Midweek Mayhem: Adam Green's Hatchet
Midweek Mayhem is a weekly column reviewing and discussing horror films of varying sub-genres.
Slasher films are a mixed bag. As big a fan as I am of the sub-genre, it's one that you really have to plow through in order to find the gems. Getting into these kind of films is wonderful, there's so much to choose from and an INSANE amount of franchises/one-offs/rip-offs to get through. But once you've whizzed through the Friday the 13th series, all the Halloweens, the multiple Texas Chainsaws, etc, it's like you move down a level. There are still hundreds of studio produced slashers and excellent, surreal Italian Giallo pictures, but the medium to low budget modern slashers more often than not...kind of suck. That's not at all to say that a good slasher flick needs studio backing or anything, on the contrary, the 90s and 00s saw plenty of rotten, soulless Hollywood stuff released like Urban Legend, Cherry Falls, the Prom Night & Stepfather remakes, etc. And there are diamonds in the rough among low-budget independents (Curtains, The Mutilator and Blood Rage spring to mind), too. But the sub-genre is a little like a house of cards. It's a rudimentary structure that if adhered to, you've got something. Fuck with it too much and it all falls apart. Some of the best slashers creatively subvert familiar tropes of the sub-genre (Wes Craven's Scream) and that's great. But the simple design still remains. Creative, varying murder scenes. A creepy killer with a visually arresting look and a cool mythology. Likable characters and a semi-original setting. Check these boxes and you're almost there. Too often filmmakers are too caught up in attempting to force a philosophical, social or political agenda through slashers*. It can work, yes, but in doing so you lose the simple popcorn pleasure of slashers. And it's that simple popcorn pleasure that made me want the first Midweek Mayhem to cover Adam Green's Hatchet series.
The first Hatchet was released in 2006, it's simple, yet eye-catching poster claiming it as 'Old School American Horror'. Immediately grabbing the attention of the horror community, Adam Green's indie slasher opened to rave reviews from genre fans worldwide. And it's easy to see why. The plot is paper-thin; a mismatched group of tourists take a haunted swamp tour, quickly crash and find themselves stranded in the eerie, deadly stomping grounds of the fabled monstrous killer, Victor Crowley (played by horror icon Kane Hodder). Of course, the legend turns out to be true and by the 30 minute mark, Crowley is hacking, slashing and sanding (yup, he uses a sander on someone's face) his way through the doomed tourists. It's paper-thin, but it adheres to the simple slasher structure; getting characters into a dark, isolated environment so the film can promptly get to the reason audiences bought a ticket; the kills. And speaking of the kills, Green really doesn't fuck around on this series. People are decapitated, smashed, crushed, limbs are ripped off, you name it. The VERY FIRST scene has an unseen Crowley tear a character in half with his bare hands, with Kill Bill-esque geysers of blood spraying in every direction. And it's hilarious. The kills are so defying of physics and biology laws that it's obvious Green's series both takes place in a purely fantastic reality but also doesn't take itself seriously at all. As the franchise goes on these murder set pieces only get more and more outrageous, but they remain tremendous fun. I can't imagine how many liters of fake blood went into this series, but it has to be up there with the likes of Riki-Oh and Braindead for onscreen carnage.
Its obvious that Green's intent was to create a modern horror icon, a cinematic menace that this generation could claim as their Freddy, Jason or Michael Myers. And he's more or less successful. Across four films Victor Crowley's mythology has been satisfyingly fleshed out, at first making him an almost tragic spirit, doomed to unending torment until he gets revenge on the bullies who led him to his death as a young man. But in Hatchet II, his story is slightly retconned, as if Green himself felt his killer's story wasn't fucked up enough. And so we learn that Crowley is the result of a passionate affair that led to a curse on his pregnant mother. So Crowley is born in a literal pool of blood, horribly misshapen, so much so that his mother immediately dies(!) upon seeing him for the first time. It's a backstory that's part sad, part grotesque but kind of hilarious. The director isn't parodying here, rather channeling his obvious adoration of tragic monsters while creating a fun, slightly silly, slasher origin story. Huge credit here too to Kane Hodder, not only playing the killer, but also his tormented father, Thomas Crowley, a performance he genuinely slays (pun intended). Hodder is joined in the first two films by a myriad of genre favorites, Danielle Harris, John Carl Buechler, Tony Todd, Robert Englund...hell, even Troma Films' founder Lloyd Kaufman pops up for a cameo in part II.
Hatchet III, the weakest of the sequels released so far (Victor Crowley aka Hatchet IV doesn't hit shelves or VOD until February 6th), still manages to provide some laughs and copious lashings of gore. Joining the already tremendously long line of horror stars in the series this time around; Texas Chainsaw Massacre II's Caroline Williams, Friday the 13th's Derek Mears, The Devil Rejects' Sid Haig and Gremlins' Zach Galligan. It meanders where the other films kept a solid pace and tonally it's a bit dour in comparison to the first two Green-directed films (Green just wrote part III, BJ McDonnell handled directing duties), but it's got enough of that simple, slasher charm to keep you engaged. Plus, part III might have my favourite scene of all three of the films. I don't want to spoil it, but it's typically nasty and cool at the same time. It's also hilarious that Derek Mears' giant commando character, while seemingly the Dutch of the SWAT team, lasts like 15 minutes, getting torn inside out before the hour mark hits.
The low-budget, high-gore aesthetic works for the Hatchet series and the beauty of it all is that it's a slasher made to be exactly what it is; a fun cinematic ride. If you're into these kind of movies and haven't gotten a chance to see any of the Hatchet films yet, I strongly recommend the trilogy. It's a bloody delight.
*Recently while watching the special features on the 1982 Michael Ironside slasher flick, Visiting Hours, the director Jean-Claude Lord mentions varying themes and commentaries he tried to include throughout the film. In a super rare case, his film is actually a slasher that works BETTER with the social commentary.