Axe | 1974 | USA | Frederick R. Friedel

Released originally in the UK under the more exploitative title California Axe Massacre, Axe is a melancholic and evocative film about a gang of thugs who commit various crimes in a spree of mayhem, only to stop for a rest at an isolated farmhouse, where the disturbed Lisa lives with her paralysed grandfather. Seemingly unperturbed, the criminals try to have their way with her, only to meet a swift and brutal vengeance at the hands of the mysterious youth. Low key, rather short and relatively tame in comparison to what one would expect from a nasty, the VRO VHS release was still surprisingly prosecuted as obscene.