Chad Gets The Axe (2022) HORROR MOVIE REVIEW

Chad Gets The Axe (2022)

Chad gets the Axe is a fun swipe at social media popularity and the toxicity of the internet, with a modern-day satanic cult thrown in for good measure. While it is not overly scary and there is minimal gore, there are a couple of good jump scares, and the story is fun enough to keep you guessing until the end.

Chad gets the Axe (2022)

Written by Travis Bible and Kemerton Hargrove

Directed by Travis Bible

Review by Mark Walker

Four social media influencers live stream their trip to Devil’s Manor, former home to a satanic cult. (IMDB)

Spicy Steve (Michael Bonini) is a social media star desperate for more views. He agrees to a joint live stream with the obnoxious Chad (Spencer Harrison Levin) as they visit the notorious Devil’s Mansion where a serial-killing family tortured and murdered a number of victims years before. Chad may be obnoxious, but he has a massive following and Steve is ready to do anything to get the views up.

They are joined by “Spennifer” (Taneisha Figuerosa and Cameron Vitosh)a health and lifestyle team who live stream on their own channel as the four of them explore the abandoned house.

Things get spooky when a dead body appears and then vanishes, and the streamers start to disappear one by one. Is it the murderous Burrows family back for more, or is it a rival team of streamers pranking Steve and his crew? Who knows? And does anyone care?

Chad gets the Axe is another addition to the found footage genre (although I am still not sure if it is technically “found footage” as it is live-streamed, so never really lost) following the internet celebs as things go bad. It’s the perfect partner to Deadstream (2022) and explores similar themes to that and Mean Spirited (2022).

This does mean that CGtA is nothing really new in this sub-genre of found footage; there can really only be so many haunted houses left to explore, surely? However, it is presented with a self-aware, tongue-in-cheek attitude that lets it get away with being slightly unoriginal.

Chad Gets The Axe (2022)
Chad Gets The Axe (2022)

The film delves into the concept of internet celebrity and how fame can be so easily won and lost online. Steve finds his popularity rising rapidly as they explore the house, but it plummets even faster when he does something out of character and which his viewers don’t like. The ultimate aim is views and as the night gets spookier, so the views race up, hitting the 1m mark as the internet watches their heroes disappear in front of their eyes. Nut, even as things go bad, the streamers are more concerned with their figures than their own safety. This means we are not so surprised when they don’t turn tail and run as soon as the bad stuff begins – this might seem like a stupid decision to any sane human, but to these internet celebs, the views outweigh the risks!

The fickle nature of fame is quickly highlighted to Chad and his friends as their viewers turn on them, hoping to see them die rather than escape. It’s like Romans watching combat at the colosseum baying for blood. It’s not entirely clear in this case whether it is bloodlust or denial over what they can see with their own eyes, but it is a nice, if not subtle, satirical look at internet celebrity.

A lot of this plays out through viewer’s comments that are scrolling on screen pretty much all the way through the movie. At first, I found this a little distracting but, after a while, I settled into it and got used to watching and reading! Other films like Deadstream also employ this trick, but it felt a little more integral to the plot in CGtA so it is worth reading to see just how things turn against the streamers. You will also get a few decent little jokes and nods to other films and shows.

The movie asks the age-old question of what would you do in this situation? Would you watch people die, or would you try and help? Like the “boy who cried wolf” Chad’s reputation is a barrier to him getting taken seriously by the cops when he needs help, and he has to resort to his viewers for assistance. It’s a reality check when most of them don’t want to and would rather see him die on screen. Even when two fans do drive out to help him, it is not the salvation he hopes for, but another wry look at the dangers of internet celebrity. This brief sequence is an interesting one as it also gives Chad a potential redemption arc as he meets his fans and realises what sort of people he is preaching to and attracting with his obnoxious internet personality; he is not impressed. Chad could have possibly been saved personality-wise if not for his soul already being damned.

Chad Gets The Axe (2022)
Chad Gets The Axe (2022)

The characters here are perfect, the whole cast doing a great job of portraying the annoying, self-absorbed internet stars obsessed with their popularity online. It could be veering close to stereotype, but they are all believable. The writing is snappy, and the direction clips the film along at a great pace with no wasted scenes. It was disappointing that the majority of kills happen largely offscreen, but I suspect that may have been budget related.

Chad gets the Axe is a fun swipe at social media popularity and the toxicity of the internet, with a modern-day satanic cult thrown in for good measure. While it is not overly scary and there is minimal gore, there are a couple of good jump scares, and the story is fun enough to keep you guessing until the end. Yes, the characters are annoying, but that is the whole point, that is what gets you watching to the end and becoming as much a voyeur as the imaginary viewers watching the livestream. It’s something that has been done before, so there are minimal surprises, but it is put together well enough to counter that, and it is definitely worth a view. Much like Chad, CGtA knows what its audience wants and plays its part very well.

Chad Gets the Axe is coming to digital and on-demand from 1st September.

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Author

  • Jim Mcleod

    Jim "The Don" Mcleod has been reading horror for over 35 years, and reviewing horror for over 16 years. When he is not spending his time promoting the horror genre, he is either annoying his family or mucking about with his two dogs Casper and Molly.

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