DVD Reviews

Hatchet II – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Feb 4, 2011, 22:28 GMT

Just as the 80s had their signature murderous maniacs - "Halloween\'s" Michael Myers of Haddonfield and "Friday the 13th\'s" Jason Voorhees of Camp Crystal Lake - the original "Hatchet" marked the arrival of the latest and most lethal of the genre\'s stalking murderers: Victor Crowley, a crazed backwoods killer stalking the bayous of New Orleans. "Hatchet II" picks up right where the 2007 original film ends, as Meredith (Danielle Harris ...more

Wade back into Victor Crowley’s swamp for some more bloodshed.  If you’re going to go back into the swamp, you’re going to get muddy.  I found the first film breezy, gory fun, but I found this return a bit of the same. 

Marybeth Dunston (Danielle Harris taking over for Tamara Feldman) barely escapes the blade of deformed maniac Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder).  She is found by a swamp hermit (John Carl Buechler) who immediately throws her out when she says who her daddy is.  He only cryptically intones that she should go and see Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd) if she wants to know the truth. 

She does and Zombie regales her with the tale of Victor Crowley and how her family was involved in “creating” the killer.  Zombie gathers together a group to offer a reward for the one who brings in the head of Crowley, but insists on Marybeth’s uncle Bob (Fright Night director Tom Holland) and a man named Trent (R.A. Mihailoff) going with the group. 

So Marybeth, Zombie, and a group of gun-toting vigilantes venture into the swamp to put an end to Crowley forever. 

Hatchet was a throwback to those gore fueled slasher films of yesteryear.  These days we’re served up a heaping helping of lukewarm PG-13 lowest common denominator horror in hopes of capturing a young audience with pockets full of money.  So Hatchet was a film that wore its blood stained heart on its torn sleeve. 

There’s also another, perhaps unintentional, remembrance of yesteryear – movies with two’s after their titles usually aren’t as good as their originals.  There’s still that gory, fun vibe but the secondary moniker takes some of the gloss off.  Maybe they weren’t given a better budget for the sequel (which also is usually the case in sequeled series – one more film but with less money) but the first film had a slicker look. 

Scream queen Danielle Harris steps into the starring spot and genre fans will appreciate the significance.  Tony Todd also delightfully chews the scenery as Reverend Zombie.  Kane Hodder steps into the makeup as Crowley but also does some acting sans it as Victor’s daddy. 

He even gets to shed a tear, then he puts on the latex and tears up the characters.  The posse sent into the swamp is a group of archetypes and they’re killed in creative, gruesome ways. 

One particular character is so annoying that it’s great to see him meet his end.  I suppose if turn off your brain that you’ll be drug along in the wicked fun but I still felt that that fun was turned down a notch. 

There was also the controversy about the film being shown in a theater chain uncut and then suddenly being pulled, but maybe home video was the place that the film would feel more at home at anyway.     

Hatchet II is presented in widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  Special features include two commentaries (one from director Adam Green, cinematographer Will Barratt and makeup supervisor Robert Pendergraft and the second from Green, Kane Hodder, and Tony Todd), the 33 minute “Hatchet II” behind-the-scenes, the 2 minute trailer, the 1 minute teaser trailer, a 33 second TV spot, and a 30 second radio spot. 

Hatchet II in some ways follows through in the throwback slasher film genre that it pays homage to.  It also follows the convention that the more sequels you make the lesser they get.  It’s still a fun time for a gorehound, but the first film seemed to work better.

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