FF REVIEW: HATCHET II

I enjoyed Hatchet for the kills, but snoozed through the rest. This seems about the same. I'm all for some fun gore, but like you say, when the whole thing is done with a wink, it takes away from some of the fun. If you can't make an earnest, ridiculous slasher film, then try to make something better.

I look forward to fast forwarding through this in the future in search of gore, but hopefully Green will move on to something more interesting. I liked Frozen enough to follow him to another project.

I liked Hatchet, but it was certainly over hyped. Hatchet II I've been looking forward to, and after recently seeing the trailer that boasts about it being the first unrated horror movie to be mass released to theaters in 25 years, I got even more hyped for it.

Sounds like I should keep my expectations in check, but the fact that it has a bunch of gore and cool set pieces will be enough to keep my attention.

Well, it was just recently that I saw the first Hatchet (on cable TV one Friday night) and I felt almost the exact same way that Jacob did. I did not enjoy watching it aside from the ridiculous kills; some of the characters were SO off-putting and it was paced pretty badly too. The non-ending did not help improve my mood either.

I went and saw the sequel earlier tonight and I'll also have to agree with Jacob in it definitely being better. While there were still annoying characters (the guy who loved those cookies... just as bad as those bimbos in the first film), everything else was improved from the first movie. I appreciated how the humor factor was definitely lesser here than the first. While there was some funny stuff there, it was just too much for the movie so I am glad that aspect was toned down.

I just didn't think this movie was all that great either and is not "the savior of horror" or whatever has been bandied about. But, I won't get into the whole deal about whether this is better than all those remakes/PG-13 movies in the genre and what have you.

There was some nice acting from Danielle Harris (who didn't look too shabby either) and much more Tony Todd is a good thing, but it's not really that memorable aside from the kills, which definitely did deliver.

Personally, I'll remember my time at the auditorium not really for the "better than the first but still not an instant classic by any means" factor but rather because of the Kane Hodder factor. The stars of the movie are visiting a few random cities and as Kane is just about to film some movie in Orlando, that's why he was in Tampa late Thursday night and Orlando tonight. I'm not a person who goes to conventions at all so my meetings with celebrities are slim and none. It was nice for him to be there and before (and after) the movie answering various questions from the small crowd there. I was certainly expecting more there, as hey it's a beloved actor in at least a segment of that genre, but I guess the horror sites that plugged it and some Twitter accounts I follow didn't mean all that much in the end as at the most there was like 2 dozen people there, including me.

So, I'll agree with much of Jacob's review; if you were a person who loved the original Hatchet, I'm sure you will enjoy the sequel.

Based on crowd reactions, this is going to play really well for most everyone who enjoyed part one. Maybe I'm just a snob and need more than a wink and nudge to enjoy a horror movie. I just don't know. The movie is filled with little in-jokes and references to other horror movies, but other than a "Oh, I've seen that movie too!" moment of recognition, they don't add anything to the movie.

Green is pandering to a very specific audience and doing a pretty good of it. Even though I'm a horror fan, I just don't fall into that audience.

Also, the talkback has supplied my favorite comment yet: "I have given a name to my pain, and it is Jacob Hall." I. Have. Arrived.

I also have to admit that the crowd I saw it with did help out. I mean, I saw the first one on TV alone; on the big screen in front of an adoring audience is something else entirely, and they laughed at the funny lines and cringed at the most gruesome stuff. There were also pops for some of the in-jokes, especially the blatant Troma reference. The crowd wasn't filled with a bunch of dumb rubes, in other words.

I heard this is being pulled from Theatres. A Ratings Problem?

I smell a publicity grab as far as the "pulled from theaters" line. It wasn't making much per screen and from all indications it wasn't a particularly good film to begin with. Word of mouth will pass around about it being "too shocking for theaters" and DVD sales and rentals will take a bump. Ultimately, it's Wal mart horror (which is kind of funny considering you can find Richard Stanley's Hardware and the French horror Inside at WalMarts these days) designed for mass consumption. Movies like this are the reason I have trouble convincing people that the genre has viable things to say.

I love the lines in this review regarding the disengenious nature of enterprises like this. It is a celebration of bad filmmaking. It's the difference between House of 1000 Corpses and Devil's Rejects. In fact, I'll take Rob Zombie's remakes of the Halloween franchise over this. They are bad movies. But at least they are genuinely bad.

Huh? Apparently Hatchet II will be on Video On Demand in Dec 2010.

So they just gave up on the Theatrical Release?

Wow. I was actually surprised by how obnoxious I found this movie. I hated the first film when I originally saw it, but a second viewing had sort of cooled my rage. I wouldn't say I wound up liking the first film, but I at least saw its place in the grander scheme of horror - it had great kills, which seemed to be all it wanted to do. It was a lark. Maybe I'm on the same trajectory with HATCHET II and I need to watch it a second time (though I can't imagine that happening for many, many years). But Jesus. The sheer amount of in-jokes and camera winking was truly insufferable at times. Again there are some fun/funny kills, but they felt extremely pandering this time. This is a movie designed to play with a packed audience at a horror festival. I guess there is nothing wrong with that, but that makes it more of an event than an actual film. All horror movies are better with an audience, but if they can't play on my TV at home, they just ain't no good. Victor Crowley is not an interesting villain, bottom line.

 

What a waste of the lovely Danielle Harris.