Louisiana bayou folklore becomes reality when a group of tourists end up face to face with one of the most powerfully sinister creatures ever imagined.
As the story goes deep within the swamps of Louisiana a man with the last name Crowley lived with his disfigured son Victor, far away from any civilization. At times Mr. Crowley needed to go into town to buy supplies and food and he brought Victor with him. The kids in town would torment and tease Victor and ultimately they found where he lived and tried to scare him to death by throwing fireworks at his door, and lets just say wooden houses catch fire easily. So as Victor’s trapped inside his house Mr. Crowley comes home to find that his son is trapped inside trying to get out. He picks up his hatchet from his cutting block and tries to break in to save him but in the end becomes the murderer to his only son.
Many many years later we meet our star, Ben, who just can’t find any fun in staring at bare breasted women while partying at Marti Gras so he decides he wants to take a haunted swamp tour. Anyways his friends think he’s stupid so they all go off back to partying, minus one guy, Marcus, who decides he’d better stay with Ben, just to know he’s alright and make sure he’s having a good time regardless.
So off they go to find a tour guide which they do. Come to find out that the tour guide doesn’t want their business though so they end up at another place where a little Asian kid jumps out claiming that he’d take them on the haunted tour. So off they go with a small group of perverts, babes, old folks and one girl that seems like something’s terribly wrong.
Off to the swamps they go taking the tour of what’s said to be the swamps where Victor and his father once lived. Now not too long into the tour the boat gets snagged, leaving the group stranded in the swamp lands far away from New Orleans. Little do they realize that they are right at the front door of the Crowley home and apparently Victor never died and is in fact fully grown, built to kill and hungry for blood. The ultimate battle for life ensues and the group goes toe to toe with one of the most twisted creatures of our time.
 
Now first of all let me tell you that this movie is not all blood and guts, but also quite comedic. In fact two of the main characters of the movie, Ben and Marcus, are a couple usually casted in comedy flicks. Ben, played by Joel More, is better known for his roles in Grandma’s Boy and Dodgeball while Marcus, played by Deon Richmond, is better known for his role as The Token Black Guy Malik in the movie Not Another Teen Movie, so they bring a lot of comedy to the table. With that said this movie is damn twisted when it comes to the sick special FX during the gore scenes, and people I have to tell you, I was THRILLED to see that they actually got their hands dirty, or bloody, without using CGI.
The script is solid, the characters really play out perfectly and this movie just wraps up in one tight little bundle of flesh to produce a movie that ultimately is opening the door that was left closed at the end of the 80’s when horror movies weren’t corporately made or butchered remakes. You can see that Adam Green was inspired by a lot of the older classics, factoring in movies like Pumpkinhead, Friday the 13th, Nightmare On Elm Street and many others and the funny thing is Robert Englund has a cameo in the movie and Kane Hodder plays Victor’s father PLUS Victor himself in present time plus Tony "Candyman" Todd as Clive Washington. Also if you watch in the beginning of the movie, Adam himself does a cameo as one of the friends that decides to stay and party at Mardi Gras, he's the one that talks.
If you get the chance to see Hatchet in theatres do so, though it’s in limited release around the US. When it does come out on DVD however, get your ass to the store and snatch up this movie because it’s so damn good it shouldn’t be on your top shelf, it should be displayed so all your friends know you have one of the best movies of modern times.
Definitely going up as one of my top 5 movies of all time now, Hatchet pulls excellent horror out of the pit it’s been in for the last 20 years. Own it, watch it, love it and most of all give praise where it’s due, in the lap of one Adam Green, the genre’s savior.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Adam Green
WRITING CREDITS: Adam Green
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
CAST: Joel Moore, Tamara Feldman, Kane Hodder
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 93 min
RATING: 10/10
Hatchet Website/IMDB Click here
Hatchet Trailer Click here
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