Axmo Deus

Web series’ are often a strange concoction of the internet’s most basic ideas mixed with some of its most creative artists. ‘Axmo Deus’ exemplifies this completely, attempting to mix ‘new horror’ with surface-level ideas and messages, resulting in a disappointing, and ultimately weary, experience.

At some stage in the 2010s, perhaps formally beginning with ‘It Follows’, horror films once more became the genre that, alongside superheroes, garnered the most attention from both general audiences and critics. It was an incredible decade for horror films - ‘Us’, ‘Hereditary’ ‘Get Out’, ‘The Witch’, ‘A Quiet Place’, ‘It’, ‘Don’t Breathe’, ‘It Comes At Night’, ‘Doctor Sleep’ - and that’s without mentioning juggernauts like ‘The Conjuring’ and ‘Halloween’. With that trend set to continue with Ti West’s ‘X’ thriving, it therefore comes as no surprise that an increasing amount of aspiring filmmakers are turning to horror to get a footing in the industry.

‘Axmo Deus’ picks up on the flaws inherent in many ‘new horror’ films - an overemphasis on exploiting a political message, without adding any depth to the argument - and blends it with the overemphasis on blood, gore and jump scares which epitomised the largely lacklustre horror films of the 90s and 00s. In many ways ‘Axmo Deus’ is an early warning of what the horror genre will likely become in five to ten years’ time, as the pendulum will once again flip, as it always does, towards trashy horror flicks, as another genre enjoys a period in the limelight.

The biggest issue with ‘Axmo Deus’ is that it feigns to have an important message, especially in early episodes, but lacks the time (each episode clocks in at just one minute) to explore it, and so deviates into an excess of violence. As each episode moves to the next at a breakneck pace - the credits are literally playing at 2x speed - and each episode is completely disconnected to the previous one, there isn’t enough time to care in each scenario. The rapid pace of each story is also numbing, nullifying any shock from its jump scares as we are often confronted with an overly loud shouting match and an ensuing bloody outburst.

Each episode is well-directed and the production value appears to be high, especially given the presumably low budget, but that doesn’t prevent the stench of a project created only to generate clicks and likes permeating through the piece. It becomes overbearing after two episodes, and long outstays it’s welcome, so that by the time the shackles are loosened a little, and it allows itself to sometimes drop the messaging, we simply do not care. It alienates its viewer, and will not be appreciated in any format other than a TikTok clip.

This is a web series made for the TikTok generation, so mind-numbingly fast that they can consume an episode before swiping to the next clip. It’ll convince many users that they’ve witnessed a cinematic masterpiece, condensed and tailor-made to themselves, when in reality ‘Axmo Deus’ is a reflection of the sad state of cinema. If clips last one minute and tell no story, but are lauded for being artsy and powerful, become the means through which people, especially young people, view cinema then long-form, character-driven stories, which take time to build up suspense, will die.