25 minutes of Hatchet

i was rather tired when i sat down to watch Hatchet, but nonetheless i was keen to watch something. i have been interested in seeing this one for a while - thanks Matt for forwarding it on to me. alas, i dare say that you have worked out from the title of this review exactly how long it kept me awake.

the poster and the promo work makes a lot of noise about it being a "good old fashioned slasher flick", it's a rather tiresome experience, to be honest. it starts off with poor old Robert Englund being dragged in for a 'cameo' of sorts - i hope they pay him well for this stuff, and quickly moves into the skin flashing world of New Orleans Mardis Gras. yawn, sigh, boring.

after 25 minutes the "killer" or whatever presumably uses the hatchet from the title, had not turned up, so i just tuned out. i doubt i will bother going back to see how it all ends, the characters were not interesting enough to warrant wondering how exactly they get dismembered.

as far as "old school american horror" goes, well, the most interesting horror films of the 21st Century have stemmed from dear old Britain - The Descent, Dog Soldiers, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later and even Shaun Of The Dead have been the best of the last 7 or so years. the only decent USA horror i can think of from the same time was Dawn Of The Dead - a remake, but a very smart and entertaining one.

unless someone can tell me that something brilliant happens in the last hour of Hatchet, as i said i will not bother going back to have a look, and i really do not suggest you bother either.

it's been 18 months since it was made, and no sequel in the pipeline. that means, as cheap as it presumably was to make, it did that badly that there was no point in making another one. a rare event in modern film making, and a big flashing warning sign about how poor it is.