An even more fan boy-centric sequel to the slasher pastiche HATCHET, which was the breakthrough movie for a filmmaker who has since proven his versatility with different styles and approaches to genre films (SPIRAL, FROZEN). HATCHET II is an undeniably self-indulgent exercise, the horror cinema equivalent of masturbation, but it’s made with love and care for What We Want. Sometimes it‘s not on target, especially during an uneven first half in which the pace sometimes lags and some editorial discipline should have kicked in. Most often, however, it ranks above the average slasher sequel in the way it revives what we liked before, continues exactly where its predecessor left off, and expands on the story, characters and body count.
The movie’s tone and intended audience are reinforced at the very start, with Green himself – reprising his Part One cameo – vomiting on-screen just as his directorial credit appears. The movie’s chain of references ranges from the obvious (direct winks to main inspiration Jason Vorhees ; a key character quoting THE THING’s “You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me!” as in the original HATCHET) to those aimed at die-hards only (a name-check for spoof-slasher Leslie Vernon!).
Continuity with HATCHET is very nicely achieved, incorporating funny found-footage of HATCHET’s memorable “Bayou Beavers” film-shoot allowing for the return of two of the movie’s funniest characters (hurray for Mercedes McNab). Also gratuitously returning is Parry Shen as the brother of the original’s ill-fated shyster tour guide, and there’s an expansion of bayou slasher Victor Crowley’s back-story, which allows Kane Hodder to enjoy some more, rare on-screen emoting and (unnervingly) have sex on-screen for the first time. John Carl Buechler returns as his piss-quaffing Crazy Ralph variant Jack Cracker, who gets throttled with, dragged by and decapitated by his own intestines in the very first sequence.
In her fourth decade of playing slasher movie protagonists, Danielle Harris takes over final girl duties as HATCHET’s resilient heroine. We find out more about her link to Victor this time around : she’s the daughter of one of the three guys who, back in the day, inadvertently helped cause Crowley’s severe injuries. Narrowly escaping the confrontation that abruptly ended HATCHET, Harris heads back to the same swamps with a bunch of rounded up hunters and rednecks in tow – plus Tony Todd’s enigmatic, wise yet not entirely trustworthy Reverend Zombie (real name : Clive), who seems to know how to stop Crowley’s reign of terror.
Harris has been an appealing presence throughout her genre career, and it’s too bad that HATCHET II saddles her, even more than her direct predecessor, with a one-note survivor role who’s tortured mood is no fun at all. Quite frankly, her whiney, weakly written heroine is one of the sequel’s few major drawbacks, though Green does afford her one of the most spectacularly defiant Final Girl moments in slasher history, as she is driven to obliterate Crowley in a most persuasive ultra-violent fashion.
There are cameos for genre-spotters, including Lloyd Kaufman, though the decision to cast CHILD’S PLAY / FRIGHT NIGHT director Tom Holland in a key supporting role was a fan boy gamble that didn’t pay off as he’s an awkward presence onscreen. The biggest acting asset in the whole movie turns out to be Tony Todd, given his meatiest, best written role since CANDYMAN and the chance to show real range as his character veers from menacing and double-crossing to emotional and charismatic. That wonderfully hypnotic, sonorous voice is also used to great effect when Todd retells Crowley’s mythology HIS way.
Green, as before, proves himself a witty and proficient writer-director, and he has a lot of fun with the sub-genre, striving for a balance of hot naked chicks and engaging character work. The comic momentum of HATCHET is not quite equaled but, when the mayhem kicks in, Green delivers the finest array of inventively gruesome old-school kills since Tom Savini’s heyday. Again referencing the original in his desire to best HATCHET’s body count and crowd-pleasing deaths (someone’s head is mashed by a battery-powered sand-blaster, again), the movie offers a tremendous array of bloody, graphic offing’s.
Nothing else seems to matter when Kane Hodder’s imposing Crowley gets to wield the biggest movie chainsaw of all time, using it to rip apart two men simultaneously through their balls. There is a hilarious coitus-interruptus moment in which a freshly decapitated dude continues to fuck his wholly oblivious girlfriend even after losing his head ; plus spectacular face-ripping, bi-sections, propeller-blade cranial destruction, a head bashed in with the blunt end of the hatchet, you name it…
Fans of the stunt casting also get a real pay off, with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see man mountain Kane Hodder go mano a mano in a brutish fashion with the equally towering Tony Todd and Brick Shit-house / erstwhile Leatherface R.A. Mihailoff. Bear with the rockier patches and these (and other) rewards are more than enough to justify Green’s return to this particular well.
– Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
