TUBI CONTINUED… AXE TO GRIND (2015) ***

Debbie Rochon stars as aging Scream Queen who snaps when her director (and former lover) passes her over for a younger actress.  She then follows a bunch of promising starlets to the location of his latest film, a rundown mental hospital, and crashes the set.  Jealous that this new crop of actresses are stealing her limelight, she sets out to chop up the competition one by one with an axe. 

Usually, I hate it in movies when new characters are introduced accompanied with little tongue-in-cheek title cards, but the practice is done in a rather amusing fashion in Axe to Grind.  Not only are the B-movie actresses given little nicknames when they appear for the first time, we also get to see their prior film credits splashed onto the screen.  Many of these titles are good for a chuckle too.  (The titles include “Double D Terror”, “God Save the Scream Queen”, and “I Defecate on Your Grave”.)  In fact, I’d pay good money to see Debbie and some of her fellow co-stars in feature-length versions of those flicks.

Nobody plays sexy psychos like Debbie Rochon.  Although the premise is derivate, it’s a solid foundation for a Rochon vehicle.  The major draw here is seeing Debbie getting another chance to do what she does best, namely looking hot and hacking people up.  While Axe to Grind might not be up there with the lofty heights of her incredible performance in American Nightmare, she’s still a lot of fun to watch. 

It’s not all good news.  The pacing doesn’t exactly work like clockwork.  The subplot of the dim-witted hospital janitor assisting Debbie in cleaning up after her kills wasn’t really necessary, and the back-and-forth flashback structure kind of takes away from the immediacy of the situation.  However, whenever Debbie is front and center flipping her shit and swinging her axe (which is often), Axe to Grind is tons of fun.