The Axe Murders of Villisca

Most all of these "kids" who are supposed to be in high school are older than college grads, or close to their thirties. The audience isn't blind when they're watching! Other than that, it was fairly entertaining. Some of it was good, some bad. Overall, except for the casting, it was enjoyable if you have nothing else to do.

Full disclosure: I'm not just any old audience member for this picture. I've also worked on a Villisca-related project, co-writing, directing and appearing in one entitled "Haunting Villisca." Ours was far rougher than this one, from a production standpoint (I suspect we had a small fraction of this one's budget) and, sadly, we did no better with reviewers. My own reaction to this one is. . .frustration and bewilderment. I don't care for the picture but I wouldn't, regardless of whether or not I myself had made one. It's lodged very uncomfortably in a very small space: true crime meets paranormal activity meets teen slasher flick. Finding the intersection of those circles is going to be dicey work indeed and, having attempted something like it, we may have to admit that it cannot be done at all. The picture isn't all bad - some elements are exceedingly well-done - but the more important point, to me, is that the case has not attracted and given rise to the sort of high-achieving work we who are familiar with it believe could be produced. What's the problem? I wish I knew. I've often described the case as an itch between the shoulder blades, the itch that takes up residence in that one insanely inaccessible spot. You feel you'll go mad if you can't somehow deal with it. So you write a book, you write a song, you make a movie. They're all undertaken with the best of intentions, and they all fall short (Roy Marshall's book, "Villisca," comes the closest to fullness, combining a law officer's obsession over evidence with a folksy charm that lifts the endeavor onto a higher plane, one approaching "art.") No, I don't like this movie very much. Then again, I don't like ANY of them - my own included - very much. The dragon of history sleeps soundly still; he's not been prodded sufficiently into yielding up his treasure. Someday, perhaps.

source: The Axe Murders of Villisca

My sister and I have stayed overnight in the Villisca Ave Murder House. I am familiar with the story and what actually happened. The movie was centered around the three teens and their experiences. It had nothing to do with the Villisca murders. This movie had a few details correct, but a lot of inaccuracies. There were a lot more facts of the actual murders that could have been included that would have added authenticity to the movie.

First of all, Maryville is in Missouri, it's about 30 minutes from Villisca so the part where Jess asks why anyone would move to Iowa is irrelevant because if she is going to school with Caleb, who is in the Maryville Paranormal whatever and who lives in Maryville and went to school in Maryville, then she moved to Missouri and not Iowa. I went to college in Maryville and have unfortunately had to make that drive around Clarinda and Villisca multiple times and both towns are kind of terrible so if she had truly moved to that part of Iowa she wouldn't have even had to ask that question sarcastically because it's obvious that the only reason anyone would ever move there from Chicago would be because they decided to be a farmer or got a job teaching at Northwest Missouri State. Two, I can confirm that the place is not guarded . Unless things have changed in the past 5 years, and they most likely haven't, it isn't guarded and most of the time no one is even there. There are several paranormal sites in Northwest Missouri/Southwest Iowa that NWMSU Bearcats frequent and having been to a lot of them I can confidently write that they aren't guarded. Most of them, including Villisca, are in the middle of BFE away from any real population of people and they don't need to be guarded. Being that this place is probably 2-3 hours from the nearest major airports there isn't a lot of people going to these areas because they are out of the way and a pain to get to. I've probably driving through Villisca about 10 times and have never once seen anyone stopped at the axe house. Also it would not shock me if they had a murder weapon out in the open. I haven't been inside but I do remember a friend telling me something like that.

The only reason this gets two stars instead of just the one is because I found the locations and establishing shots thereof strangely charming. Otherwise, just about everything in this movie is abysmal. The casting is just bizarre and the ages of the actors stretch credulity beyond the breaking point, the characters' backstories are hamfisted and seem to only exist to explain otherwise unexplainable decisions they make, and the true story the movie is named after seems to have almost no bearing on the plot whatsoever, like the writers thought it was an interesting enough event to simply lift the name but not to bother incorporating any of what actually happened into their story about people researching said event. At no point in the movie does anyone make a decision that a normal human being would make in those circumstances. I was particularly impressed that the directors were even able to find a woman willing to act the part of the female lead, whose backstory was incredibly insulting and - as it turns out - entirely pointless to the character, since it never really drove any important plot point. At the very beginning of the film, it is revealed that the main antagonist (jock bully) has made a sex tape with her and put it on the internet and everyone in her high school has already seen it; she is considered promiscuous by her peers. She then proceeds to..... hook up with the protagonist with amazing ease, with very little time spent together and no particular chemistry on display, and with no easily explainable reason why they'd be feeling frisky at that moment, all of which seems to lend credence to what her fellow high schoolers have been saying about her. Truly one of the most terribly written characters I've seen in a movie. There is no actual artistic merit to be found anywhere in this film.

Okay so i am by no means a movie critic but i do like to think i know the horror genre and this movie wasn't half bad. now that being said it also wasn't half good. however, by B-rate horror movie standards, i thought this movie was actually an enjoyable watch. the normal level of acting ability in B-rate movies is pretty expectantly low, but this movie actually had pretty decent acting. i think i would maybe re-work the sound as i needed the closed captioning for most of the movie. the premise and plot behind the movie is actually very interesting and i think could have been so much better had the crew had more time, money, accessibility, etc. i was very pleased that even though one character had a camera, the entire movie wasn't from this point of view. overall i'd say this movie isn't as awful as people are saying. while it does have its downfalls, i believe it is worth a watch if you can't find anything better and are willing to devote an hour and 20 minutes of your time. in final conclusion, this movie is glass half full.

The usual garbage, made even worse by an incomprehensible final thirty minutes. Everything was thrown at the wall, to see what would stick. This is absolutely inept on so many levels. Just pointless. Streaming sites need to do better than is pablum.

First of all, I'm quite the fan of this unsolved murder having read all about it and watched the documentaries. So in watching the movie, I kind of had a biased view since I knew so much about the actual story. The movie house is not the actual house which was much smaller. And the actual house did not have electricity, but did have a telephone. The family never electrified it while they owned it. It also had a barn/stable since the owners were still doing the horse and buggy thing and never purchased the latest invention...a car. I hate that they turned this into a paranormal movie. The actual story was about a family of 6+2 friends brutally murdered during the night by an unknown killer. It was not paranormal. Why couldn't they have just recreated the original story as a period piece and not turn it into a teen/ghost possession/slasher flick?

Three teens with horrific events in their past, break into the Villisca murder house. Sh** happens. This is a ghost story not filmed on location. They used a bigger house. In 1912 there was an actual unsolved ax murder in the house, which is said to be haunted and one of several hundred of America's most haunted site. They work the events of the past into the script. The film had decent character development, "B" acting and a fair sound track. The gore was taken out. We see an ax being swung and then a person covered in blood. I still didn't get the whole covered mirror thing, seems like it was worked backwards. Caleb, (Robert Adamson) the main character's last day of school was around Halloween from the decorations. They never managed to work Halloween into the script, the killings happened in June. The web site for the house offers tours and overnight stays, for just a tad less than the Biltmore. Guide: F-word. Sex. No nudity.