Perfect cast and a good story

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

When watching this film it reminds you of the 80's slasher genre, Friday the 13th, Nightmare On Elm Street, Halloween.... You get this direct feel but instead of Jason/Freddy we have the mega-disformed Victor Crowley. In lore the name Crowley has demonic ties, which figure into this character. The setting is deep in the Louisiana Bayou during Mardi Gras. A young disfigured boy whose father kept him hidden, subject to ridicule and pranks. A fire at their home breaks out and Victor is accidently killed by his father. Tourists and citizens who go into the swamp never return. A group goes on a haunted swamp tour only to be stranded deep in the wetlands and hunted by Crowley. The plot is very thin, characters are extremely generic and boring. The acting is atrocious at the very least. There is a lot of language, some subtle nudity and the caveat for the film is it's gore fest of blood and guts. I would give this a solid 5 and as we know this became a series spawning 3 sequels.

Slashers took the world of horror movies by storm in the 1980's. At some points there were new ones coming out on a weekly basis, but by the end of the decade the sub-genre had died off almost entirely and was barely heard from for much of the next decade. In 2006 director Adam Green wanted to bring back the feeling those movies gave fans with his slasher Hatchet.With cameos and parts going to Tony "Candyman" Todd, Kane "Jason" Hodder, and Robert "Freddy" Englund, heavy use of practical effects over computer effects and a villain who looked like an 80's type of killer, Hatchet seemed posed to take a spot alongside the best in the sub-genre. This movie tells the story of a group of people who go on a swamp tour that winds up ending badly. They end up in Victor Crowley's territory and he starts murdering them one by one, just like the classics.Despite all this and being promoted as "old school American horror" Hatchet fails miserably at reaching it's goals and although there are far worse horror films out there there are very few that are as disappointing as this one. The problem is that many elements that made the classic slashers great are absent: there's no atmosphere, tension, creepiness, scariness or memorable soundtrack. Basically what we have is a gore-comedy, it's got the practical effects and villain of an 80's slasher but nothing else. If it resembles anything from the 80's it's more like the slashers near the end of the decade that threw away the horror elements for comedy and over the top characters.And while the comedy works well sometimes, more often than not it doesn't. Instead of making a horror movie with humour dispersed throughout they basically wrapped kills around a comedy. What we're left with are far too many moments where the movie comes to a complete stop just to try and make the audience laugh. This works fine when it's funny but really hurts the film when it's not. Some of the characters, especially the two dumb women, are really annoying unless you love blonde joke type of humour. If you like nudity there are several shots of their breasts but everybody else may find themselves skipping ahead to where something else more interesting happens.The special effects themselves are decent. Their goal was to avoid using CGI and in that regard the film is admirable and mostly succeeds. The practical effects are generally well done although some scenes such as the blood splashing on the trees are a bit overdone, and not really in a good way. Also, the bodies seem to come apart really easily, but it is a slasher film so realism certainly isn't expected. The kills themselves are quite well done, especially the double kill early on, and are quite bloody and gory.Unfortunately Hatchet also has arguably one of the worst endings of any slasher. It doesn't really end, it just cuts off in the middle of the scene where Hatchet II is supposed to pick right up from. Sequel or not it is an absolutely terrible way to end the film.Availability: Hatchet is available on both DVD and Blu-ray as a stand alone R-rated version or unrated director's cut or as a "Slasher 4 pack" with No One Lives, A Horrible Way to Die and The Alphabet Killer. All contain a good amount of bonus features such as a commentary, making of, gag reel, trailer and more.Despite failing to deliver on the "old school American horror" that was promised, Hatchet is still a fairly enjoyable slasher film worth checking out for slasher film fans. Just don't expect it to be as good as the classics, or even quite reach the levels of later films like Scream either.

The casting is too self aware, too much winking at the camera, so to speak: horror film icons Tony Todd, Robert Englund, Kane Hodder (in two roles) and John Carl Buechler, in what is largely a Friday the 13th satire; the film's climax even takes place on a boat in the middle of the water, with the girl being pulled underwater, ala the original Friday the 13th. Perhaps if they hadn't spent so much of the budget on hiring those names, they could have hired more background extras to fill out the Mardi Gras scenes, instead of using close-cropping and frenetic camera-work to try to hide the fact that there are only about 20 people present at what is supposed to be Mardi Gras. After that shaky intro, a group of people go on a Haunted Swamp tour in Louisiana, only to be set upon by a mutant hillbilly living in the backwoods, who proceeds to hack them to gory bits. The film looks good once they get out of the city and into the swamps, but it doesn't work as a tribute to earlier horrors, because of the sharp comic dialogue, which is well delivered by its main cast of relatively unknowns, and had me laughing hysterically several times. The comedy simultaneously works in its favour and against it. It also doesn't have enough scares or shocks to work as a horror film on its own, despite buckets of blood and gore, and an overwhelmingly blood-drenched ending. The main cast are all good in their roles, and Joleigh Fioravanti, especially, is gorgeous and always fun to watch. I did enjoy this film, but more as a comedy, rather than a horror, at least until its awful ending, where everyone is killed, and the door is left open for the seemingly contractually obligated sequel.

I'm writing this review after a second viewing of Hatchet. I do love a good/daft horror/slasher movie and this one was billed as being right up there with the best of them, plus even a homage to the classics of the seventies and eighties.In short, I didn't like it at first. However, after a couple of years I decided to watch it again and see if I missed anything.Even now, I probably wouldn't say it's an absolute classic, but it is a decent enough little yarn (with plenty of blood).Did I say 'plenty' of blood? I meant TONNES. In fact, the producers obviously know they're going a bit over the top and must have had great fun throwing bucketloads of the red stuff at trees after every kill takes place.It's quite a short film (it doesn't really need to be any longer) and, after the thumping Marilyn Manson opening song, we meet about a group of people who go on a boat ride into the swamps of America and end up on the wrong end of a maniac's hatchet. The kills are very violent and, if you're looking for gore, you'll find it here. The best part of the film is the characters. Whether they're horrible or nice, they're entertaining. There's plenty of amusing banter between them to keep us amused (special mention to the two *ahem* 'actresses' who continually bicker with each other all the way through).These good characters go some way to make up for the film's major flaw: they don't kill the killer. This slasher film possibly has the most opportunities to either kill, or severely subdue the nutter with the hatchet, yet they choose to run off every time and leave him to 'get better' and resume coming after them. This is the most annoying part of the film and, if it wasn't for the snappy, tongue-in-cheek dialogue, I would have found myself getting increasingly annoyed with the whole package.All in all, this film is far from perfect, but, if you lower your expectations enough and put your brain on hold, you should enjoy the daftness and gore (like I say, it's not on for long!).Also, kudos to the film-makers for getting Robert Englund, Kane Hodder and Tony Todd on the same cast list.