hatchet

Starring: Joel David Moore, Tamara Feldman, Mercedes McNabb, Deon Richmond, Perry Shen, Joel Murray

Synopsis:

After being dumped by his long term girlfriend, college student Ben (Moore) is taken to Mardi Gras by his friends, including best mate Marcus (Richmond). Fed up with the constant barrage of naked flesh which only serves to remind him of his ex, Ben convinces Marcus to join him on a midnight ghost cruise in the Louisiana swamps. The join a motley bunch of tourists and their inexperienced tour guide, Shawn, who manages to crash their boat, causing them to all abandon it in the middle of the swamp. Soon they realise they have stumbled into the legend of Victor Crowley, a disfigured homicidal maniac who kills anyone who trespasses on his swamp...

Adam Green’s Hatchet got a pretty big reputation thanks to the Over The Top gruesome gore fx, and that reputation/notoriety is well founded. When the killings start, this is a true gorefest which will have Japanese gore fans wincing.

So from the gore and guts side of things, this film was exactly what I was expecting. There are some really nasty moments in here, made even more lurid by the fact that they take time. In most horror films, the kill-shot would be relatively quick, a gory jolt before cutting away. Here, the kills just keep going on and on. When Crowley kills the first of the tourists, burying his hatchet into the guy’s shoulder – he just keeps chopping away, and away, and away, all the while his victim is screaming until finally dying from a mix of bodily injury, blood loss and intense pain. Subtle, this film isn’t!

Hatchet isn’t just a one-note gorefest though. It is also very, very funny, which great interaction between it’s characters.Take for example, the wonderful double act Ben and Marcus. They have a real good banter and generate a lot of humour together. Then there is sleazy adult film-maker Doug Shapiro (Joel Murray) and his two wannabe starlets, Misty and Jenna (Mercedes McNabb and Joleigh Fioreavanti). Misty and Jenna are being paid to “act” in one of his reality porn series episodes, but off camera they can’t stand each other. Mercedes McNabb (Harmony from Angel, and also starred in XII) does an excellent job in making Misty the most air-headed bimbo in history.

The one real weak link in all of this is the makeup design for Victor Crowley himself, which is too fake looking to be truly grotesque. There is a nice flash-back sequence which allows Victor a certain amount of sympathy – if it weren’t for the gratuitous killing. There’s an attempt to mythologize Victor, but it is a throwaway line which doesn’t take. Kane Hodder, the original Jason Voohees, does play Victor with gusto – a massive hulking psycho who’s quite inventive at ripping people apart. I was surprised that Adam Green was able to keep his love of horror movies in check – unlike Neil Marshall for example, he doesn’t weigh down his film with visual references to other horror movies, or give the audience knowing winks. Instead, he includes three actors who have all played iconic horror roles.

Verdict

The hardcore gory kills will make this an acquired taste, but if you can get past that Hatchet is a very witty and funny film at heart, and a serious love-letter to the 80’s slashers.

7 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)