ego_loss
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2006
- Messages
- 3,500
Hatchet made some pretty big claims. It's tag line was "Old School American Horror". The cover prominently announces cast members such as Tony Todd (Candyman) and Robert Englund (Freddy Kruger). Fanboys have been hailing it as a true return to the classic slasher genre. Being the horror lover I am, this movie was on my must see list.
The first thing you'll notice about this film is the gore. It's brief opening sequence was over the top, to say the least, and sets the tone for the rest of the movie pretty nicely. Unfortunately, it also marks the entire on screen presence of Robert Englund. Likewise, Tony Todd's appearance was also brief, but memorable.
I guess the claim that it is a true return to the slasher genre is pretty accurate. Anyone who has seen any of the classic slasher flicks from the 80's can recite the formula. The hero (in this case played by Joel Moore - JP from Grandma's Boy) and friends are thrust into a situation where they have to run from a supernatural bad-ass who is hell-bent on killing them in truly gruesome and gory fashion. The movie is about as cliched as it gets, complete with zany one-liners, tits, random senseless falling down while the bad guy is in pursuit, buckets of blood, simple jump scares and an ending that can be seen from miles away.
All that being said, the movie is damn funny. Joel Moore and his best friend Marcus (the token black guy from Not Another Teen Movie) have a decent enough chemistry to pull off the buddy aspect of the plot. Joel Moore manages to put his comedic talents to use in the straight man role this time and pulls off some razor sharp timing and delivery. Some of the dialogue was really laugh out loud funny. In the end he manages to make a convincing leading man.
The blood and gore, as I said before, was pretty over the top... but in a comical sense more reminiscent of "Dead Alive". Enough good kills, viscera flying, limbs hacked off, power tools and pointy objects to keep the gore hounds happy.
Perhaps the best part of this movie was the apparent fun everyone had making it. You could really tell that there was a passion behind the movie. It was made even more apparent in some of the DVD bonus features. The makers have a real love for the genre. They maintained a sort of haunted house aspect to the set, always keeping the actors on their toes. In some cases, the reactions on screen are genuine as it is the first time they had seen Hodder in full make-up.
By the time the credits rolled, I was pretty happy. It wasn't an amazing movie by any means, but it was certainly very entertaining. The key to enjoying this film is not to expect a masterpiece... but more of a well executed homage to the slasher films we grew up with in the pre-Scream era.
The first thing you'll notice about this film is the gore. It's brief opening sequence was over the top, to say the least, and sets the tone for the rest of the movie pretty nicely. Unfortunately, it also marks the entire on screen presence of Robert Englund. Likewise, Tony Todd's appearance was also brief, but memorable.
I guess the claim that it is a true return to the slasher genre is pretty accurate. Anyone who has seen any of the classic slasher flicks from the 80's can recite the formula. The hero (in this case played by Joel Moore - JP from Grandma's Boy) and friends are thrust into a situation where they have to run from a supernatural bad-ass who is hell-bent on killing them in truly gruesome and gory fashion. The movie is about as cliched as it gets, complete with zany one-liners, tits, random senseless falling down while the bad guy is in pursuit, buckets of blood, simple jump scares and an ending that can be seen from miles away.
All that being said, the movie is damn funny. Joel Moore and his best friend Marcus (the token black guy from Not Another Teen Movie) have a decent enough chemistry to pull off the buddy aspect of the plot. Joel Moore manages to put his comedic talents to use in the straight man role this time and pulls off some razor sharp timing and delivery. Some of the dialogue was really laugh out loud funny. In the end he manages to make a convincing leading man.
The blood and gore, as I said before, was pretty over the top... but in a comical sense more reminiscent of "Dead Alive". Enough good kills, viscera flying, limbs hacked off, power tools and pointy objects to keep the gore hounds happy.
Perhaps the best part of this movie was the apparent fun everyone had making it. You could really tell that there was a passion behind the movie. It was made even more apparent in some of the DVD bonus features. The makers have a real love for the genre. They maintained a sort of haunted house aspect to the set, always keeping the actors on their toes. In some cases, the reactions on screen are genuine as it is the first time they had seen Hodder in full make-up.
By the time the credits rolled, I was pretty happy. It wasn't an amazing movie by any means, but it was certainly very entertaining. The key to enjoying this film is not to expect a masterpiece... but more of a well executed homage to the slasher films we grew up with in the pre-Scream era.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")