Hatchet bills itself as old-style American horror, and I guess that's
perfectly fair. It is quite similar to the first Friday 13th movie, except
with grislier deaths, as dictated by the current sensibilities. It is either
an homage to the horror films of the late seventies and early eighties, or
perhaps a parody of them. Maybe both.
The location is not a summer camp on a lake, but rather a touristy bayou
excursion. As per the genre requirements, there are rumors of grisly events
in these whereabouts in
the past, but 90% of the potential victims scoff at the hoary legends. The
deeper their level of cynicism, the earlier and bloodier will be their
death.
The Jason character is Victor Crowley, a deformed human who was raised by
a loving father and presented no harm to humans until one Halloween when
some pranksters accidentally set his cabin on fire with him inside. His
Daddy got back in time to save him, but could not get the front door open,
so he grabbed a hatchet to break the door down. A terrified Victor was
behind the door and ... well, you see where this is leading.
Some years later, Victor starts to commit a string of grisly murders,
which brings us back to our tour boat. The excursion is being run by a newcomer who is unaware of the danger in
that part of the swamp. In fact, he's a guy from Detroit with a bogus
Louisiana accent, and he just moved to the South. His tour narration is
written on index cards. He and his tourists are oblivious
to their peril, except for one woman who knows and believes the Crowley legend. She
is on the tour because her father and brother disappeared in the same area,
and the swamp is closed to boat traffic, so her only way to get in the area
is with the guy from Detroit who's too dumb to know better.
The first half of the film is essentially a raunchy comedy which sets the
stage for the gory murders in the second half. We meet the characters and hear their witty
interaction. In addition to the feckless tour guide, there are two college
guys who are bored with Mardi Gras. One is our heartbroken hero, the other
is his wisecracking sidekick. Then there is the old couple from the Midwest,
and a con man (played by Bill Murray's much younger brother Joel) who
brought a camera and two bimbos into the swamp, supposedly to create a
naughty film called "Bayou Beavers." The dialogue consists mainly of the
wisecracking sidekick making fun of the tour guide, and the two bimbos
bickering. There is not much foreboding. The mood is silly, and the music is
frivolous. The only hint of what is to come is the brooding presence of the
woman who believes the Crowley legend.
I guess you can figure out the rest of the plot on your own. The tour
guide runs the boat aground conveniently close to the old Crowley place, and
the group has to walk through the swamp while trying unsuccessfully to avoid
gators and Victor, who ends up hurting them real bad.
Several icons of horror appear with the cast of relative newcomers. In a
flashback scene, Robert Englund (Freddy Kruger) plays the missing father of
the serious girl. Tony Todd (Candyman) has a comical cameo. Kane Hodder
(Jason Vorhees) is once again cast as the monster, Victor, who is essentially a
Southern-fried version of his famous Jason character. Hodder also gets to
demonstrate some sensitivity as Victor's heartbroken father who
accidentally kills his beloved if deformed son with a hatchet.
(Here are
the three legends together on the set in a posed photo.)
This is your film if you would like to see what is essentially a
modernization of Friday the 13th for a new generation. The recent years have
seen a new style of American horror film, rated PG-13 and often remade from
Japanese originals, using a style which is grungy and stylish and arty, and
a tone as
serious as a senior project at NYU film school. Hatchet is different. Not
only is it funny, but it's
in theaters as a hard R for extreme violence and copious T&A, and the
DVD will undoubtedly be even nastier because the film had to be cut
substantially from the festival version to get an R for the theatrical
release. (There was even talk of releasing it as a balls-out NC-17). I'm not a
great fan of slasher films just because I don't "get" the thrill in spurting
blood and graphic dismemberment, so I actually enjoyed the shallow first
half of the film much more than the predictable bloody denouement. I got
into the characters and laughed quite a bit, which means that the film's
set-up must be effective because the audience gets to identify with the
characters and starts to enjoy being in their company, and thus cares when
the mood changes and they start to feel imperiled and eventually get bumped
off.
Bottom line: a competent old-school "guilty pleasure" slasher film with
plenty of gore and T&A, in the manner of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
It's recommended if you like the old slasher films and are sick of the
current crop of horror offerings, which gives you a choice of ponderous
torture porn or oh-so-serious-and-arty PG-13 remakes of Asian originals.
