Ask yourselves what movies got you into horror. For me, I'd have to say old style slasher films such as Nightmare on Elm Street, Sleepaway Camp, Friday the 13th, Halloween etc. Younger people may have grown up on films like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, or Jeepers Creepers. Nothing can top the classics, but there's something about an old school style slasher that really gets me excited and makes so many of us reminisce about our first experiences with horror, the "classic" kind of film that so many of us think of when we envision a horror film.
That brings me to Hatchet (2006). This film had a lot of hype, and had a roster boasting cameos from Robert Englund as well as Kane Hodder playing the crazed killer. The film also has the tagline "old school American horror", which could be great for profit but it can also be a tough thing to live up to. Face it, there have been TONS of mediocre to poor slasher flicks over the year, its been a while since we've had a diamond in the rough. Off the top of my head, Scream was probably the last slasher flick to really gain a huge following and help to revive the dying genre back in the late 90's. 2009 saw My Bloody Valentine, which I haven't seen but has got modest reviews. Then there's what, a slew of crappy remakes? The Rise of Leslie Vernon was pretty good, as well as Trick r' Treat. But I don't think we will ever see another horror icon like Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees for a while. The slasher genre has been dull, and a lot of more modern films have been steering away from the typical slasher storyline to go towards a more extreme, new wave of horror. Look at Saw or Hostel, mainstream and kinda eh for most of our standards, but for a broad audience those films were very different and pushing the art of horror to a new level of grotesque that made many very uncomfortable. Films like The Human Centipede, Grotesque or even A Serbian Film, in my opinion, seem to be the way the new horror generation is pushing. And I'm not complaining there. But still, there are times I yearn for the innocence of some old school horror. Films where I don't have to sit there mentally preparing myself for forced-excretement ingesting, newborn porn, or any other wild "Hmm, what can we do to disgust this ever evolving, desensitized, sick minded audience this time?" tactics. Sometimes I just want some good old fashioned gore. And thats precisely why I enjoyed Hatchet.
We start out with two rednecks hunting for alligators on a spooky swamp at night. To keep it short and sweet, they die. Wonder what could have happened to them eh? The story then follows a group of party loving guys living the life in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. One of the guys, Ben, is not having a good time because all he can think of is his girlfriend who recently left him. So him and another friend, the token black guy named Marcus, decide to go on a haunted swamp tour of the aforementioned swamp filled with huge crocs and killers. Lovely. They are also on this tour with the two hot half naked chicks, the old married couple who probably goes on a thousand of these tours a year and knows more than the tour guide, the pervy filmmaker who likes to make videos of the half naked chicks, and the mysterious quiet chick who probably knows more than anyone. The tour guide winds up crashing the boat and reveals that this is actually only his second tour and he isn't even from New Orleans. Now our gang is stranded in the swamp in the middle of the night. We learn from the mysterious chick who hardly speaks about the legend of Victor Crowley, a deformed boy who was accidentally killed by his father and now haunts the swamps. What ensues now is our gang trying to escape the swamp and the axe of Victor Crowley, but with little success.
The movie was funny. This was certainly intentional, and I appreciate the light hearted tone to the film. The film was a clear homage to the old slashers of the 80's, with its over-the-top characters and cliches. The one thing the film lacked was suspense. The character of Victor Crowley just popped up out of nowhere, often in rather comical ways (to me at least). But again, you can take this as either a good thing or a bad thing but I really don't think the film tried very hard to be serious or terrifying anyway. I like the fact that the film pointed out that the characters had no cell phone service and were isolated in a swamp, because how many times can you remember sitting there yelling at the TV screen because the characters are too damn dumb to call the police? The deaths were violent and extremely graphic, even if they were over the top silly. The character of Crowley himself was interesting and dare I say likable, mainly because he killed every last one of those annoying bitches. But thats exactly what you go in to a movie like this to see. You want to leave feeling warm and fuzzy with a big grin. If thats what you're looking to get out of a film, you won't be disappointed. Hatchet was a blast of fun, and almost certain to be enjoyed by any horror fan
4 OUT OF 5 STARS
**** out of *****
That brings me to Hatchet (2006). This film had a lot of hype, and had a roster boasting cameos from Robert Englund as well as Kane Hodder playing the crazed killer. The film also has the tagline "old school American horror", which could be great for profit but it can also be a tough thing to live up to. Face it, there have been TONS of mediocre to poor slasher flicks over the year, its been a while since we've had a diamond in the rough. Off the top of my head, Scream was probably the last slasher flick to really gain a huge following and help to revive the dying genre back in the late 90's. 2009 saw My Bloody Valentine, which I haven't seen but has got modest reviews. Then there's what, a slew of crappy remakes? The Rise of Leslie Vernon was pretty good, as well as Trick r' Treat. But I don't think we will ever see another horror icon like Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees for a while. The slasher genre has been dull, and a lot of more modern films have been steering away from the typical slasher storyline to go towards a more extreme, new wave of horror. Look at Saw or Hostel, mainstream and kinda eh for most of our standards, but for a broad audience those films were very different and pushing the art of horror to a new level of grotesque that made many very uncomfortable. Films like The Human Centipede, Grotesque or even A Serbian Film, in my opinion, seem to be the way the new horror generation is pushing. And I'm not complaining there. But still, there are times I yearn for the innocence of some old school horror. Films where I don't have to sit there mentally preparing myself for forced-excretement ingesting, newborn porn, or any other wild "Hmm, what can we do to disgust this ever evolving, desensitized, sick minded audience this time?" tactics. Sometimes I just want some good old fashioned gore. And thats precisely why I enjoyed Hatchet.
We start out with two rednecks hunting for alligators on a spooky swamp at night. To keep it short and sweet, they die. Wonder what could have happened to them eh? The story then follows a group of party loving guys living the life in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. One of the guys, Ben, is not having a good time because all he can think of is his girlfriend who recently left him. So him and another friend, the token black guy named Marcus, decide to go on a haunted swamp tour of the aforementioned swamp filled with huge crocs and killers. Lovely. They are also on this tour with the two hot half naked chicks, the old married couple who probably goes on a thousand of these tours a year and knows more than the tour guide, the pervy filmmaker who likes to make videos of the half naked chicks, and the mysterious quiet chick who probably knows more than anyone. The tour guide winds up crashing the boat and reveals that this is actually only his second tour and he isn't even from New Orleans. Now our gang is stranded in the swamp in the middle of the night. We learn from the mysterious chick who hardly speaks about the legend of Victor Crowley, a deformed boy who was accidentally killed by his father and now haunts the swamps. What ensues now is our gang trying to escape the swamp and the axe of Victor Crowley, but with little success.
The movie was funny. This was certainly intentional, and I appreciate the light hearted tone to the film. The film was a clear homage to the old slashers of the 80's, with its over-the-top characters and cliches. The one thing the film lacked was suspense. The character of Victor Crowley just popped up out of nowhere, often in rather comical ways (to me at least). But again, you can take this as either a good thing or a bad thing but I really don't think the film tried very hard to be serious or terrifying anyway. I like the fact that the film pointed out that the characters had no cell phone service and were isolated in a swamp, because how many times can you remember sitting there yelling at the TV screen because the characters are too damn dumb to call the police? The deaths were violent and extremely graphic, even if they were over the top silly. The character of Crowley himself was interesting and dare I say likable, mainly because he killed every last one of those annoying bitches. But thats exactly what you go in to a movie like this to see. You want to leave feeling warm and fuzzy with a big grin. If thats what you're looking to get out of a film, you won't be disappointed. Hatchet was a blast of fun, and almost certain to be enjoyed by any horror fan
4 OUT OF 5 STARS
**** out of *****