Axe Murders of Villisca, The (2017)
Starring Robert Adamson, Jarrett Sleeper, Alex Frnka
Directed by Tony E. Valenzuela
Never gaining the infamy of other horrific acts throughout history, fans of true crime may not be familiar with a brutal series of axe murders taking the lives of eight people in Villisca, Iowa, in 1912. If your morbid curiosity compels you to investigate further, overnight tours are still available at the actual house where the killings took place; you’ll likely learn more during your stay than you do over the course of Tony Valenzuela’s film The Axe Murders of Villisca.
Focusing on a group of present-day ghost hunters, the century-old unsolved crime only serves as a springboard for two opportunistic high school kids, Caleb (Adamson) and Denny (Sleeper), to discover and document any mysteries, supernatural or otherwise, that may be lurking within the walls. Breaking in to stay overnight, their friend Jess (Alex Frnka) tags along for fun, but the trio isn’t aware that two local bullies are close behind. (For those counting, that adds up to five teens in a haunted house, all with the potential to die horribly.)
With intermittent flashbacks to the 1912 murders, trapped spirits with tormented souls are gradually introduced; additionally, the torment of being a teenager surfaces as the self-induced lock-in forces these kids to deal with their real feelings about each other as the night approaches. That angst fuels the spirits to use the new inhabitants to act out the crimes all over again.
While some of the performances here rise slightly above the ponderous pace of Villisca, this is an all-too-familiar setup that doesn’t check enough boxes for horror fans: jump scares and overall atmosphere are lacking, the kills are fairly pedestrian, and the characters aren’t developed enough to root for. Certainly watchable for a majority of the running time, the last act is a distorted, frenzied rush to the finish line that creates more confusion than any feeling of resolution.
With a true life tale that hasn’t been explored in depth before, The Axe Murders of Villisca doesn’t tie-in or develop the connection between the 1912 story and the modern day tropes enough to justify incorporating the small town tragedy in the first place. Instead, the mystery of a notorious hundred-year-old massacre is used to draw in true crime fans that end up just like the teens found inside the Villisca Axe Murder House: trapped in a pretty straightforward and unimaginative ghost story.
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Film
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