HATCHET

A group of young tourists who had boarded a barge for the Haunted Swamp Tour suddenly find themselves, due to a technical mishap, lost in a Louisiana swamp. It's night, dark and humid, very humid, but these become secondary problems when the guys, one by one, perish under the brutal blows of a deformed being who seems to have no hobby other than tearing people apart. It goes without saying that the night will be very long. "Hatchet", the first horror feature film by rising star Adam Green, was a real bolt from the blue in American horror cinema of 2006, winning a good number of awards from specialized critics and winning the sympathies of most American horror fans. Once in a while, not without reason. "Hatchet" is the typical example of a film that adds nothing new to the horror landscape, but at the same time, over the years, could become a small cult for lovers of genre cinema; we are faced with a slasher that fundamentally offers nothing that hasn't already been said in the '80s, but what it does, it does damn well. As usual, I can already imagine hordes of detractors and fake engaged critics crying about the lack of ideas and the death of a genre that was once great but is now no longer able to say anything, but I strongly disagree. The trick, as often happens these days, lies in watching the film with the right key. If in "Hatchet" you look for an original, committed horror film with socio-political implications, it is undeniable that you will be disappointed, but if in Adam Green's film you look for fun, violence, and over-the-top death scenes, you cannot but go wild. "Hatchet", in fact, is nothing more than a great (and welcome) homage to the slasher genre that spans from the early '80s to today, a love letter to films like "Friday the 13th", "The Hills Have Eyes", "Wrong Turn" or "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" that, with its citations and cameos, will immediately win the hearts of 'tripe' enthusiasts. What in fact to the (fake) demanding viewer might seem like the recycling of the same old ideas becomes a fun tribute to the old films that were popular 20 years ago in drive-ins and grindhouses, all reworked in a modern key but always keeping a direct eye on the past. "Hatchet" thus plays with the clichés so dear to slashers: here too we encounter the classic group of somewhat stupid teenagers looking for strong emotions, here too there will be a disturbing legend about the place where the story takes place, here too we will find the usual body count that will become increasingly gruesome. What sets "Hatchet" apart from the many slashers released in recent years is the freshness with which Adam Green has managed to direct his film and the inspiration that can be seen both in the more ironic moments and in the crueler and more horrific passages. This has allowed the film to not lose its edge at any moment, despite a quarter of an hour in the middle of the film where the pace slows down slightly. Not only that: the director has shown that he can handle a subgenre extremely closed in on itself like the slasher and rework it to his liking, paying proper tribute to the sacred films of the genre but not relying solely on cheap metacinematography. Another great strength of "Hatchet" is that it has finally introduced a new negative figure, a new boogeyman who perhaps, over time and helped by serialization ("Hatchet 2" is already on the horizon), could carve out a space in a hypothetical "Slasher Hall of Fame". This is Victor Crowley, a deformed giant who enjoys tearing his victims apart both with an axe and with his bare hands. In itself, the figure is not particularly original (we are halfway between a Jason and the characters of "Wrong Turn"), but nevertheless, Adam Green's willingness to make his mark in a landscape increasingly crowded with modernizations of old horror figures (which have not always had the desired effect) rather than new ideas deserves praise. The same screenplay, by Adam Green, which at first glance might seem like the usual mishmash of genre clichés, manages to distance itself from most recent productions, thanks to a couple of good ideas that make "Hatchet" a more complete and interesting product: the insertion of a bothersome and hungry crocodile is a tasty and unpredictable diversion, as is the insertion of two mature couples along with the classic teenagers, which has made the group of victims much more varied and interesting than usual. Even the usual legend about the boogeyman of the moment seems well written and almost touching (the flashback in which it is told highlights even the more introspective and dramatic side of the director-screenwriter). These are small things, details, but they are important nuances not to be underestimated in a cinematic landscape where approximation often plays the leading role. Adam Green directs dynamically and with a playful touch, supported by good photography that best captures the hot and humid climate of the swamps, a particular setting used competently by the director and his crew. And now we come to the splatter-gore section, the ace up "Hatchet's" sleeve. In Adam Green's film, you will encounter the most gruesome and imaginative murders you will find in slashers of the last few years, all of course shown with a wealth of detail. You will find absurd disembowelments, torn spinal columns, legs that come off, flying heads, thrown torsos, heads split open by the mouth, and countless buckets of blood. Blood that covers faces, blood spilled on the ground, and blood on the trees. In short, blood everywhere. The cast is average for the genre, with actors who limit themselves to playing their parts without great performances, but a special mention goes obviously to Kane Hodder (Jason in numerous chapters of "Friday the 13th") in the role of the violent giant Victor Crowley, while the cameos of Robert "Freddy" Englund and Tony "Candyman" Todd at the beginning of the film are sympathetic, giving their silent approval to a new boogeyman ready to inherit their ancient teachings as soon as possible. "Hatchet" is certainly one of the best slashers of the new millennium, rich in humor, rhythm, violence, and able to entertain and scare at the same time with the classic jump-out-of-your-seat moments. Funny, irreverent like in the glorious '80s, brutal and ultra-gore as taught by post-2000 horror cinema: there are no reasons not to love this movie!!!