Well, I guess I’ve been a little too hard on this one…
Hatchet (2006)
Directed By: Adam Green (Spiral)
The Prologue
You know I don’t personally know Adam Green, but all signs point to him being a pretty OK dude. My main beef with the man wasn’t really his fault it was just I get soo soo sick of hearing everyone talk as if the man is the second coming of Jesus when he (in my opinion) has yet to make a film that even scores anything near an 8 out of 10 for me. Also, as I plan to point out in this review, the film here known as Hatchet, really comes off as a poor man’s Friday the 13th. I can’t even remember off-hand what I gave this film when I watched it for the Horrorphillia Podcast, so I watched this again to give it a fair shake, another chance so to speak. Did it impress me anymore this time around?..Well, some things did.
The Movie
A group of people on a swamp tour in New Orleans end up trapped between the alligator infested waters and the legend of Victor Crowley when their boat sinks. One of the passengers, Marybeth, is there looking for her father and brother who have been missing since going fishing there in that area. We also have some pretty interesting characters tossed up here with her, two of which being a guy named Ben who is here with his best friend Marcus. What follows is at times funny, at other times a bit silly, and above all else really bloody.
I’ll call a spade a spade and I will happily admit to each and every single one of you that this movie is, if nothing else, a lot of fun. And it’s fun comes not just from the gore, or from the cameos of horror legends (be it that Tony Todd’s part is hilarious). It comes from the fact that Ben and Marcus (played by Joel Moore and Deon Richmond respectively) have soo much chemistry together that at times they come off as if you were watching a buddy comedy! Be it the actors or be it the writing, I’m not sure, but these two just flow great together and in a setting that at times just seems too over the top or silly for it’s own good, they keep it grounded and realistic a bit.
But it’s in the plot and elements of this movie that I have my biggest problem, it’s a pretty clear rip of Friday the 13th. We have a deformed kid, that is now really grown up, that was thought to be dead doing the killing. We have Kane Hodder under the makeup playing the part. We have several kills that are right out of the Friday the 13th playbook. Hell, we even have the music and ending from part 1 of Friday the 13th to boot! Just remove the lake, add in a swamp, and BOOM! You got yourself Hatchet. It just so happens that with the killer in this movie they seemed to go with the love child of Jason and Madman Marz. So sure, it’s an “Old School American Horror” film, that’s because it “borrowed” a lot from other old school American horror films that came out before it. I could live with that if it just didn’t go so far as it does with taking the Friday the 13th elements. Just something more original in the way of the plot could have helped a lot.
That being said, it IS still kinda fun. It IS still really gory and I won’t lie to you, I looove that stuff. I also think Tamara Feldman does a GREAT job as Marybeth. Through all the silly stuff and the comedy, Marybeth, stays true to the cause, even if the cause is rather silly. I think she was a great “final girl” if you wish to call her that. If you don’t really care about anything else in this movie you’ll at least care about her. Sure, Ben and Marcus are people you care about as well and add in the “realistic” elements, but Marybeth is where the true heart of the film is. Which without Tamara Feldman back in the role in the sequel leads me to believe that part 2 may lack heart, something that if nothing else this film seems to have..even if it is ripping off Friday the 13th. Oh, and did I mention I love the gore??
The Conclusion
Well Mr. Adam Green, if you are reading this, I don’t hate your movie. I do wish you’d have went for a more original route than this one seems to take, but I won’t hold it against you..too much. Leaving ones brain at the door you could find a lot of fun in this movie. At the end of the day, while I don’t believe its “the greatest slasher movie of all time” like many other seem to do, I can appreciate it. I also really like the blood and the performance of a few actors, so with that in mind, I’ll recommend it.
The Rating (6.5/10)
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