Review of Hatchet (2006) by Jeffrey G — 01 Jan 2011

HATCHET is an outrageously gory and semi-serious, semi-silly slasher throwback to their heyday in the 1980's. Kane Hodder, the Jason from the Part VI to Part IX in the Friday the 13th franchise, plays the super-brute hatchet-wielder Victor Crowley. And while his character may be cut out of the same cloth as the slasher icons of the 1980's (except for Freddy), his incentive for inventive kills and his back story reminiscent of Theodore Taylor's "The Wierdo" makes Crowley an intriguing slasher villain.

Director Adam Green's low-budget debut is playful in the sense that the script is actually well-thought out and not straight-up mindless and painfully stereotypical towards its characters. Sure, there are requisite character staples that one can pick up on in HATCHET: the loud and helpless ladies who aren't team players, the obnoxious friend, the smart yet awkward protagonist, a reserved lady with a secret, and quite a few more with various traits. Come to think of it, all of the characters are literally caricatures of many character types in retro and recent slashers. Yet that's where HATCHET's script excels: in exploiting those caricatures with smart dialogue and crude humor to go along with it.

Joel David Moore, a brief cameo from Robert Englund, and Danielle Harris are the main actors. They do Adam Green's requisite slasher characters well, by taking the material seriously enough to keep the audience focused. The acting is in no way ship-shod or lazy, it's only focused and slightly campy.

Adam Green's special effects team have crafted some truly unique kills out of the script's characters. They're better left seen than mentioned, since the surprise of seeing them in action would be tainted. Not to mention they're outrageously gory.

The tone of HATCHET is semi-serious and semi-silly. The one-liners the staple characters get to say quite often range from amusing to pretty funny. When Victor Crowley's back story is brought up, the tone turns semi-serious and then stays that away until each kill happens. When the kills happen the level of outrageousness each achieves, in their own gross way, hilarity.

Know this when you see HATCHET: this film knows how to amuse, scare and gross you out on its amusing, gory slasher movie terms (sometimes all at once). Adam Green is a talented director and writer, no question, as one can tell from his debut here and also in FROZEN (that is a bona-fide terrifying what-if scenario survival film). His special effects team have come up with some truly unique kills here, and his characters are character staples that have smart dialogue and crude humor for the competent actors to say. This film is best enjoyed with a group of people who enjoy slasher films from the 1980's and outrageous gore reminiscent of Peter Jackson's early-on gorefests. Be ready for more Critiques and Opinions on Every Movie I Can Get My Hands On!