This sequel comes from Camp Blood 8 director Dennis Devine. Porn star Sally Mullins (also in Camp Blood 8) is a scientist studying the regenerative properties of Freddy, the Axegrinder killer. She decides to conduct a field study and lets him loose in his old backwoods stomping grounds. Meanwhile, a counselor takes a group of female prisoners into the woods for an outdoor Christian camping therapy trip. It’s only a matter of time before they run afoul of the bloodthirsty killer.
Axegrinder 4 has a decent gimmick. Since the women are all prisoners, they have ankle monitors that will shock them if they get too far away from the guard. Naturally, the guard is one of the first victims, so the prisoners can only run so far away from the killer.
When the film is concentrating on this plotline, it works rather well. However, the scenes with the mad scientists are decidedly less effective, even with Mullins’ constant mugging. The denouement also runs on way too long. It’s almost as if the flick felt compelled to wrap up a lot of plot threads that really didn’t need wrapping up. Had the filmmakers cut down the last fifteen minutes or so, it would’ve easily gotten ** ½. Instead, it just unnecessarily spins its wheels long after the climax. That said, any movie that starts off with sexy lesbians playing tag and features Veronica Ricci as a scantily clad psychic can’t get any less than ** in my book.
Axegrinder 4 also suffers from a lot of padding. There are flashback scenes from the first three flicks and a blooper reel too. In addition, the kills are kind of ho-hum this time around as the only highlights come when Freddy cuts off a girl’s foot (that still has her ankle monitor attached) and delivers a backbreaker wrestling move on another gal. Even though I might not have been “axing” for more, Devine delivered an immediate sequel the same year.
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