In addition to the usual reviews and comments you would find on a horror movie blog, this is also a document of the wonderfully vast horror movie section of the video store I worked at in my youth.

Friday, February 9, 2001

The Lost Reviews: Hatchet

The Lost Reviews are a group of articles I wrote for the site DVDWolf that, for whatever reason, were never posted. This review for Hatchet was originally written in July 2007.


When passengers on a New Orleans tour boat get marooned in a swamp, they soon learn that the local urban legend of Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder) is, in fact, real. It is not long before the hulking maniac starts picking them off, one by one.

Hatchet is a gory and fun little flick. Director Adam Green doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel; he just gives us an entertaining slasher with an old school feel. The highlight of Hatchet is the gore work, provided by old hand John Carl Buechler. He gets really creative and messy with it, carrying on what he and Kane started when they worked on Friday the 13th Part 7. For a gorehound like myself, it’s a joy to watch. I recommend you get out to the theatre to see this if you can because it is definitely a movie best seen with a crowd of like-minded individuals. The one-liners come fast and furious and I found myself laughing quite a lot; one especially had me chuckling for days afterwards. In addition to the aforementioned Hodder, there are some other great cameos by genre veterans Robert Englund and Tony Todd. Also, if you’ve ever wondered what Mercedes McNab (Harmony of Buffy & Angel fame) looks like with her shirt off, wonder no more and rejoice! There were several other familiar faces in the cast who were the kind of I-know-I’ve-seen-you-before people for which Imdb was invented. I’ve been hearing comparisons between Hatchet and Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon. I wouldn’t say Hatchet is anywhere near the calibre of Scott Glosserman’s surprise hit last year, but it’s definitely a good time. Green has a clear love of the genre and has said he has no interest in the current remake/sequel trend of Hollywood horror, so I’m really looking forward to seeing where he goes from here.

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