Hatchet (2007) 6/10

Hatchet is an indie darling being triumphed by horror mags and fans alike. The return to the American slasher its being called. The saviour of horror. Nope, not even close.

Hatchet is a killer in the woods flick that would have fit right in back in '81 amongst such films as the original Friday the 13th and The Burning, Don't Go Into The Woods, etc. A group of tourists go on a tour down a forbidden swamp protected by local ghost/legend/killer Victor Crowley. Of course their boat sinks and they are hunted by Victor throughout the rest of the picture.

The problem? It isn't 1981 anymore. Hell I like all those old slashers as much as the next guy but in today's film we all look for a bit more meat on the bone. There's been a slew of re-makes, updates, sequels, and homage films lately and this is just another to add to the pile. There is nothing that makes this film standout from any other generic horror flick to come down the pipe in the past few years. To its credit, there is alot of gore and nudity but by the end I just didn't care. The film is populated by terrible characters that I really didn't care about so any ability for the film to scare me was out the window. The story was threadbare as well so there goes any ability for the film to entertain. Victor Crowley himself looked a bit cheap with very poorly done prosthetics which just made him seem silly, even if it was Kane Hodder (Jason Vorhees) playing him. After all the hype found in Fangoria, Rue Morgue etc I was really expecting a genre standout but what I got was just another uninspired horror film. Homage films are great but they need a degree of improvement and innovation to make them really shine, otherwise why would I bother watching this when I could watch the original films being paid tribute to? Beyond that the script was clumsy and the editing was poorly paced. The opening sequence is terribly put together and it really shows the audience the snoozer about to unfold.

In the end if you can turn off your mind and just enjoy the gore and never mind the hype around Hatchet I believe the viewer will dig it. Having said that I went into the film with high expectations that were never met.

Gore - High
Nudity - Medium
Overall - 6/10