Hatchet

And we’re back… and just as promised, today is Sunday BLOODY Sunday and No, I’m not talking about that movie. But the day calls for blood, don’t you think? I agree, so without further ado, I give you Hatchet. The 2006 slasher-film ‘starring’ none other than one of our favorite slasher-bad guys Kane Hodder as Victor Crowley, the slasher-king of the 21th century. The movie was written and directed by Adam Green and stars Joel David Moore (Ben), Tamara Feldman (Marybeth), Deon Richmond (Marcus) and Mercedes McNab (Misty) among others and features Horror A-listers Robert Englund (Sampson) and Tony Todd (Reverend Zombie) in supporting roles. The movie was received with a lot of mixed bags when it comes to critics (with a 49% Fresh-rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.6 (to date)-score on IMDB) but it quickly established itself a Cult-favorite among fans and it still stands as one of the ‘awesomest’ of all the present-day slashers, and that’s a ‘fact’ that Tango does Not dispute!

The story of the film (’cause, you know… a slasher-film Has to have a story, how else would it work?!) follows a group of friends on Mardi Gras-vacation in New Orleans that decides to take a ‘Haunted Swamp’ tour. As you can understand, the film goes on much like any other film in the genre, they encounter the villainous ‘creature’ (in this case, a deformed man named Victor Crowley) who kills them off one by one in the most cliched manor. But what is it about this film, that puts it apart from all the other slashers out there? Well, I’ll tell you what it is….. or rather, Who, it is. His name, is Kane Hodder.

The movie itself is not really that great, it’s just an average slasher-flick with a lot of twitches, false scares, blood and pompously overused ambiance.. basically, it follows every single rule there ever was for such a film (whether they knew it or not), and the acting … well, what can I say, it’s overall decent. Nothing great but it’s sure as hell ain’t bad neither. Although, I have to tip my hat a bit, to Joel David Moore, who’s probably most notable for his more Geek-aligned roles in movies like Avatar and The Hottie & the Nottie. He really surprised me as an actor in this one and it made my open my eyes to a more bright future for him to come.

But as I said, the thing about this movie that puts it above every other movie out there is Kane Hodder’s Crowley. He uses what he learned from his four times as Jason Voorhees and combines it with something else, something….. (I want to say darker, but I don’t know if that’s the right word?).. well, I don’t really know What it is, but it sure as all bloody hell works!

All and all, this movie is dark, bloody, scary and at times sexy as a ‘Chris’Damn!!’ and it will forever hold a place (may it be a whole lot smaller than the Nightmare and Friday-series) in my heart when it comes to slasher-films. If you haven’t seen it, I sincerely hope you watch it… and when you’ve don that, make sure to watch its sequels, Hatchet II, from 2010 and Hatchet III, which came out only earlier this year. They are both as good as the first one and they most definitely shows us, that sequels don’t necessarily have to be worse than the first one.

That’s it for this week. I hope you’ve enjoyed your time here on Tango’s Thoughts, for our first week of the 2013 Horror-a-thon, and I most dearly hope that you’ll be tuning in tomorrow for our blood infested continuation of the -Thon. And just as last week, we’ll be blasting off with a more moon-riddled saga; the forever classical tale An American Werewolf in London.

But until then…. let Hodder infest your nightmares once again. Watch the Hatchet-series, it’s a Non-disappointment-guarantee!