Hatchet

As with any horror movie of this particular genre, this movie is bad. It's interesting watching this, and the Halloween remake so close together. Though they're both horror/slasher flicks, they're incredibly different. Halloween seemed to involve characters as opposed to just victims (at least until the series went entirely south) whereas Hatchet follows in the tradition of the Friday the 13th franchise of letting an apparently immortal half-man on a slew of prey. This may be obvious simply from the appearances of Kane Hodder (who played Jason in the Friday the 13ths), Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), and Tony Todd (The Candyman). Hatchet seems to be nothing more than a loving throwback to these eighties horror icons.

Ben (Joel Moore) and Marcus (Deon Richmond) decide to take a break from Mardi Gras partying, and venture out on a haunted bayou tour, with a group of others functioning solely as bodies for Victor Crowly (Hodder) to tear limb from limb. That is except for Marybeth (Tamra Feldman) who is our heroine. Anyway, their tour boat breaks down and they all have to trek back through the swamp bypassing this killer- unsuccessfully of course.

There's a trend that started in the nineties, and has progressed ever since. Horror movies tend to favor slashers, with the killers targeting young coeds with various devastating weapons. Hatchet, instead, takes its cue from the aforementioned eighties slashers with these beastly people killing anything that moves with nothing more than their brute strength. These horror characters literally tear people apart, resulting in almost cartoony deaths that are more reminiscent of Evil Dead era Peter Jackson than of any other horror movie today.

Unlike most modern horror movies, Hatchet doesn't try to be actually scary. It pulls no punches, and leaves no details absent from the screen. Instead of trying to frighten the audience, director Adam Green wants us to respond with the same maniacal laughter he probably had while shooting it. I know these differences may not sound like they matter, or make sense. If they don't to you, you're probably not a fan of horror movies anyway, and you'll hate this one. If you do like the genre, this may actually sell you on it.

A movie that's bad, is still a bad movie. Just because it's fun, and it's campy, doesn't mean it's good. Like many movies I review, if you like horror, you'll enjoy this; if you don't...well...you probably haven't gotten this far into the review. This movie was clearly made by people who love horror movies for people who love horror movies. Regardless, I think that Victor Crowly may very well be joining the ranks of Jason Vorhees and Michael Meyers in the realm of horror legend.

2.5/5