Villisca

Released Jan 20, 2017

1h 18m

Horror

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List

14%

7 Reviews

Tomatometer

14%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

On a June night in 1912, eight people -- a mother, father, their four children, and two guests -- were murdered by an axe-wielding killer in the sleepy town of Villisca, Iowa, a case that remains unsolved to this day. More than a century later, Caleb and Denny, two friends who share an interest in ghost hunting, along with Jess -- the new girl in school who already has a reputation -- sneak into the house where the infamous bloodbath occurred in hopes of recording paranormal activity.

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Premiered Jul 27

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Sara Michelle Fetters

MovieFreak.com

The Axe Murders of Villisca never comes alive, and as such no matter how much potential as a filmmaker I think Valenzuela might possess, watching this film proves to be nothing more than a serious waste of time.

Rated: 1.5/4

Mar 16, 2017

Full Review

Frank Scheck

Hollywood Reporter

Devolves into typical teen-oriented, supernatural horror.

Jan 25, 2017

Full Review

Noel Murray

Los Angeles Times

"The Axe Murders of Villisca" never really comes to much, perhaps because its focus is too diffuse. The scares are low, and the plot under-baked.

Jan 19, 2017

Full Review

Damond Fudge

KCCI (Des Moines, IA)

The Axe Murders of Villisca has little to do with the actual axe murders of Villisca...It's more interested in being a standard haunted house tale than a study of a tragic small town horror.

Jul 17, 2020

Full Review

Emilie Black

Cinema Crazed

The film is decently acted and entertaining, but not exactly reinventing the haunted house wheel or even using that fact to its best potential result ...

Rated: 2.5/5

Apr 18, 2020

Full Review

Matt Donato

We Got This Covered

The Axe Murders Of Villisca is too familiar a haunted house story to be anything more than generic.

Rated: 4/10

Jan 22, 2017

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Audience Member

I don’t ever turn off a movie once I start it because anything can be entertaining even if it’s bad. But this movie was just bad. A standard possession from a haunted house story.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/09/21

Full Review

Audience Member

You don't even have to research the original Villisca case, to know how this movie basically has little to NOTHING to do with the actual murder story. Why? Because this movie is literally your typical teen slasher flick BS you've seen MANY times before. So it's as predictable, corny, and cliche as they come. The worst parts are definitely the laughably boring dialogue, bland characters, and bad acting. In a more interesting move, they actually decided to have a jock-like character be the paranormal fanatic (with a matching spooky ringtone too) instead of the new girl that looks borderline goth, but even that's giving the movie too much praise. This was just downright awful from IFC, who normally give you WATCHABLE horror films, even if they're crap. I wouldn't even recommend this if you wanted to kill time, unless you enjoy torturing yourself.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It's better than I expected, considering some of the others reviews. It's shot well, and the lead actors did a good job. It's not some stupid paranormal shot on video point of view. The special effects are average, or less, for a low budget film. But, the editing and layering are creative. The first 30 minutes are a longer introduction to the story and the characters, rather than just jumping right into endless running, screaming, and horror sequences. The last 45 minutes are interesting, unusual, and not so straight forward, which I liked. The back stories are also ok. Yes, the actors are young adults, not college age, let alone high school age, but that's typical. And the ending is not entirely unexpected. If you're looking for real horror, there were no jump scares, let alone real scares. But, all in all it was alright.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Gave up after watching halfway. Felt it was a waste of time

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This movie puts the "horror" in HORRIBLE! Worst mobie I've seen in ages and a total waste of my time. Could have been way scarier but the storyline was all over the place, the theatrics were tacky/cheesy, and the ending was Vado vague yet doesn't even make me wonder what happens.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Terrible, makes no sense and it was a complete waste of my time.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

11/20/17

Full Review

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Tony E. Valenzuela

Director

Robert Adamson

Caleb

Jarrett Sleeper

Denny

Alex Frnka

Jess

Riley Bodenstab

Connor

Kellan Rhude

Rob

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The Axe Murders of Villisca: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

On a June night in 1912, eight people -- a mother, father, their four children, and two guests -- were murdered by an axe-wielding killer in the sleepy town of Villisca, Iowa, a case that remains unsolved to this day. More than a century later, Caleb and Denny, two friends who share an interest in ghost hunting, along with Jess -- the new girl in school who already has a reputation -- sneak into the house where the infamous bloodbath occurred in hopes of recording paranormal activity.

Director: Tony E. Valenzuela
Producer: Kevin Abrams, Cindy Cowan, Jamie Denenberg, Patrick Weir
Screenwriter: Owen Egerton
Distributor: IFC Films
Production Co: Ketchum Labs, IFC Films
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 20, 2017, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 6, 2017
Runtime: 1h 18m

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