Last month, we learned that IFC Midnight had picked up the North American distribution rights to director Tony E. Valenzuela's THE AXE MURDERS OF VILLISCA, a supernatural horror film that draws inspiration from a true crime case – the murder of eight people by an axe-wielding intruder on the night of June 9, 1912.
The distributor has now announced that they will be releasing the film in theatres and on VOD on January 20th, 2017. To promote the impending release, they have also unveiled a poster and trailer, both of which can be seen below.
Valenzuela came up for the story of THE AXE MURDERS OF VILLISCA with Kevin Abrams. Owen Egerton then fleshed out their ideas into the screenplay.
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.
104 Years later, Caleb (Robert Adamson) and Denny (Jarrett Sleeper), two friends who share an interest in ghost hunting, along with Jess (Alex Frnka), the new girl in school who’s already got a reputation, sneak into the house where the infamous bloodbath occurred in hopes of recording paranormal activity. What the trio encounters is far more horrifying than anything they could have imagined…
A century after the shocking crime that put Villisca on the map, a supernatural force is waiting to write the next chapter in the home’s bloody history.
In addition to the actors mentioned in the synopsis, the film also stars Jon Gries and Conchata Ferrell.
While the facts of the 1912 murders are much scarier to me than the idea of a supernatural force being involved, it does look like this has the potential to be an entertaining movie. We'll find out if it is in less than a month!
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