WFG RATING: B+

Breaking Glass Pictures presents a 7th Street Productions film. Written, produced, edited, and directed by Calvin Morie McCarthy. Cinematography by Calvin Morie McCarthy and Erik Skybak. 

Stars Airisa Durand, Jason Brooks, Charlie Dae, Steve Larkin, Daphne Kelly, Harper McCoy, and Chynna Rae Shurts.

The axe-wielding legend comes to life in the modern era in this tense horror film that is quite emotional and will please horror fans. 

Two months ago, two children disappeared after singing the story of Lizzie Borden. Dealing with the death of her parents, Emily finds solace in her friends as she plans to head to an isolated castle to spend a Friendsgiving. However, upon hearing the story of the disappearing children and what their mother recently had told police, she can’t help but wonder what happened. When one night, the group of friends gather, Emily and her boyfriend Kyle explain to British newcomer Rupert the story of Lizzie Borden. 

When they sing the famous song, they think it’s nothing. Soon enough, the group gets picked off one-by-one by the ghost of Lizzie Borden. Unleashing her axe, Lizzie unleashes all sorts of hell. However, Emily discovers there may be a way to stop the carnage. Who will be left and will Emily be able to stop the deadly Lizzie before she becomes the next one to be picked off?

If you don’t know the story of Lizzie Borden, then here’s the short short version. She was a woman in the late 19th Century who was accused of murdering her parents with an axe. The topic of movies and even a song from the likes of Flotsam and Jetsam, she is one of the most revered American horror legends. Filmmaker Calvin Morie McCarthy, who has lensed films like Pillow Party Massacre and even appeared in Jason Brooks’ great Death of Snow White wrote and directed this story that has the feel of the likes of Bloody Mary and Candyman. 

The film has a very conflicted protagonist in Emily, wonderfully played by Airisa Durand, who is trying to deal with the death of her parents and becomes more shocked and somewhat empathetic when it comes to hearing about the disappearing children (seen in the opening of the film). Her group of friends who are there for her including the aforementioned Jason Brooks as her boyfriend Kyle, Charlie Dae’s Shelby, Daphne Kelly as her cousin Lilly, and Steve Larkin’s Rupert, who is from the UK and so gets a little history about Lizzie Borden. 

Throughout the film, we get flashbacks of Lizzie Borden, excellently played with maniacal tendencies in the modern day scenes by Chynna Rae Shurts. In the flashbacks, we see Lizzie being lambasted by her father, a religious man and her disapproving mother. The level of abuse she endured would be enough to make her snap. When Lizzie unleashes the axe on our group of friends, she does it very differently for each person and methodically, including one particular kill where she proceeds to slice a victim’s face off with the axe. And if that’s not crazy enough, just wait until the final ten minutes because there is a very unexpected and shocking twist that comes out of nowhere…in a good way!

The Lizzie Borden Game is definitely a good horror film that takes the 19th Century legend and brings her to the modern era in a Bloody Mary/Candyman sort of way. Kudos to filmmaker Calvin Morie McCarthy for his story and direction, as well as the cast of characters who aren’t as one dimensional as most with these types of low-level horror films. 

The film will be released on Digital on August 1.