Hatchet (2006)

Director: Adam Green

Writer: Adam Green

Cast: Kane Hodder, Joel Moore, Tamara Feldman, Mercedes McNab, Robert Englund, Tony Todd

Cert: 18

Running time: 85mins

Year: 2006

Review originally posted 5th Oct 2007 on www.skymovies.com

What’s the story: A motley crew of characters board a Louisiana haunted boat ride, but are soon on menu of deformed murder machine Victor Crowley (stuntman Hodder).

What’s the verdict: It’s Mardi Graaaaaaaargh as a boatload of New Orleans tourists is splayed and slayed in Adam Green’s canny mix of gore and guffaws. The ghosts of Friday the 13th, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Deliverance are resurrected and horror fans will be elbow deep in the slaughter, star cameos and neat twists on the slasher movie.

Hatchet believes in doing horror the old fashioned way, keeping it real with more prosthetics and fake claret than it can shake a dismembered limb at (and frequently does).

The basic premise is so-far-so-so stuff, but this likeable bloodbath is elevated by a snappy script and a game cast who enter the panto-maim spirit.

Writer/director Green knows his audience and has cameos from Robert “Freddy” Englund and Tony “Candyman” Todd. Plus, Buffy the Vampire Slayer alumnus Mercedes McNab, frequently topless as a softcore bimbo headlining the epic “Bayou Beavers”.

Crowley is a bargain basement bogeyman, but Green is slasher savvy enough to nod towards gnarly classic The Burning in his villain’s back story. The spectacular eviscerations, including a head being sprung open, are stomach-flipping delights.

Rob Daniel
Twitter: rob_a_Daniel
iTunes Podcast: The Electric Shadows Podcast

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