PopHorror Let's Get Scared
When the dark comedy So I Married an Axe Murderer was released on July 30th, 1993, Mike Myers was emerging onto the comedy scene hot off the success of 1992’s Wayne’s World. Wayne’s World was based on one of the many hilarious and original characters Myers brought to life while he was a cast member on Saturday Night Live.
Myers, a Canadian-born actor, helped writer Robbie Fox edit his original screenplay of So I Married an Axe Murderer to fit his own comedic stylings, but also to incorporate serious acting skills. The script was edited extensively by Mike Myers and his writer friend Neil Mullarkey. However, Robbie Fox, who had originally written the screenplay in 1987, received sole writing credits.
In So I Married an Axe murderer, Charlie Mackenzie (Mike Myers – Wayne’s World 1992, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery 1997) is freshly out of one of his numerous easy-come-easy-go relationships. Armed with his original beat poetry and phobia of commitment, he meets a butcher named Harriet Michaels (Nancy Travis – The Vanishing 1993) and can’t help but feel this one is different.
Charlie’s mother hilariously introduces him to an article she’s read in ‘the paper’ about an unidentified woman on the run from having murdered her many husbands. Charlie first dismisses the article in the Weekly World News as fluff, but soon comes to suspect Harriet as the killer. Charlie is terrified and shortly after the pair break up. However, determined to overcome his fears of commitment, and fueled by his love for Harriet, he begs her forgiveness and proposes. But was Charlie wrong to try and win her back? Had they reached that all too critical “do you know the lyrics to ‘only you‘ part of their relationship?”
So I Married an Axe Murderer is a timeless comedy that is still as hilarious and quotable today as it was in 1993. Characters like Charlie’s thick Scottish-accented father, Stuart (also played beautifully by Myers), and Charlie’s Serpico-inspired best friend Tony (Anthony LaPaglia – Empire Records 1995), as well as cameos by legendary comedians such as Phil Hartman, Michael Richards, and Charles Grodin, help earn So I Married an Axe Murderer its cult status as, in my personal opinion, one of the funniest movies to come out of the 1990s.
If So I Married an Axe Murderer isn’t a staple on your shelf, or in your online library, run don’t walk to change that. I guarantee you’ll be laughing along when Stuart Mackenzie gives young ‘Heed’ a hard time about the size of his melon, when Phil Hartman as John “Vicky” Johnson describes in detail some of the dark events that took place in Alcatraz, and when Mike Myers tenses up as Harriet sticks a finger in his ear one night in bed. I think I’ll be able to say the same thing, even 30 years from now!
Watch the hilarious trailer below:
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