‘This tall tale is killer’
Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan – aka Axe Giant – is a 2013 American horror film directed by Gary Jones (Boogeyman 3; Ghouls; Crocodile 2: Death Swamp; Spiders; Mosquito, et al) from a screenplay co-written with Jeff Miller (Dolls; ClownTown; The Burning Dead) and Jason Ancona. The movie stars Amber Connor, Joe Estevez, Dan Haggerty and Thomas Downey.
Plot:
Teenagers at a first-time offenders’ boot camp discover that the legend of lumberjack Paul Bunyan is real and is much more horrifying than they could have imagined…
Unfortunately, they incur the wrath of the fifteen-foot monstrous giant, who was banished from town a hundred years ago and thought dead…
Reviews:
“The effects work is surprisingly good, given how bad the green screen work is throughout, and it’s the deaths where they’re put to the best and most frequent use. I was especially impressed with Haggerty’s death scene, where the younger Bunyan forces his head backwards into a circular saw that’s used for cutting trees in half.” Apocalypse Later
“Axe Giant can’t make its mind up whether it wants to be a comedy or a straight-out horror movie and of course, ends up being neither […] Jones directed the better than average B movie homage Spiders back in 2000, so I was expecting more from this, but Axe Giant is a terrible, terrible film…” Dark Eyes of London
” …a low-budget schlockfest that worked both as a time killer and a good bad movie night option until that ending, when it kinda wasn’t as much fun anymore. It definitely had those great low-budget touches though, like I loved that they just took a National Forest ranger office or something, slapped new words over the sign, and passed it off as a juvenile detention center.” Direct to Video Connoisseur
“I must admit I wasn’t tempted in any way to turn off Axe Giant. It was just hokily compelling (stick that on your box and smoke it!) with its over the top CGI gore, laughably bad extras, and actors that displayed more woodenness than the trees that surrounded them.” The Schlock Pit
” …Axe Giant starts out quite well, with some fun to be found at Sgt. Hoke’s expense, and nice forest scenery, it’s when the Victor Crowley-a-like Bunyan enters proceedings that craptastic CGI effects become too poor to handle, characters become really stupid […] and extras look right at the camera.” Vegan Voorhees
“The real kick to the gut though are the film’s horrible special effects. A terrible movie can at least redeem itself with some well done special effects. Sadly, Jones opts to fill his film with some of the worst computer special effects I’ve seen in a long, long time. This is doubly painful as FX are supposed to be his specialty.” Video Junkie
Cast and characters:
Amber Connor … CB Tanner
Joe Estevez … Meeks – DeathBed; Werewolf; Maximum Overdrive
Dan Haggerty … Foreman Bill – The Chilling; Bloody Movie aka Terror Night; Elves; Hex
Thomas Downey … Sgt. Hoke (as Tom Downey)
Tim Lovelace … Sheriff Tanner
Jesse Kove … Zack
Kristina Kopf … Ms K
Jill Evyn … Trish – The Black Room; Adaline: The Conjured
Clifton Williams … Marty
Victoria Ramos … Rosa
Chris Hahn … Gunnar Wolfgang Bunyan
Donna Williams … Mel
Bud Moffett … Budd
Alan Tuskes … Elmer the Cook
Daniel Alan Kiely … Greenhorn
