Hatchet II/Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet/Dahmer vs. Gacy (2010 – 2011/Dark Sky
Blu-ray/Lionsgate/Walking Shadows)
Picture:
B/B-/D Sound: B/C/C- Extras: C+/C/D Films: C/C-/D
Whether
coming out of a major studio or from an indie, slasher films from the last few
years have been garbage, to put it lightly. On one side, the majors keep churning out lame
remakes of what were once tried and true money-making franchises. The independents have tried to foster some
amount of originality while remaining true to their roots, but are really just
veiling an imitation of what worked so well back in the 80s.
An
example of this type of “homage” is found in the Hatchet series, now onto part two. The story is standard stuff... a disfigured
and misunderstood boy who grows up to be a hulking monstrosity with an axe. He is of course bent on killing anyone who
walks across his path, and does so without a second thought. Pepper the action onscreen with some fondly
remembered horror stars (Candyman
himself, Tony Todd and Friday the 13th
VII-X's Kane Hodder). It sounds like
a surefire recipe for success, but I found myself unable to get into the first
film and had an even harder time finding anything to like about this
installment.
Still,
with that said, this has a fairly decent budget and traditional effects that
will satisfy most. Some may even be
pleased enough with the next movie we're taking a look at, Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet. Again... same cookie cutter setup we've seen
before, and there are even the obligatory marquee actors from the genre too –
this time Danielle Harris and Bill Moseley. The formula is so predictable, it's
mind-numbing.
The third
act in this sampling of the modern slasher is nothing but an out and out joke. Dahmer
vs. Gacy is little more than a wannabe Troma movie that can't even get that
right. The villains here are genetically
altered clones of the infamous real-life murderers who escape from the
wranglers and go about trying to outdo one another in an attempt to prove who
will be the #1 serial killer of all. They
don't behave at all like the people they're supposed to be, and this is brushed
aside in favor of making them into generic slashers. The filmmakers demonstrate that they are at
least aware of their backgrounds, if only through a casual look at Wikipedia
articles.
Extras
are absent from Dahmer vs. Gacy, but
the Hatchet II Blu-ray has two
commentaries as well as behind the scenes and trailers, while the Blood Night DVD has a making-of,
interviews, outtakes, as well as trailers.
Audio and
video is pretty good on Hatchet II,
but even the Bu-ray format can't save the film painfully average look of the
film. As one might expect, with each movie's drop in budget comes an overall
drop in quality and so, too, to the look and sound. Blood Night still hovers around decent, while Dahmer vs. Gacy is pretty poor, notably in its audio.
I'd
advise to give a pass on all three of these titles – but if the Halloween
spirit is calling and you need a quick bad movie fix, Hatchet II would be the one to reach for out of these.
- David
Milchick
