Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this gory, low-budget monster/slasher spoof is drenched in blood, including fake-looking but explicit dismemberments and beheadings. The first violent scene is typically sketchy (though it leaves bloody corpses), but later scenes are incessant, with blood spewing, lots of screaming, and limbs and heads flying. Weapons include a gun and sharp implements (chainsaw, hatchet), as well as gasoline and a lighter. There are frequent breast shots (part of a repeated joke about girls baring their chests for a "girls gone wild"-style video) and descriptions of adolescent male sex fantasies, with crude language. Swearing includes "s--t," "b--ch," and a select few "f--ks."
Families can talk about what draws people to this kind of movie. Why do people enjoy scary and/or gory movies? Does this fall into the "torture porn" subgenre? Why or why not? Does the quality of the production affect how scary (or not) a horror movie is? Families can also discuss whether this movie is innovative or conventional -- how is it similar to and different from other horror movies? Are you looking for creativity in a horror movie, or just blood and guts? Why or why not?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
Fishing on a dark, misty, isolated swamp is never a good idea. Especially when the nearby land belongs to a legendary local monster. And even more especially when your dad -- the man you're fishing with -- is played by Robert Englund. So when sad-sack young fisherman Ainsley (Joshua Leonard) starts complaining to the tune of spooky music at the start of HATCHET, you know immediately that he's dead meat.
With this bickering pair soon dispatched, Adam Green's low-budget slasher spoof cuts to its primary prey, Ben (Joel David Moore) and Marcus (Deon Richmond), who are visiting New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Because Ben is despondent over a recent breakup, good buddy Marcus agrees -- against his better judgment -- to accompany his buddy on a scary boat ride (the fact that the ride is touted by a guy named Reverend Zombie who's played by Candyman's Tony Todd doesn't alert them to the utter badness of this idea). They're quickly entranced by fellow boat riders Jenna (Joleigh Fioreavanti) and Misty (Mercedes McNab) ... and only slightly put off by their sleazy "director," who keeps telling the girls to lift their shirts, strike poses, and go "Whoo!"
As expected, the ride leads the foursome -- along with several other victims-to-be -- into the bayou, where they're soon beset by the movie's deformed, unkillable monster. He turns out to be Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder, who's usually hidden under other makeup, such as in the sequels to Friday the 13th); tormented as a child, Victor now seeks vengeance on everyone who happens into his swamp. Ho hum.
As Ben and Marcus do their best to keep each other alive through Victor's barrage of attacks, they're aided by Marybeth (Tamara Feldman), whose father and brother were offed in the first scene and who is now a walking repository of all monster lore. (The fact that she brings along a handgun helps a little, too, but not that much.)
Over the top and awkwardly paced, Hatchet isn't very clever for a spoof; it explains or repeats too many plot points. Most of the jokes come in the casting (they're all good sports, these aging slasher-movie stars). But the slasher films were already spoofy, with Freddy Krueger's one-liners and Jason Voorhees' implacable plodding and chopping. And that makes this movie's comedy feel old.
Viewers might want to look for other slasher-movie satires, including Alligator, Anaconda, Primeval, and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentRepeated "girls gone wild"-style breast barings (nipples visible), as well as a girl-on-girl kiss encouraged by a sleazy videomaker. A couple tongue-kisses. Much talk about sex and desire by young men, including slang ("skank," "boobs," "t--ties," "nipple," "cooch," "sweaty balls," "d--k," "bag of d--ks," "lick me"). Discussion of syphilis ("You can't hook up with itchy chicks"). Ben describes imagined scene of ex-girlfriend "bent over" a love seat during sex with another man. Mentions of Playboy and condoms. Derogatory slang ("queer") and repetitive Marilyn Manson song lyrics ("Sex sex sex"). |
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ViolenceLots of spurting blood and eww-inducing vomit/spit. Monster (hunchbacked, deformed, gooey, and nonverbal) attacks two men at the start, leaving exposed bloody body parts and pulling out entrails in close-up, with blood spatters. Description and flashback of father "whacking" Victor in the head with a hatchet (bloody). Alligator attacks boat party; Marybeth shoots it (more blood). Once Victor appears in the woods, the assault is nonstop, featuring jump edits, screaming, running, falling, bloody hacking, insides pulled out, heads cut off and bouncing, a chainsaw, and (of course) a hatchet. Bodies look as if Victor has eaten them. Weapons include a gun and sharp implements (chainsaw, hatchet), as well as gasoline and a lighter (monster set on fire). |
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LanguagePlenty of strong language, including multiple uses of "f--k" and "s--t" (with more in the Marilyn Manson song "This Is the New S--t," which plays at the beginning and end of the movie), as well as "bitch" (again, with more in song lyrics), "damn," "hell," "a--hole," "bastard," and "c--ksucker." Frequent obnoxious exchanges are peppered with "shut up" and "you suck." |
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Social BehaviorVictims are rude, selfish, careless, and self-pitying; locals are demented (one is said to "drink his own piss"). An Asian character is especially stereotypical, soliciting a snide comment about "Uncle Remus meets Bruce Lee," with both terms being meant disparagingly. |
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CommercialismMentions of Mini-Cooper, Emeril (Lagasse), Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoFather smokes a pipe. Various background characters smoke cigarettes and drink beer in an early Mardi Gras scene. A boy wears a necklace shaped like marijuana leaves. |
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