The Axe Murders of Villisca
by Tony E. Valenzuela
I am always intrigued by horror movies that are "based" on real events. Usually the film makers embellish the actual events so they can make a short story long enough to fill a proper movie. Most of the time it works, but for The Axe Murders of Villisca it did not.
To start off, you need to know the true story of The Moore family. Between the evening of June 9, 1912 and the early morning of June 10, 1912 in the town of Villisca in southwestern Iowa, the members of the Moore family and two house guests were found bludgeoned in the Moore residence. All eight victims, including six children, had severe head wounds from an axe. A lengthy investigation yielded several suspects, one of whom was tried twice. The first trial ended in a hung jury and the second ended in an acquittal. The crime remains unsolved. One of the suspects was Reverend George Kelly, a traveling minister. This is the one they focus on in the film. He was apparently a very peculiar man that had been caught peeping and would later be put in an asylum after sending lewd materials through the mail. He was tried twice for the Moore's murder. He was acquitted after he recanted his confession and the murders go unsolved today.
The present-day story is about Caleb, his best friend Denny, and Jess the new girl. Caleb and Denny are amateur ghost hunters and they are planning to take a tour of The Axe Murder House in Villisca, Iowa. Jess shows up at Caleb's house after he sticks up for her with some bullies. All three of our leads are holding on to some terrible regrets. This is all just padding. They go to the house where Jon Gries (Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite) gives them a tour. Jess jumps a velvet rope to look at the room where Ina and Lena, the two guest visiting the Moore's home that night, were killed. We get a crappy jump scare with a crazy woman screaming at Jess for touching things. Jess convinces the guys to come back and break in later that night. This is where it gets confusing. The bullies show up and one bully kills the other and gets possessed. Then, Caleb looks at a picture and he gets possessed and in a scene I can't remember, Jess got possessed. I didn't think there were so many ghosts in this movie! I won't actually spoil it for you, but it was kind of a clustered mess.
The Axe Murders of Villiscahad a great story to tell. A mystery to solve with a haunted house. It could have been great, but instead of concentrating on the actual murders and building on that, the film makers decided to concentrate on the poorly developed teenage leads. When it's showing the murders in flashback it's a great ride. When we cut back to the present it's so boring.
The running time is only 77 minutes and it feels short for it being so messy. The flash back scenes were just beautiful while the present-day ones are blue. I mean, they look like a blue filter was placed on the lens. It was a bit jarring.
The Axe Murders of Villisca was a mediocre movie that could have been something interesting. Instead, it was just a reason for me to google Villisca, Iowa and read the real and tragic story for myself.
Robin Thompson, HMS