Lizzie Borden Took an Ax (2014)

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Christina Ricci has certainly evolved as an actress since playing Wednesday in "The Addams Family" (1991). This is a very enjoyable, well-made film. I came across this on streaming Netflix, and what a pleasant surprise it was. The musical score is interesting - electric guitars, rock music, etc., which are incongruous with the time period (1890s), but somehow it WORKS. Good art direction, costuming, photography, and overall production values. Christina Ricci's performance definitely makes this worthwhile. I couldn't help comparing it to the Elizabeth Montgomery TV movie version, "The Legend of Lizzie Borden" (1975). There are elements of both films which I like.

A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."Lizzie Borden Took and Axe" (TV-14 - 2014 - US)Sub-Genre: Slasher/HistoryMy Score: 6.2Cast=7 Acting=8 Plot=7 Ending=6 Story=7 Scare=4 Jump=3 F/X=6 Blood=6 History=8The true story of Lizzie Borden, a young woman tried and acquitted in the 1892 murders of her father and stepmother. "I told you what happened. Do you think I'm hiding something from you?" The story of Lizzie Borden is infamous...and when I heard that Christina Ricci was going to play the lead I was beyond exited!! The movie was a little flat, but not bad for a Lifetime movie. If you're looking for a well acted TV movie then this is worth a watch. If you want to be scared you might be in for disappointment.

This has all the hallmarks of a made for Lifetime movie, with pauses where the commercials should have gone, tame TV quality gore scenes, and no nudity. And when I looked it up, yes, it was Lifetime.Lifetime, where actress' careers go to die.Now, the only reason why I point this out is because the way that they marketed this was to make it look like it was going to be a slasher movie. But really, it's about as tame as a movie about ax murders could possibly get. Oh, yeah, and that soundtrack! What were they thinking?Anyway, this movie recounts the murder, and Ricci comes off as kind of psychotic in the role. They also imply a incestuous relationship between Lizzie and her father.Beyond that, the kind of tripe you expect out of a Redbox.

I think the movie was mostly a rehash, nothing really new and what was new is news to me--seems fictional. The acting was OK, I suppose. The music was the thing that really impressed me: it gave the movie this dazed, Thorazine-grunge effect. It WAS inappropriately placed in a sense, but to me that added to the surrealness of the movie. I mean, it needed something....I think the box that warns me about being blacklisted for putting a spoiler out there is humorous. Would I really be blacklisted for telling what happened in this movie? Titanic? Hindenburg?There, that's my 10 lines. Whew.