Horror Theater Video hatchet film review

When a group of tourists on a New Orleans haunted swamp tour find themselves stranded in the wilderness, their evening of fun and spooks turns into a horrific nightmare.

Just like every horror fan who had heard about this great film "Hatchet" that had been filmed and was winning award after award at numerous film festivals, and after seeing the deliriously wonderful trailers for the film, all of which were posted on our web site, it was on the top of our "can't wait to see" list for 2007.

I am going to be in the minority with this review. In a nutshell, I find "Hatchet" to be the biggest disappointment thus far in 2007.

Director Green calls the film an homage to 80's slasher films, a tribute to the Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees etc of the 80's. A blood-soaked fun ride back to the days when slasher movies ruled the multi-plexes. Since Director Green was born in 1975 (in my home state of Massachusetts no less), he wouldn't have been 16 years old, the age when minors could go to "R" movies, until the year 1991. So his homage to the genre, for him, had to come via the video tape era. Watching "Hatchet" is like viewing almost everything that was wrong with the genre during the 80's. Those of us who actually were old enough to go to the movies and view these materials in the 80's will remember that slasher films did not rule the movie houses. Most of the main stream films released were junk (Friday the 13th Part whatever), and the best slashers, and by the best I am referring to those that here in the 21st century you can pick up almost anywhere, were then delegated to midnight matinees and the dying breed that was the Drive-In theater.

If you grew up then, do you remember any of these now classic films having a wide release: The Burning? It received an "X" rating from the MPAA and never was released widely. The Prowler? Maniac? Both the same, both released with "X" ratings to limited releases. There were, however, a few minor classics that received decent bookings, like "My Bloody Valentine" and "Curtains". There were also some films that were very well done, but were not backed by their studios and received limited releasing, like the film "Popcorn" (still love the tag-line "buy a bag, go home in a box").

"Hatchet" replaces the typical brainless teenagers that usually populate these films with brainless adults who, with the exception of the character played by Tamara Feldman, you don't give a damn about. I was rooting for Victor Crowley to end my misery of watching these terribly written characters that kept rambling off brainless dialog. Then of course we don't get to Victor Crowley till about the 45 minute mark of the film, not counting the incredibly hard to watch opening with Robert Englund, what was he thinking?

The one thing "Hatchet" does have going for it, the blood and gore, both gloriously flowing, and especially when it's this batch of mindless characters being knocked off. But the worst is still to come my friends, the ending. I think Director Green, who also wrote this film, forgot to write one. I have read in the trades why he ended it the way he did, but not everything that looks good on paper, looks good on screen. Some one must have watched the dailies during filming and thought "Ummmm I don't think so".

My Rating:

REVIEWED BY TONY BERNARDINI