REVIEW:
After countless of rave reviews for this old school slasher flick, one could not be anything but excited. But as usual with hyped movies, I ended up being a bit disappointed. Hatchet did not live up to my expectations and was closer to movies such as Venom, Madman and The Tripper than to Friday the 13th in my opinion, and I'm sure that had this movie been made back in the 80s, it would've been forgotten fairly quickly. However, this is not the 80s and it's managed to do something that both Venom and The Tripper failed to do, it actually did recreate the feel of classic 80s slasher flicks - which makes this an instant cult classic in my opinion.

The story is fairly basic; a bunch of random people find themselves stuck in the swamps of Louisiana with a deformed serial killer after them. So what makes this movie stand out from all the other recent slasher flicks? Well, first of all, it's extremely brutal and gory, the gigantic killer is very intimidating, and the subtle humour works on so many levels. The movie never feels cheesy or corny even though it comes close to crossing the line several times and Adam Green has created a perfect atmosphere for this kind of flick. You laugh, you scream, you hide behind the person in front of you - just what you're looking for in slasher flicks. Well done Adam.

I don't think that this will be able to do what Scream did for slasher flicks back in the 90s though as Hatchet is far from a mainstream horror movie. This is a movie purely made for slasher fanatics such as myself and I really appreciate that. But back to Adam's directing, Adam must've had a very specific vision when he started this project as he selected a perfect cast to portray his odd and interesting characters that you can't help but to root for, even though they're so different from the ones you're used to seeing in slasher flicks.

In terms of old school horror though, Hatchet doesn't beat Cold Prey which didn't resort to over-the-top gore scenes, but if you're craving an 80s-like slasher flick, Hatchet is the movie for you. This is the best American slasher of the year even though it doesn't offer anything particularly new or very innovative. I appreciate the effort and I really enjoyed the movie, but I honestly thought that it'd be better than it was. If you're going to check this one out, which I hope that you will, be sure to watch it in the cinema as this really is a crowd movie, don't head in with too high expectations though as some reviews out there make this sound like the best horror flick ever - which it's clearly not. It's just a solid, well-directed and insanely gory slasher flick so let's not exhaggerate just how great this movie is.

GORE:
I don't want to spoil all the high lights for you but I can tell you that we get everything from decapitations to heads getting twisted off to legs getting chopped off, to impalements... Err... I don't think that you will be disappointed in this department.

SOUNDTRACK:
I kind of missed a good theme melody but the score did what it was intended to do - just not much more.

BOTTOM LINE:
A solid and extremely entertaining slasher flick which doesn't lie when it says that it's an old-school American horror flick, because that's just what it is. It's just not a whole lot more than that. Take it for what it is but don't expect anything new or original, just expect to be entertained.

Hatchet is a throwback of classic slashers from the 80's (namely the Friday the 13th series), with writer/director Adam Green successfully attempting to bring that old school feel and flavor by dishing out gratuitous nudity, violence, and gore, which just so happens to also be perfect recipe for a highly entertaining horror flick! The 80's is my personal favorite decade for the genre, and Hatchet definitely does bring that style back, but sadly loses its mark when it ends abruptly, and you come to realize the film was nothing more than 'Girls Gone Wild' the first half, and lots of bloody deaths and running away the second. I don't think I've ever seen a movie that had so much running involved without actually reaching any sort of destination. The whole entire second half is nothing more than the group trying to escape from Victor in the swamps, and somehow still getting picked off one by one. It also seems like the movie holds the record for the most main-villain knockouts, with Victor going down up to four times (from what I can remember) and each time the remaining survivors would simply run away again instead of finishing the job (yeah, like he's not gonna get up again like he did the past three times already).

Like I brushed on earlier, this film is an obvious nod to the F13 films, with the swamps of Louisiana replacing the misty waters of Camp Crystal Lake. In this movie we follow a group of adventure-seeking tourists as they attend a cheesy over-priced ride through the bayou, only to get stranded after the boat collides with a series of rocks. The crew also just so happens to become lost near the old Crowley home, where the locals believe the spirit of Victor Crowley still haunts the grounds. As legend has it, a man (Kane Hodder) had a disfigured son, whom he kept hidden away in his home in order to protect him from bullies and peering eyes. When a prank by a few kids goes wrong one night, the boy is seemingly burnt to death in the home and now whoever passes through the area winds up either dead or missing. What Hatchet lacks in story does make up for in gore and awesome deaths. Although the ripping-jaw-death (my favorite in the film) has been done before, I don't think it has been perfected as well as it has in this movie. There's literally buckets of blood being thrown around (which looks ridiculous, but does add to the camp factor).

This is a movie made by horror fans and will pretty much only speak to horror fans, which is why so many of us have taken a liking to it. It's a pretty brutal and ballsly slasher that has its ups and downs -- it's fun and gore-filled, but it's way too short (75-minutes, with another 5-minutes worth of credits), and delivers a ridiculously simple story. The gore works in its favor, but to be honest, most of us have generally matured as an audience and demand slightly more story-wise, and we especially don't need any more back-from-the-dead unstoppable killers; we've already seen our favorites either in space or battling-it-out with rappers. Hatchet could have been a great film if more of an effort was made towards the story instead of focusing it all on the gore. Sure the gore is great, but what's left in the movie if all that's taken away?

OVERALL: Hatchet is a fun ride, but (much like a ride) once things start moving along, before you know it, it's over. The first half is nothing but dirty jokes and T&A, while the second half is a lot of running in circles and bloody deaths. The movie has its ups and downs, but when it all comes down to it, it's still an entertaining watch. What it lacks in story it makes up for in gore and great deaths. Worth a check, but don't expect much story-wise.

Bored in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, Ben (Joel David Moore, "Grandma's Boy") decides to ditch his friends and partake in a haunted swamp boat ride. Led by a captain (Parry Shen) of dubious knowledge, the boat sets off with a ragtag collection of tourists, all in search of answers to the mysteries of the bayou. When the boat crashes and sinks to the bottom of the swamp, the group is forced to walk back to the city, but first they must fight to survive as local legend, the deformed beast Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder), commences a night of vicious killing.

With little money and no vision for casting, writer/director Adam Green is attempting to fashion a return to Freddy/Jason/Leatherface heyday of classic screen monsters. As any crafty, burgeoning horror filmmaker knows, an iconic, unstoppable villain will often make low budgets and laughable directorial choices melt away in the eyes of the faithful. People just love a larger-than-life bad guy regardless of a movie's quality, which is why Dee Snider still fields questions about "Strangeland" to this very day.

Far be it from me to proclaim Victor Crowley a bust in the legend department (I'll leave judgment on that to the legion of pushover, overeager horror websites), but "Hatchet" is a robotic exercise in genre milking, absent the sort of epic introduction of evil that traditionally takes these small potato creations and gives them forceful geek legs. Green is more thirsty for cheap thrills than maintaining tension, and his use of Crowley is isolated to moments that need a limb or head ripped off, not any sort of narrative purpose.

The rest of "Hatchet" is actually something more of a comedy than a horror experience. Playing the tour group shenanigans for laughs, yet squirting blood all over the swampland in other scenes, it's difficult to tell what response Green wants from his audience. "Hatchet" isn't funny (don't look at me, I didn't cast Moore, Joel Murray, and Deon "Bud" Richmond in the comedy parts), it certainly isn't frightening, and Will Barratt's absurdly murky cinematography hurts the gore money shots that have the faint outline of some terrific work from John Carl Buechler and his team of artists.

Implausibly sent to the theaters when DVD is its rightful home, "Hatchet" is best suited for outrageously low expectations.