Halloween Movie Madness! Week 4 (finally) - Hatchet

See, I TOLD you I'd catch up.

So I finally managed to sit down and watch Hatchet. I've been reading about it periodically on blogs and hearing about it from various podcasts I listen to. Overall it has gotten a good rep. So I figured since this movie has been sitting in my Netflix instant cue for God knows how long, now is a good a time as any to watch it.

And it rocked.

In a nutshell: Our leading man was recently dumped by his girlfriend. In an attempt to cheer him up, his buddies take him to New Orleans during Mardi Gras thinking massive amounts of tit flashing will cheer him up. Instead, our hero rather go on a haunted swamp tour. An unfortunate chain of events (and many hilariously supporting characters along the way) leads the the tour to the house of Victor Crowley, a deformed and deranged hatchet wielding psycho. And the rest is slasher history.

Hatchet is one of those wonderful homage films to the 1980's slasher genre only it really gets it right by not trying to be ultra hip and trendy. Yes, its formulaic but it wouldn't be a good tribute if it wasn't. The makers of this film are obviously fans of the slasher genre and Hatchet is a love letter to the gems of the past. And while it does have some genuine scares, it plays as a tongue in cheek horror comedy that makes you both cringe and laugh. Hell, it even has appearances by Horror legends Tony Todd, Kane Hodder, and Robert Englund. My favorite being Tony Todd mainly because that man can STILL be sexy screaming obscenities in a creole accent and dressed like a mime on his wedding day...Oh and Kane Hodder is kind of adorable in that burly lumberjack sort of way when not in grotesque make-up .

My hormones are starting to take over this review. Lets move on.

What I loved so much about Hatchet was finally seeing a slasher film where all the characters are likable. In slashers you tend to secretly (or in some cases, not so secretly) root for our villain because lets face it, they can be charming and clown gore is awesome. Therefore most victims in slashers are nothing more than nerve grating two dimensional machete fodder. And while I'd hardly call the characters in Hatchet well rounded pieces of cinematic history, I liked them all and found each one entertaining in some way. And having that likability made the killings more gruesome and the chase scenes more intense.

Oh, and the clown gore. The glorious GLORIOUS clown gore!! I found myself more than once shouting "Oh my God! Did you SEE that?!" to absolutely no one in the room...unless you count my cat...and she wasn't there because she only watches John Carpenter horror movies. The effects were extremely well done and completely shocking. Much love goes out to the effects crew.

This movie also has one of the best insults ever. Now whenever some random chick gives me a hassle I'm going to tell her "Your nipples are dumb!". That will put her in her place.

So my overall impressions? This is really worth the watch. If you're a fan of the slasher genre and want to see a non pretentious fun film with awesome clown gore, definitely check out Hatchet.

And tomorrow I will post Week 5 - Dead Snow. WOOT!