| Hatchet | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster |
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| Directed by | Adam Green |
| Produced by | Scott Altomare Sarah Elbert Cory Neal |
| Written by | Adam Green |
| Starring | Joel Moore Tamara Feldman Deon Richmond Mercedes McNab Parry Shen Joel Murray Joleigh Fioreavanti Richard Riehle Patrika Darbo Joshua Leonard Tony Todd Robert Englund Kane Hodder |
| Music by | Andy Garfield Theme: Marilyn Manson |
| Cinematography | Will Barratt |
| Editing by | Christopher Roth |
| Studio | ArieScope Pictures Radioaktive Film High Seas Entertainment |
| Distributed by | Anchor Bay Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | April 27, 2006 (Tribeca) September 7, 2007 (US) |
| Running time | 83 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $208,550[1][2] |
Hatchet is a 2006 American slasher film written and directed by Adam Green. The film features an all-star horror film cast.
Contents |
Two hunters, Sampson (Robert Englund) and his son Ainsley (Joshua Leonard), are fishing in a swamp during a full moon. Ainsley says he has to use the restroom, and Sampson rows their boat back to shore. While Ainsley is urinating, Sampson falls silent; Ainsley goes to see where he is and finds Sampson's mutilated body. He quickly grabs his harpoon, only to be murdered by a unknown monstrous being.
During a Mardi Gras celebration in downtown New Orleans, there is a group of friends including Ben (Joel Moore) and his best friend Marcus (Deon Richmond), who have come to have some fun since Ben's girlfriend of eight years recently dumped him. Ben decides to go on a haunted swamp tour, and Marcus agrees to go with him. The two find that the tour is closed because the guide, Rev. Zombie (Tony Todd), was sued for negligence. Rev. Zombie suggests that they try a place farther down the street, owned by the over-the-top, inexperienced tour guide Shawn (Parry Shen). Marcus decides to leave but changes his mind upon seeing two topless girls: Misty (Mercedes McNab), a ditzy porn star, and Jenna (Joleigh Fioreavanti), a bossy, boastful, up-and-coming actress. Their sleazy director, Shapiro (Joel Murray), is also there. Ben pays for himself and Marcus and Shawn leads them to his tour bus, where the other tourists, Jim (Richard Riehle) and Shannon Permatteo (Patrika Darbo), a Minnesota couple, and the quiet, hot-tempered Marybeth (Tamara Feldman) are waiting.
Ben tries to make friends with Marybeth, who rejects him, while Marcus takes a liking to Jenna. Shawn does not know what he is doing, which the others realize as they arrive at the swamp. Shapiro has Misty and Jenna strip down and film a scene for Bayou Beavers as everyone boards the boat, while a homeless swamp-dweller warns them away from the swamp. Shawn leads them through swamplands and past abandoned houses, including one where Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder), a deformed creature, lived. Shawn mentions "one night Victor's dad goes crazy and whacks him in the face with a hatchet" while looking at "ghost lights"; however, Shannon sees someone in the trees, and Shawn accidentally crashes into a rock, sinking the boat. To reach land, they must walk across a broken tree. Jim is bitten on the leg by an alligator, making him, Misty and Shapiro fall into the water. They reach shore and run to safety, while Jim bleeds profusely. They realize that Shawn is not a tour guide; he is just a college student looking for money. Marybeth takes out a gun she brought and informs them that her father and brother, Sampson and Ainsley, disappeared while fishing nearby, presumably at Crowley's hands. She then tells them the real story of Victor Crowley.
Long ago, presumably the 1940s-60s, Crowley was a deformed boy (Rileah Vanderbilt) who was kept hidden from the world by his father. One Halloween, a group of kids decided to scare Victor by throwing fireworks into his house, but the house was engulfed in flames. Victor's father (Hodder) tried to hack down the door with a hatchet to save Victor, but because Victor was pressed up against the other side of the door trying to get out, he hit him in the face with the hatchet, killing him. Victor's father died of a broken heart ten years later. Marybeth believes Victor roams the swamp as a vengeful spirit, killing anyone who enters.
Victor mostly kills people near his house, which they are standing in front of. Shannon becomes infuriated with how scared everyone is and decides to help her husband into the house. Victor emerges and kills the Permatteos. Marybeth shoots Victor, but only makes him fall. While running away, Shapiro is separated from the others and killed by Victor. The others find Shapiro's body. Marybeth suggests they return to the Crowley house to get weapons, and all six of them go to the house. Jenna, Shawn, Marcus, and Misty stand guard while Marybeth and Ben go into the shed to get weapons, but find Sampson and Ainsley's bodies instead. Ben comforts Marybeth, and they grab a shovel and a pitchfork, while the others are scared by noises in the bushes. Jenna is killed by Victor as Marybeth and Ben arrive with the weapons. Marybeth hits Victor with the shovel, making him fall and get stabbed with the pitchfork by Ben. Shawn reaches for the shovel, but Victor grabs it first, chopping off Shawn's leg with it, and then decapitating him while the others flee.
The survivors decide to lure Victor back to his house and set him on fire with the gasoline tanks in the shed. They return to the house and Ben goes into the shed to retrieve a gasoline tank, while Misty stands guard and Marybeth and Marcus act as bait to lure Victor in. Marybeth and Marcus discover that Misty is missing, and her head and torso are thrown onto Ben by Victor. Ben finds a tank and throws it on Victor while Marybeth and Marcus set him on fire, but it begins to rain and the fire is extinguished. The three begin running through a cemetery and find the gate locked; Ben is tackled by Victor who spits up blood in his face before he is dragged to safety. They start running away, but Marcus is grabbed by Victor and killed. Victor grabs a gate pole and chases Ben and Marybeth, throwing it into Ben's foot. Marybeth bends the pole until it is pointed at Victor, who impales himself upon it. Ben and Marybeth board Sampson's boat and head out; Marybeth is snared by seaweed and pulled underwater. She sees Ben's arm sticking into the water for her to grab, but is pulled up by Victor, who is holding a dying Ben's severed forearm. The film ends with Victor holding her screaming.
The film was originally given an NC-17 rating for extreme horror violence. After two months of appeals and revisions, it received an R rating by the MPAA for "strong bloody horror violence, sexual content, nudity, and language". Director Adam Green found the process to be frustrating and arbitrary: "Ultimately, it came down to frames and a couple shots," says Green of the re-editing. "There’s a few deaths that don’t go the distance anymore. For instance, Joleigh still gets the belt sander put in her face. And Patrika can still get her face ripped in half, but Richard can only get hit with a hatchet a certain number of times. It was thirteen times that he got chopped before; now it’s three."
Hatchet was selected for the 2006 London FrightFest Film Festival[3] at The Odeon West End on August 25, 2006. It was introduced on stage by Adam Green who hosted a Q&A session afterwards.
Hatchet was selected for Sitges International Film Festival in Spain in 2006.
Hatchet was selected for Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas in 2006. The film sold out both nights, resulting in extra folding chairs having to be set up in the theater and audience members sitting in the aisles. The film walked away with the audience award for "Best Picture" as well as jury prizes for "Best Actor" (Kane Hodder) and "Best Special Effects".
Hatchet was selected for Germany's Fantasy Film Festival in 2006. As part of the festival, the film toured Munich, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Bochum, Hamburg, and Berlin.[4]
The film's last festival appearance in 2006 was at the October Screamfest Horror Film Festival in Hollywood. Adam Green introduced the screening and promised that the film had found a U.S. distributor, although at the time he did not reveal the name of the company. He also suggested that the release version of the film was likely to have its violence cut down in order to achieve an R rating.
Hatchet was selected for three more festivals in 2007 right before its release, including Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival and France's Weekend De La Peur.
Based on 43 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Hatchet has an overall 50% approval rating from critics, with an average score of 5.4 out of 10.[5] Among Rotten Tomatoes' Top Critics, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs,[6] the film holds an overall approval rating of 20%.[7] By comparison, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 57, based on 8 reviews.[8]
Hatchet was released on DVD on December 18, 2007.[9] There are two versions available, the original theatrical cut and the unrated director's cut (the difference between the two is that the unrated cut has an extra minute of gore). The film reportedly made $6 million in U.S. rentals alone during its first three weeks of release. The film has sold over 597,022 units in North America alone, translating into $8,262,721.[2] The film was released on Blu-ray on September 7, 2010.[10]
In November 2008, Anchor Bay Entertainment released a teaser poster for a sequel,[11] Hatchet II[12] and Adam Green returned to direct the film.[13] Kane Hodder also returned as Victor Crowley/Mr. Crowley, with Tony Todd returning as Reverend Zombie, and John Carl Buechler as Jack Cracker. New in the cast was R.A. Mihailoff and Danielle Harris, who took over the role of Marybeth.[14]
Hatchet 2 follows Marybeth as she escapes from the clutches of Victor Crowley, learns the truth about his curse,[15] and heads back into the haunted New Orleans swamp to seek revenge for her family and kill Victor Crowley once and for all.[16] Green confirmed on March 29, 2010 the extension of the series to two more sequels, and has expressed interest in a 3D sequel.
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