Review of Hatchet

Um...maybe it's that I've lately and almost exclusively been watching a lot of intense, disturbing, and usually foreign horror/thrillers, but I found Hatchet to be a breath of fresh air. This movie certainly has its flaws--its almost as though the director made what turned out to be a pretty solid film by accident-- but it succeeds on many levels as well. As you may have heard this movie doesn't take itself too seriously, and in this case that attitude works in its favor. Sure, some comical lines don't come off, but enough of them struck the right chords to keep me amused. There are a few faces that comedy lovers will instantly recognize, a Very pretty face that I didn't recognize (the one that doesn't show us her nipples) and of course a few of THE faces of eighties horror. And it is eighties slasher/chase horror that this film is paying homage to. The gore and makeup effects are acceptable, and sometimes impressive, while the villian itself ought to please B-horror fans. Overall, this is a fun, slick film with some modest scares and and a suprising amount of goofy, well delivered laugh-getters-- enough to make you forget that the thrills never quite achieved awesomeness. Not all films have to set out to be GREAT and oddly enough to say, this one benefits from never aiming for it in the first place. See it before the sequel comes out so that you can say you remember when the Hatchet Series was good.