Review of Hatchet II (2010) by Mike M — 21 Feb 2011

Director Adam Green is starting make a name for himself within the horror genre; the original hatchet film received plenty of praise, as did his excellent survival horror film Frozen. This film is the sequel to Hatchet that, despite getting an NC-17 rating, still managed to get itself a minor cinema release. It's just a pity that it doesn't quite live up to the fun of the original.

Picking up from exactly where the first one finished, Hatchet 2 continues with the story of axe wielding deformed manic Victor Crowley and his terrorising of a Louisiana swamp. Mary Beth is the only surviving member of a tour group that entered the swamp, although she was looking for her lost brother and father. After talking with reverend Zombie, it seems as if her father was involved in the death of Crowley and the reason behind his rampage of the swamp. Zombie puts together a group of hunters to kill Crowley but of course he has an ulterior motive for doing so.

There is no doubting that this sequel is still fun and a nice throwback to the cheesy slasher films of the 80's, it just doesn't quite live up the original due to one reason in particular; there just isn't enough of Victor Crowley. Green has put more effort into creating a back story for the character and it is very well done, the only problem is that it takes up far too much of the films running time and almost feels as if it's filler to pad out the films length. Once the horror action gets going then it is great fun as Crowley hacks his way through the hunters in gory fashion with some great practical effects, imaginative kills and buckets of blood. It's clear Green has a love for the slasher genre and knows how to make a fun film with nice throwbacks to the 80's classics. There is a nice mix of characters with plenty of laughs with Tony Todd's reverend Zombie being the standout. If more of the running time was devoted to the horror action segment than creating a back story for Crowley then this could have been excellent.

Not as good as the original due to too much story and not enough Crowley, it's still a fun film and great gory fun when it gets going. The back story is good and there is plenty to be admired about the film, it's still a little disappointing as it had the potential to be a lot better than it turned out to be.