian, Sarah and Breakfast are riding in their car when it runs out of gas. Sarah stays behind in the car while Brian and Breakfast venture out in the woods to the dilapidated Mason house to call for help. Breakfast hears a voice inside the house, telling them to leave, but Brian doesn't hear it. Breakfast runs out of the house, leaving Brian behind as Harry smashes a rotary phone over his head. Breakfast runs back to the car, trying to convince Sarah to leave with him. Sarah holds her ground and decides to wait for Brian, and Breakfast runs back to the city, never to be seen again.
Back at the house of Michael’s Granddad, Rock and Tonya sneak away to the woods nearby to cheat on Nikki and make love. As it becomes nighttime, Harry slashes Rock's arm offscreen, forcing Rock and Tonya to run back into the house, alerting the others that there's a machete wielding maniac in the woods.
Harry throws Brian's body through the door, alerting everyone to his presence. The group tries to leave in their cars, only to find out they were tampered with by Harry. Harry barges in the house and hacks Shawn to death with a machete offscreen. The group run out the backdoor of the house offscreen, and split up into different groups offscreen.
Nikki shows Rock and Kevin the revolver from the kitchen drawer that she managed to take while they were escaping the house. Neither one of them wants to take the revolver and wind up dropping it as Harry appears behind them with a baseball bat, scaring Nikki and Kevin away as Harry knocks Rock unconscious offscreen, before taking the revolver for himself and walking away.
Back at the house of Michael’s Granddad, Tonya had apparently hid in the house the entire time instead of running away like the others. She tries to exit the front door before Harry appears and strikes her in the face with the machete.
Meanwhile, Sarah has finally gone looking for Brian, only to continuously trip and injure herself, before being scared away by Harry. It’s unclear if Sarah managed to escape, or if Harry killed her offscreen.
Meanwhile, Rock, who regained consciousness offscreen, hides in the Mason house, sitting in a chair and covering himself with a sheet. Nikki, who split up from Kevin offscreen, manages to get into the Mason house, and hides in a nearby closet. Kevin enters the Mason house as well, now with a hysterical and scared Erika, who he reconvened with offscreen. Harry emerges, slashing and killing Erika in the head with the machete. As Kevin runs upstairs to get away, Harry pulls out the revolver and empties it into Kevin, killing him. Nikki discovers the skeletons of Harry's siblings in the closet she's hiding in and screams. Harry finds her, slicing her in the wrist with a machete before Rock saves her, knocking Harry down and running away together.
Meanwhile, Michael ventures back into his Granddad’s house with Kea to get a gun. In the house, Michael finds his Granddad's body stashed in the closet with the guns. Michael and Kea are cornered by Harry in the basement, but Michael shoots him 6 times before they escape through a window.
Tony and Kendra stumble across a random car battery laying on the ground before stumbling across the car of Michael’s Granddad, but it is locked and they can't get inside. Nikki and Rock reconvene with Tony and Kendra at the car, and soon they are joined by Michael and Kea. Michael unlocks the car and tries to get it started, but it won't. Tony and Michael open the hood to realize the battery is missing. Tony runs away to get the battery him and Kendra came across earlier as Harry shows up, chasing the others away from the car.
Michael, Kea, Nikki, Rock and Kendra sneak into the Mason basement to hide, and they reconvene with Michelle, who had been hiding down there as well. Harry barges in and the group holds their ground. Harry drops the machete, takes out a coin and tosses it to Michael, who now realizes its his childhood friend all grown up. Kea snatches the gun from Michael and shoots Harry multiple times. Harry gets up and grabs his machete, but not before Michael picks up a pitchfork and stabs him in the chest with it.
Tony runs into the basement, telling them the battery is in the car and they got to go. Everyone runs out, while Michael reloads the gun and shoots Harry multiple times. The seven friends escape in the car. Unbeknownst to them as they drive away, Harry walks out in the middle of the road behind them, and proceeds to walk away, back into the woods.
Michael Mfume wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the film with no experience, contacts or money for production.[1] Eventually Mfume managed to accrue $400,000 from a group of investors while also accepting help from friends and family such as Mfume's mother providing craft services and his father also donating some money.[1] The film was shot in 15 days over a four-month period in Baltimore, Maryland at Morgan State University, Ashburton, Walbrook Junction and Druid Hill Park.[1] The cast consisted of amateur actors who were mostly friends of Mfume's from Morgan State.[1] Mfume also had interviews and screenings for the film setup with The Walt Disney Company. Columbia Pictures. and Warner Bros. which John Singleton helped set up after meeting with Mfume.[1] When Mfume spoke of his apsirations for the film, he was quoted:
When you think of horror films in the '90s, you going to think of Michael Mfume.[1]
Reception
Critical reception for Ax 'Em has been overwhelmingly negative, and Beyond Hollywood opined that the film was "one of the most visually atrocious films I’ve come across in a long, long time."[3]Something Awful gave it a rating of - 48, commenting "How do you review a movie so unfit for public viewing that you can't even figure out any of the characters' names?"[4]I-Mockery criticized the film heavily in one of their movie spotlights, remarking "At the end of the credits, the word, "peace" is shown. Never have I seen a stronger case for war."[5]The Baltimore Sun was slightly more positive in its review, commenting that the film initially showed some promise but that "Once the killings begin, the movie ceases to generate much interest."[6]
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