Hatchet (2006)

Somehow I managed to see Hatchet II before Hatchet, although that doesn't seem to make much sense.  I signed onto my Netflix instant queue (via Apple TV) and was pleasantly surprised to see that Hatchet is streaming again.  Yay!

I know not everyone is an Adam Green fan, but much liked the oft-hated upon Rob Zombie, I love the guy.  His movies are a fun time and he just seems like an all around cool guy.  In the first Hatchet, we don't get treated to the lovely Danielle Harris as Marybeth, since Tamara Feldman played her this time around.  But we still get Kane Hodder and Tony Todd, so all is good.

Hatchet is about a group of friends partying in New Orleans for Mardi Gras.  Ben (Joel David Moore) is mourning his breakup with his longtime girlfriend and is not in the mood for booze and boobs.  He convinces a friend, Marcus (Deon Richmond) to come on a haunted swamp tour with him.  They first inquire with Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd) who tells them that he doesn't do the tours, but to try someone down the street.  The friends end up on a tour with some sort of porn director, two oft-topless ladies, a middle-aged couple, and quiet and reserved Marybeth (Tamara Feldman).  The tour guide is obviously ridiculously inexperienced, and they end up stranded near the house that is supposed haunted by the deformed Victor Crowley.

The group spends the evening running from Crowley and fighting for their lives.  The deaths in this movie are gloriously bloody and disgusting.  Adam Green was going for old school American horror, and he hit that nail right on the guts-soaked head.  The acting was pretty good, although I kept picturing this...

 ...and it made Tamara Feldman's performance fall a little flat.

There's lots of fun little tidbits about this movie.  This was the last production filmed in New Orleans before Katrina hit.  Young Victor Crowley is played by gorgeous actress Rileah Vanderbilt, who volunteered to try out the prosthetics and makeup for the role.  Since it had already been applied, they just had her play the child.  I think haters of this movie think way too deep into it.  This flick is a fun and gory romp through the slasher genre and you can't deny that Adam Green has a hell of an imagination.  Victor Crowley lives, bitches.



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