DVD Review: Adam Green Misses Mark With Ugly ‘Hatchet II’

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly versionE-mail page to friendE-mail page to friendPDF versionPDF version
No votes yet

CHICAGO – There are many who would like horror fans to believe that writer/director Adam Green is the nest great voice in the genre, the guy who we should all be watching. After the promising “Hatchet” and superior “Frozen,” I thought the potential was still there. I’m not sure any more after the boring, bloated, stupid “Hatchet II.”

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-Ray Rating: 1.5/5.0
Blu-Ray Rating: 1.5/5.0

You won’t find a much bigger old-school horror fan than this critic, who can still remember devouring all the trashy slasher pics of the ’80s when I hit the right age to do so. In the ’00s, the genre lost sight of what used to make it fun. It lost its B-movie roots. Some of that has returned in recent years and a notable entry in the drive-in horror genre has to be Adam Green’s “Hatchet,” a film focused solely on what used to drive the genre — gore, T & A, and more gore. “Hatchet” was goofy fun, a throwback to an era before “Blair Witch” and Shyamalan required everything to have an edge or a twist.

Hatchet II
Hatchet II
Photo credit: MPI

What was even more promising about Green was that he proved to have significant range with the more psychological “Spiral” and then his best film, the twisted chair lift nightmare “Frozen.” Four years later, he returned to the world of Victor Crowley for “Hatchet II,” recently released on Blu-ray and DVD, and the result is a disaster. The gleeful throwback feeling of the first has been replaced by bloated overkill.

In only the first of several mistakes, Green recasts his heroine/survivor from the first film, Marybeth, with Danielle Harris, a horror icon from her work in the “Halloween” franchise but not the kind of adult actress who makes for an engaging lead. She alternates between panicked and sullen with very little in-between.


Marybeth survives her encounter with the maniacal Victor Crowley only to return to the same swamps not long after with a posse of people (including another horror legend in Tony Todd of “Candyman” fame) to try and kill the boogeyman who bashes people’s faces in with a hatchet. It takes nearly an hour to get going, and then the final act is a series of gore-tastic deaths including a guy who is decapitated mid-doggie style and another whose face is repeatedly bashed with the blunt end of a hatchet until it’s no longer there.

Some of the gore in “Hatchet II” is creative but the movie doesn’t have the same pace or tone as the original. The set-up, the hour or so in which the group gets together and wanders the swamp, is horrendous. It’s slow and filled with characters that aren’t interesting or funny. It’s just a waste of time and the final act doesn’t offer enough pay-off to make it worthwhile. Let’s hope Green lives up to his potential. I’m tired of hearing about it without really seeing it.

Special Features:
o Hatchet II: Behind the Screams
o Trailer
o Teaser
o TV Spot
o Radio Spot
o Production Audio Commentary
o Cast Audio Commentary

“Hatchet II” stars Danielle Harris, Tony Todd, Kane Hodder, Parry Shen, and Tom Holland. It was written and directed by Adam Green. It was released by MPI on Blu-ray and DVD on February 1st, 2011.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

unknown's picture

uhh..

You’re taking this movie way to serious. This movie was made to be funny… remove stick from bum.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

User Login

Free Giveaway Mailing

TV, DVD, BLU-RAY & THEATER REVIEWS

Advertisement



HollywoodChicago.com on Twitter

archive

HollywoodChicago.com Top Ten Discussions
referendum
tracker