![[Short Film Review] CHAD GETS THE AXE](https://i0.wp.com/www.nightmarishconjurings.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/chadgetstheaxe_1.jpg?resize=640%2C373&ssl=1)
The director of CHAD GETS THE AXE wrote a clever and bloody satire about offensive YouTube stars. Spencer Harrison Levin plays Chad as one of the most annoying influencers ever but he finds himself in trouble when he films the inside of a murder shack in the middle of nowhere. When he gets his comeuppance, it’s hard not to cheer though it’s gruesome — and no one deserves that.
CHAD GETS THE AXE uses the horror genre for sharp social commentary much like Get Out and 2000’s Ginger Snaps, but in eight minutes, which isn’t easy. Social media gives and takes. There’s good and bad. There are people on YouTube posting yoga or food videos that are helpful and then there are racist gamers like PewDiePie. I’ve never watched his content because I’m not a gamer and only heard of him when he made the news for using the N-word.
But there are others who are just as obnoxious and hateful. For instance, YouTube star Logan Paul (which the short is clearly parodying), a dope with Duncan Hines cake hair, who filmed a dead body he found in Japan’s Aokigahara forest. The Aokigarhara forest is known as the ‘suicide spot’ in Japan and it is rumored to be haunted with bodies, yet to be discovered.
Although the video was removed and Paul apologized, his channel remains on YouTube and he’s as popular as ever, clocking in with over 20 million subscribers. The subtext of CHAD GETS THE AXE is that in an ideal world some YouTube stars would be canceled as in ‘get the ax.’
Of course, you don’t have to watch their content and let that corner of the Internet fester on its own. Or you can make fun of it and expose it. There’s no law against being a douche but hate group language and trolling are another story. Isn’t there a reason why Germany has laws now against racist propaganda and Anti-semitic language? Perhaps they learned it’s unwise to give bigots and hatemongers a platform.
CHAD GETS THE AXE was an official Selection for ScreamFest, Austin Film Festival and Short of the Week.
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