NEW Hatchet 2 (DVD)

MAY CONTAIN MINOR PLOT SPOILERS. The movie opens with Marybeth escaping from the monster Victor Crowley. She is helped by one-eye Jack. Later Jack discovers Marybeth is a Dunstan and orders her out and to go talk to Rev. Zombie. Victor shows up at Jack's shack, rips out his intestine then uses it as a cord to pop off his head. The killing and gore in this movie can best be described as "Troma" style. Every death scene hits a major squirting artery. This beginning scene also has the bulk of the movie's nudity as Jack views a found video camera.

Marybeth, who is perhaps the worst at acting in this film, visits Rev. Zombie (Tony Todd) who explains how Victor Crowley became a ghost/legend/killer with a remarkable story telling voice aka the James Earl Jones of horror movies. As it turns out, Zombie's boat was lost in Honey Island Swamp. He forms a posse (including one hot blond for one last nude/sex scene) to retrieve his boat and to kill Victor Crowley once and for all.

People die in all kinds of ways as Crowley seems to have an endless supply of gasoline powered tools. Notice when faces are being smashed, they have a tendency to bounce back as if they are made of rubber. In the old house, where everything is grown over, there is a new door. Cletis was my favorite redneck character. He was realistic.

Caution: If you are an easily offended Christian, there is one scene (in addition to all the killing, gore and nudity) that you might find offensive. You will know it when you hear it.

I must say I really enjoyed Hatchet 2. Though originality is zip, I still found it somewhat refreshing. Essentially it's a rehash of the first film with the body count and the gore upped a notch. The survivor of the first film's massacre, Marybeth(here played by Danielle Harris) decides to go back to the swamp and take care of killer Victor Crowley once and for all. She gets Reverend Zombie(Tony Todd) to accompany her, and he rounds up a bunch of locals to go on the hunt. Of course Reverend Zombie has his own selfish reasons for going along on this shindig. And of course another massacre ensues.
I'm not gonna say that you'll like this film if you liked the first one, coz it seems as though many folks who liked the first one hated this one.
I though it was a lot of fun. In recent years there has been a tidal wave of horror films that claim to be in the style of 70/80 horror grindhouse cinema. I found most of these films to be failures through their use of CGI gore and sometimes MTV style editing. I'm not saying that the Hatchet films totally get it right in that department, but it's obvious that Adam Green is a huge fan of 80s slasher films, and has really put forth the effort to make a modern day 80s slasher film.....if that makes sense. It's not a spoof, nor is it a self referential "I know I'm in a slasher movie and I know the rules" kind of deal either. It plays the horror thing straight, but is also tongue in cheek at the same time. It's not laugh out loud funny, and many folks have complained about this. Personally I'm glad it's not funny. Yes, it has a few chuckles along the way-a film like this has to-but in the end we're dealing with gory, fun slasher movie schlock.
Folks have made comments about the "fake looking" effects. Well, I gotta say that the effects in this film were one of the high points for me. They add to the fun. Good ol' prosthetic gore effects. To those raised on and spoiled by CG gore, this won't be welcome. But really, CG gore looks very phony, and lets face it, it's cheating. If you've ever been unfortunate enough(unless you get off on it) to see images of corpses and mutilated bodies, they do have a "fake" look about them. They sure as hell don't look like CGI. I'd guess the gore in this film is probably more realistic that we know. But who cares anyway? It's cool!!
So yes, I definitely give kudos to Adam Green for giving us another Victor Crowley bloodbath....80s style! I hope there's a third.

Not as good as the first but still a fun movie. If you like bloody over the top slasher flicks then you will enjoy this, if you have not seen the first one SEE IT!! I will be adding this to my collection in Feb.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 49 reviews  3.2 out of 5 stars