Thirty Years Ago, So I Married an Axe Murderer Foretold Mike Myers’ Cinematic Oeuvre

“Harriet, sweet Harriet…

Can you be-lieve, 

time goes so fast,

this movie is now thir-tea…” 

If your brain jukebox just conjured a jazzy accompaniment to that poem, then you’re an honorary member of the Roads Appreciation Club, a.k.a. those who still hold a warm place in their hearts for the ridiculous Mike Myers rom-com So I Married an Axe Murderer. Three decades ago, it opened in theaters on July 30 and promptly became a box office flop. It wasn’t until home video and cable airings that the movie found its tribe of goofballs who can hurl, “There’s a piper down!” or “Hellooooooo” at each other and instantly understand.

Looking back at So I Married an Axe Murderer today, it stands out for being directed by frequent Aaron Sorkin collaborator Thomas Schlamme; for its a killer cappuccino oner; for its an earworm soundtrack anchored by The La’s “There She Goes;” and for its random rogues gallery of comedian cameos, from a prescient Michael Richards bit to Steven Wright as a narcoleptic pilot. But what really pops about the movie now is that it plays like a workshop for Mike Myers’ ideas to come. 

For context, Axe Murderer was Myers’ follow-up to the massive hit Wayne’s World, which was based on his Saturday Night Live sketch. That film put Myers’ cache on the rise, which put more pressure on Axe Murderer to keep up the momentum. The screenplay wasn’t a Myers original, and evolved over time into the wacky story of San Francisco poet and commitment-phobe Charlie MacKenzie who is fearful that his fiancée Harriet Michaels (Nancy Travis) is actually a serial killer known as Mrs. X. By all accounts, there was a lot of tinkering and tension on the set during its making. Myers punched up the shooting script with his buddy Neil Mullarkey, and improved it heavily during the production. The final film has got his voice all over it, including the seeds of his future bits and characters to come. 

Ya Right Bastard!

Let Myers have a Scottish character and rest assured, he’ll run with it. Outside of Myers’ sketch work, Axe Murderer’s angry dad Stuart McKenzie (Myers) is the precursor for what the comedian did vocally with the Austin Powers villain Fat Bastard and then with the Shrek character throughout that franchise. Arguably, Stuart remains Myers’ best Scot character because he’s based on Mike’s own father, so there’s a warmth that shines through. Plus, Stuart’s brutal takedowns of ​​his son, William “Heed” MacKenzie (Matt Doherty), remain some of Myers’ funniest improvs committed to film.

Evil, You Say?

There are little drops of the Austin Powers franchise sprinkled throughout Axe Murderer, from Charlie’s style of flirting with Harriet to a Dr. Evil cackle that erupts from him while he’s taking a bath. Stuart also tries to explain to Tony (Anthony LaPaglia) the Rothschilds-backed organization of secret evil leaders known as The Pentaverate. It has all the hallmarks of Dr. Evil’s secret organization in the Austin Powers films. Even weirder is that Myers actually made a 2022 Netflix series about The Pentaverate. About that we’ll just say, Stuart’s take on it was funnier. 

Who Is That Masked Man?

From Axe Murderer forward, Myers embraced playing multiple roles in almost all of his projects. Clearly unafraid of spirit gum or wigs, Myers actually does a great job as Stuart and Charlie. The tech is a little basic when portraying them in the same room throughout Axe Murderer, but the back and forth between father and son is a solid comedic dynamic and proof of concept for how far Myers will take it in the future. He gets a bit too Method with it by The Gong Show series, where Myers fully commits to embodying host Tommy Maitland as if he is Maitland. With Goldmember and then The Pentaverate, Myers pushed beyond the boundaries of what he should do in one project. In the former, he plays Austin Powers / Dr. Evil / Fat Bastard and Goldmember. In the latter, he plays eight different characters. We can’t say that excess broke the Austin Powers franchise, but it certainly didn’t help it. But The Pentaverate absolutely beat that comedy technique on the head forever. He should have looked back at the Stuart / Charlie duality for its lean, tight use of his talents. Of all his projects, it remains one of the best examples of Myers doing it for the right reasons.

Aside from the big examples cited, Axe Murderer also features a plethora of other Myers signature comedic moves, like showing his naked ass for fun. Name a movie where we haven’t seen Myers’ ass—it’s certainly the outlier in his career. His appreciation for a musical montage with a string of visual jokes is also highlighted in So I Married an Axe Murderer, such as Charlie and Harriet’s romp in the butcher shop as they assault a lot of raw meat in questionable ways. We also get to appreciate his particular flair for physical comedy, like the scene where all the contents of Harriet’s closet fall on his head. Most of those moves are honed and carry through to what Myers does in his Austin Powers movies, The Love Guru and The Pentaverate. Aside from the first Powers, it’s not a big swing to say Myers does most of it better in So I Married an Axe Murderer. And so we say, order up an abnormally large cappuccino, brush up on your ‘90s pop music and get reacquainted with the Myers film that cast an unexpectedly long shadow.

Tara Bennett is a Los Angeles-based writer covering film, television and pop culture for publications such as SFX Magazine, Total Film, SYFY Wire and more. She’s also written books on Sons of Anarchy, Outlander, Fringe, The Story of Marvel Studios and The Art of Avatar: The Way of Water. You can follow her on Twitter @TaraDBennett or Instagram @TaraDBen