Hatchet II (2010)

After watching Hatchet the other night and enjoying the graphic violence and gore, I decided to search out the sequel and see what Victor Crawley had in store. Luckily for me, Hatchet II was on one of my premium channels and I was able to DVR it.

Plot/ Marybeth escapes the clutches of the bayou-butcher Victor Crowley and returns to the swamp with an army of hunters and gunmen, determined to end Crowley's reign of horror once and for all.

Sequels are usually a mixed bag, some are successful at capturing the momentum of the original and some come up way short. This flick had some hits and misses when comparing it to the original. The gore in this one was graphic, intense and truly was a highlight and the storyline and character development was outstanding. While by and large the acting was solid, especially Kane Hodder’s dual role, some of the casting decisions (like changing out Marybeth) took something away from the original, not to mention lacking the great comedy that was a blast in the first one. Overall, this was definitely a decent sequel and a horror movie that is worth watching (especially if you enjoyed the original).

Hatchet (2006)

After a couple of days away from the blog recovering from my interview at the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics, it was time to settle in and watch something after the finale of American Horror Story. My choice was the gory slasher entry Hatchet from 2006.

Plot/ When a group of tourists on a New Orleans haunted swamp tour find themselves stranded in the wilderness, their evening of fun and spooks turns into a horrific nightmare.

Being a child of the 1980s, slashers played a huge role in developing what I love in horror movies. Unfortunately, those days are long gone, replaced by teen-driven franchises and censored horror. That is where Hatchet succeeds, paying homage to those classic days with a tremendous mixture of gore, violence and just enough comic interludes. The storyline is solid and the acting is decent, but it is the graphic violence (and nudity) that set it apart from others in the genre. In the end, this one is an entertaining endeavor and one definitely made for true gore hounds and horror fans.