James Reviews Adam Green’s Hatchet II [Blu-ray Review]

Victor Crowley is back with a vengeance, this time with more gore filled kills than the first time around, in Adam Green’s Hatchet II. This is Adam Green’s follow-up to his amazing Frozen, and is it another notch in Green’s horror belt?

Hatchet II begins right where the first one ended, but with one startling change. Marybeth is now played by the stunning Danielle Harris (of Halloween fame), replacing Tamara Feldman from the first film. Marybeth is fighting for her life against Victor Crowley, who has killed a tour group in the swamp and her brother and father. She survives, gets away and decides she wants revenge on Victor Crowley, who it seems can’t be killed.

She meets with Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd of Candyman fame), who says he’ll only help her find Crowley if she brings her uncle. He convinces a group of hunters to look for Crowley with them, which they know as an urban legend. Sadly for them, Victor Crowley is as real can be and is going to kill each and every one of them in the most brutal ways.

Green has weaved a horror film that is at times terrifying and at other times laugh out loud funny. There’s something that makes any horror fan smile with glee when a man gets his intestines torn out and strangled to death with them until his head pops right off, with a blood shower splashing against the wall. This is how the film starts right before the intro credits, and it doesn’t hide the fact what kind of film it is. An homage to slasher films, a new ultimate killer was introduced in 2006 with Victor Crowley, played intensely by Kane Hodder.

What makes the film entertaining is that they’ve upped the ante with the kills this time around. Like a good sequel should, they’ve tripled the kills this time and are pretty creative as well. Crowley is a master at using power tools, which we get to see a belt sander and even an ultra humongous chainsaw that is so big, it can chop two grown men in half. From between their legs up to their heads. It’s creative, it’s fun and it’s a film that you and your friends will sit and cheer in unison when the killer gets his hands dirty.

Kane Hodder deserves some attention for his dual role as Victor Crowley and his father in flashbacks, Mr. Crowley. We get a bit of a different origin story this time around, showing a curse that was put on the unborn child of Mr. Crowley, giving a mystical element that most of these slasher films tend to go toward. There’s usually no other way to explain why someone could have their head bashed into a bloody pulp and still come back for 6 sequels.

Dark Sky Films, a favorite of this genre nut, has put out an extensive Blu-ray for Hatchet II. We get two commentaries, one a production commentary with Adam Green, cinematographer Will Barratt and make-up effects supervisor Robert Pendergraft and the other is a cast audio commentary with Green again, being joined by Kane Hodder and Tony Todd. You also get Hatchet II: Behind the Screams, a great 35 minutes making-of the film, Hatchet I: First Look and Meet the FX Team. And to round out the release, we get a teaser and theatrical trailer, a TV Spot and a radio spot as well.

I sadly missed the film while it was out, due to the fact that it was pulled from theaters after a couple of days. The most important fact though is that Adam Green released an unrated horror film in theaters, even for a few days, which hadn’t been done in roughly 25 years. For that alone, Adam Green deserves a pat on the back for horror film makers and horror fans around. The film is a great mix-up of horror, gore and comedy. Green has shown he can meld the three together and make for an entertaining 90 minutes. Also look for a bunch of horror alumni throughout the film, in uncredited cameos.

8.5/10