HATCHET

 

 

Hatchet is yet another "slasher" horror film along the lines of Friday the 13th, which is rather appropriate since the killer in this film is played by Kane Hodder who, as any "slasher" horror flick aficionado no doubt knows, played Jason Voorhees in about three or four of those movies. Besides Hodder, Hatchet also features a cameo from none other than Robert Englund who, of course, played Freddy Krueger in the original Nightmare On Elm Street flicks. In this flick, Englund plays a redneck swamp hunter who gets offed by Hodder's character within the first five minutes of the flick. The film takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana. During a trip to Mardi Gras, a couple of friends decide to go on this swamp tour one night along with a group of other tourists given by this rather shady tour guide. It probably goes without saying that the tour group gets stranded out in the swamp where they start being picked off one-by-one by Hodder's character whom we find out from this redneck chick in the group--whom we also learn is on the swamp tour to search for her missing father (who turns out to be Englund's character)--that he's this deformed monstrosity named Victor Crowley who was thought to have been accidentally killed by his own father with a--that's right!--hatchet to his deformed head after some kids set fire to their backwoods house one Halloween night and his father was trying to break down the door with the hatchet and instead hits his deformed head with the hatchet instead. After the father dies ("from a broken heart," according to the redneck chick who's telling the story), people start mysteriously disappearing in the swamp. Of course, like Jason Voorhees, Victor Crowley is hard to kill as he's shot, stabbed and even set on fire at one point but, like his fellow maniac undead killer Jason, he just won't stay down. He manages to kill off everybody in the group--or at least we're led to believe he's killed pretty much everyone--save for the redneck chick whom Crowley--spoiler alert!--grabs a hold of while on a boat in the middle of the swamp before the screen suddenly fades-to-black before the credits roll, thus setting the stage for a sequel (which. at the time of this writing, there has been two). Hatchet is pretty typical "slasher" horror film fare, although Victor Crowley does find some rather ingenious ways to off his victims; like, for instance, he pins the rather shady tour guide down on the ground and he digs a shovel deep into his neck thereby popping his neck clean off. Nice! Anyway, diehard fans of the "slasher" horror film genre will probably enjoy this film the best, especially fans of Friday the 13th who'd like to see Kane Hodder in a different "slasher" role (and, believe you me, he looks pretty damn creepy in this flick!). Oh yeah, this flick also stars actress Mercedes McNab who is perhaps best known for her recurring role in the popular TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. McNab plays a VERY ditzy blonde in this flick whose character rather mysteriously disappears without really knowing what happens to her character (I believe they saved that for the sequel). Mercedes also, I think I should point out, shows her bodacious ta-tas at least a couple of times in this flick. Now if THAT doesn't convince you to watch this flick, I don't know WHAT will! (Yeah, I know, I'm a perv!)