Hatchet
Directed by Adam Green
USA 2006
PLOT
A group of young people, during a nighttime boat trip on a river in the swamps of Louisiana, learns about a famous local legend: Victor Crowley was a deformed child who was accidentally killed by his father with a hatchet to the face. His ghost now roams the swamp, condemned to kill anyone who crosses his path.
THOUGHTS
What lies behind a banal, stereotyped, and not at all innovative plot is a powerful and fast-paced slasher that has no pretensions other than to make you spend 90 amusing minutes drenched in buckets of blood. *Hatchet* has everything a killer monster movie should offer: it entertains, amuses, has the right pacing, the right characters, the perfect origin story for the killer, and visually leaves a mark. Indeed, Victor Crowley is yet another creature with whom you cannot empathize, but unlike his victims (a motley bunch of caricatures you can’t wait to see die), he’s not detestable.
Green crafts a modern horror film that completely relies on a monolithic villain in the style of Jason and Leatherface, who uses his hatchet to sever limbs and smash heads.
Splatter and gore are core elements of the film: the supporting characters are pure fodder, without any depth, and Green delivers them straight into Crowley’s clutches.
This is a film that doesn’t derive from nor seeks to sit alongside the giants of the genre, but rather is a pure love letter from the director to the 80s classics, both in atmosphere and narrative style.
Everything is pushed to the extreme with extremely violent deaths, wonderfully executed by the great special effects master John Carl Buechler.
The cherry on top is the solid presence of some stars from the global horror firmament, like Robert Englund and Tony Todd, just to name a couple, who enhance the film with fun and effective cameos.
This is the first film of a saga that has so far produced three sequels.
The film can be watched for free on YouTube in its original language or on Prime Video.
PANDEMONIUM MOMENT
Crowley chases a screaming woman, and once he catches her with his hands, he pries her mouth open with great force, splitting her head in half.
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