A young woman risks her group's safety in a forest to rescue her sister from a multi-dimensional world of monsters.
There is something to be said about supporting original stories. Especially when companies like Disney are acquiring so many different studios and increasingly focusing on existing intellectual properties (Toy Story 5 or Cars 4, anyone?), it gets harder every year for new ideas to get enough funding to be made. The Axiom is one of those cases that puts forward a highly engaging premise but doesn't quite nail the execution.
As close as comparisons can get, The Axiom is set up like an episode of Cabin in the Woods meets Stranger Things, with a side of Thir13en Ghosts. Playing heavily on the element of unreliable narrators, we have a stable of characters that are all either distracted by or under the influence of something. Marijuana, anxiety, prescription medication, it all comes into play in this environment where you cannot trust your own eyes and ears.
The set location is quite refreshing, with an area that is in a state of constant daylight (not dissimilar to Midsommar), but with a blue hue to the colour grading creating a supernatural atmosphere. While it is nice to have a horror that takes place in the day where you can actually see the details, it is an obvious double-edged sword in lower budget films because you can see all of the details that would otherwise be hidden in the shadows. There are some good practical and CGI effects on display with some nice creature designs, but you can definitely spot the CGI with ease, and with so much light in each scene, you can see the joins in the prosthetics, and the patches where the makeup is inconsistent.
Not all creatures are necessarily physical creatures, however, and rely a lot on the acting abilities of our cast. Taylor Flowers does an amazing job in his dual role, providing some stark contrasts that work brilliantly, making him the stand-out performance of the film. For the most part, the remainder of the cast's performances were satisfactory. William Kircher's Leon was a little overplayed, but the rest of the crew were adequate.
It is this world that contains gates other dimensions with unique sets of creatures that garners the most interest. It's an engaging concept and premise, but the execution could have been done better, Perhaps a few more drafts of the script could have yielded a more cohesive storyline which would have granted stronger direction for the cinematography. While there are some absolutely superb shots in the film, many scenes come across needlessly erratic, with several series of quick shots that render the action unwieldy to follow. The more original nature of the setup provided greater flexibility because the rules of the world have yet to be determined, but that potential was not fully utilised. It still keeps your interest because anything can happen, but the plot is far more convoluted than necessary.
The Axiom puts forward some new ideas and as Nicholas Woods feature-length directorial debut, the quality is surprisingly competent. It manages to hold your interest for the first two acts with ease but struggles to properly set up a narrative direction for the characters to follow. With the rate in which films get remade, I would love to see this world again with a better script and some higher quality special effects. As it stands, it's still a fun exploratory horror.