hatchet
For over three decades slasher films have lived and died on the “killshot.” You know what I’m talking about: a guy in a hockey mask skewers three people on one pitchfork while doing a triple-axle on a motorcycle jumping over 15 flaming school buses. The more creatively someone could be sliced and/or diced, the more successful the movie. Hatchet proclaims itself to be a return to old school American horror, but ironically the kill scenes are a bit of a bore. It’s the victims themselves who make this derivative boogeyman flick more interesting than usual. Writer / director Adam Green sets his story deep in the swamps of Louisiana where a mismatched group of tourists wander off Bourbon street to try a party-boat “ghost tour” that drifts into the territory of Victor Crowley, a deformed man-child whose favorite weapon of choice is, you guessed it, a hatchet. The passengers and crew meet their expectedly gruesome demises with some strong effects work and a few effective jump scares. B...