Saw this on a DVD in 2007. I jus picked up the DVD without knowing anything bah it. The tag line n the DVD poster raised up my curiosity. Loved the film. I have the dvds of all the 3 parts. Hav become a fan of the director Adam Green. Its like a typical 80s slasher with non stop body count with amazing special effects. Tourists on a New Orleans haunted swamp tour find themselves stranded in the woods, their evening of fun turns into a horrific nightmare. Hunted by a madman in the swamps. Sounds 80 huh? OK nothing new with the story but don't lose hope. This movie is a gore fest of epic proportions. This film is indeed An old school American horror. Indeed this film gav birth to a new horror icon. John Carl Buechler's special effects are brilliant and the soundtrack, by Andy Garfield, play a strong role in creating the atmosphere. Arms and legs are ripped off, jaw bones r ripped apart, heads are torn and twisted off, bodies are set ablaze, shoulders r ripped apart by belt sanders, bodies r thrashed against wall as if thrashing a whip against a wall, crowbar pierced inside foot, .....n lots of tits. I jus wanted a lil more crocodile action. The death scene of Richard Riehle was way over the top. I was laughing n rolling. Genre cameos by Robert Englund, Tony Todd, John Carl Buechler n Kane Hodder.

2003 was a rough year for horror icon Kane Hodder. The official actor of Jason Voorhees since 1988 with his take on the character being without question the definitive fan favorite, Hodder was forced to hand the mask over to Ken Kirzinger for the long anticipated and incredibly hyped "Freddy v.s Jason." The unceremonious and frankly disrespectful dumping was a blow to Hodder, who would go on to mostly do stuntwork and small cameo appearances in various films after being let go as Jason. That was until 2006, when Hodder was cast as the first (And only) actor to play the deformed ghoul Victor Crowley for Adam Green's new horror franchise "Hatchet." While I can't speak to how much the role has eased the sting of being dropped as Jason Voorhees for "Freddy v.s Jason", I can certainly say that it should. "Hatchet" is right up there with the very BEST of the "Friday the 13th" films in terms of quality.Kane Hodder himself is positively terrifying as Victor Crowley. I'll go so far as to say he's the most terrifying killer in slasher movie history. Make no mistake, Victor is a very different character than Jason, and Hodder plays him accordingly. Crowley is far more manic, excited and sadistic in his mannerisms; be it his walking, his facial expressions (Crowley's deformed face often has a twisted smile to it that is downright chilling) or his killing. For Jason, killing teens was just his job. Victor genuinely seems to take pleasure in slowly and painfully dispatching his victims.And slow and painful those dispatchings are..."Hatchet" is one of the bloodiest, nastiest slashers I've ever seen. People are decapitated, chopped in half, slowly disemboweled from the back, de- armed, split down the face, impaled on the blunt ends of shovels...I could go on, but you get the point. It's gory, it's gross, it's foul...And it's freaking awesome. The creativity and downright grossness of the violence in this movie just makes the whole film that much more entertaining.It helps that we actually CARE about Crowley's potential and actual victims. Joel David Moore is quite likable and VERY funny as Ben. He's proved in the past to be somewhat of a saving grace even for the worst movies, so it's refreshing of him to see him at his best in a great one. Parry Shen is another talented actor burdened with starring in mostly terrible film, and like David Moore, he's downright hilarious as scam-artist-sailor Shawn. Richard Rihehle and Patrika Darbo are adorkable as the Permatteos, a midwest couple quite out of their element in the killer stalked swamps of New Orleans. By far the best non-killer performance has to go to Deon Richmond as Marcus, who DESPERATELY deserves more work. He's the most likable of the cast and gets some of the biggest laughs in the film (The tree scene is comedic GOLD), if there's anyone I wanted to survive the movie, it was him.The story is quite simple, but the script and characters make it quite apparent fairly quickly that this is partly a loving satire of the "Friday the 13th" films. It's not just the actors who know they're in a kitschy horror film, the characters know it too. When we laugh at the absurdity of lines like "You look like you been molested by wolves!", we're laughing WITH the movie, not AT it.If you hadn't guessed by my comments on the cast, "Hatchet" is a horror-comedy, and it works extremely well in both the scares and laughs department. The already gifted cast are helped by a very funny script and a director who clearly respects his cast's talents, leading to a very complete comedic experience. That said, when the film is going for downright horror, it can be just as effective; the swamps of New Orleans are unsettling enough, but made more so by some excellent, dark, uncomfortable lighting. It's ugly to look at, but there's no doubt this was director Adam Green's intention...And have I mentioned yet how scary Hodder is as Victor Crowley?"Hatchet" is a MUST watch for any horror fan nostalgic for the "good old days" of slasher movies. It's not a perfect movie, but it IS a perfectly entertaining one. I DARE any so called "slasher fan" to watch this movie and NOT have fun.

I didn't expect much selecting this movie on my On Demand service. Never heard of it before but figured why the Hell not? This movie actually was decent, all things considered. Kane Hodder is intimidatingly huge, and as always plays a great villain. The character seemed to be the villain is actually someone who you actually, at points, empathize with. It does have some odd... plot holes that didn't seem to make much sense, but its a movie so why not go along for the ride? I do not believe I will watch it again, but it was at the same time, not a complete waste of time. The ending angered me, and that is all I will really mention about that. Anyone who has seen it should understand its likeness to other infuriating conclusions. I can't really see myself giving this more than a 6 for a rating. It was decent, not great, and definitely not on the bad side of decent.

Slashers took the world of horror movies by storm in the 1980's. At some points there were new ones coming out on a weekly basis, but by the end of the decade the sub-genre had died off almost entirely and was barely heard from for much of the next decade. In 2006 director Adam Green wanted to bring back the feeling those movies gave fans with his slasher Hatchet.With cameos and parts going to Tony "Candyman" Todd, Kane "Jason" Hodder, and Robert "Freddy" Englund, heavy use of practical effects over computer effects and a villain who looked like an 80's type of killer, Hatchet seemed posed to take a spot alongside the best in the sub-genre. This movie tells the story of a group of people who go on a swamp tour that winds up ending badly. They end up in Victor Crowley's territory and he starts murdering them one by one, just like the classics.Despite all this and being promoted as "old school American horror" Hatchet fails miserably at reaching it's goals and although there are far worse horror films out there there are very few that are as disappointing as this one. The problem is that many elements that made the classic slashers great are absent: there's no atmosphere, tension, creepiness, scariness or memorable soundtrack. Basically what we have is a gore-comedy, it's got the practical effects and villain of an 80's slasher but nothing else. If it resembles anything from the 80's it's more like the slashers near the end of the decade that threw away the horror elements for comedy and over the top characters.And while the comedy works well sometimes, more often than not it doesn't. Instead of making a horror movie with humour dispersed throughout they basically wrapped kills around a comedy. What we're left with are far too many moments where the movie comes to a complete stop just to try and make the audience laugh. This works fine when it's funny but really hurts the film when it's not. Some of the characters, especially the two dumb women, are really annoying unless you love blonde joke type of humour. If you like nudity there are several shots of their breasts but everybody else may find themselves skipping ahead to where something else more interesting happens.The special effects themselves are decent. Their goal was to avoid using CGI and in that regard the film is admirable and mostly succeeds. The practical effects are generally well done although some scenes such as the blood splashing on the trees are a bit overdone, and not really in a good way. Also, the bodies seem to come apart really easily, but it is a slasher film so realism certainly isn't expected. The kills themselves are quite well done, especially the double kill early on, and are quite bloody and gory.Unfortunately Hatchet also has arguably one of the worst endings of any slasher. It doesn't really end, it just cuts off in the middle of the scene where Hatchet II is supposed to pick right up from. Sequel or not it is an absolutely terrible way to end the film.Availability: Hatchet is available on both DVD and Blu-ray as a stand alone R-rated version or unrated director's cut or as a "Slasher 4 pack" with No One Lives, A Horrible Way to Die and The Alphabet Killer. All contain a good amount of bonus features such as a commentary, making of, gag reel, trailer and more.Despite failing to deliver on the "old school American horror" that was promised, Hatchet is still a fairly enjoyable slasher film worth checking out for slasher film fans. Just don't expect it to be as good as the classics, or even quite reach the levels of later films like Scream either.