Hatchet III (2013)

A blood-covered Marybeth Dunston (Danielle Harris) walks out of the Louisiana bayou, carrying a severed head and a shotgun, into a police station and is quickly arrested. The police finds the bloody massacre scene. Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder) comes back to life and starts murdering again. Amanda Fowler (Caroline Williams) sneaks into jail with a plan to kill Victor once and for all. Sheriff Fowler (Zach Galligan) takes the SWAT team into the swamp only to be attacked.Having never seen the Hatchet franchise, this starts quite well. It doesn't hurt to have Danielle Harris who gets hosed down prison-style. She's a good smart-mouthed lead. There is plenty of bloody gore but the characters are nothing more than cannon fodder. It's still fun but they should have kept Danielle with them. Splitting the characters into two groups does not help. I simply don't care about the Sheriff and his people. There is a bit of fun with Sid Haig. This movie is a bit of a gorefest but it could have been more.

Deep in the woods of the Lousiana swamp, an urban legend familiar to the locals is underway. An undead murderer possessed by a supernatural curse, is forced to relive each night as he was killed, nearly 300 years ago. His goal is to settle his debt by finding the father and the one that killed him. This translates into wandering the Lousiana swamp, and killing everything that gets in his way. One such night, as the movie begins, involves a massacre as a girl fights for her life and otherwise saws the supernatural killer into pieces. She turns herself in, shotgun; the sheriff doesn't believe her story, and his ex- wife wants a piece of the action in the form of a news story for the Internet.The local law enforcement and medical teams are dispatched to recover the dead bodies and perform an investigation as to what just happened in the bayou. There is little doubt that a single girl could have done all of this; instead one of the medical coroner's finds a huge body and believes it to be the murderer. As most horror movie stylings go, the body starts to move towards nightfall and the murders begin.No one is safe from this killer; he is everywhere in the swamp at once; it is his and he knows it better than anyone. Knowing what they have on their hands, the sheriff decides to call in the local swat team. Characters exchange small talk, personalities and banter as they patrol the swamp woodland for the killer. Finally, they slowly get picked off one by one. Characters die, left and right – they all die gruesome and grisly deaths; the horror mode is set and the gore is rampant. The killer is a throwback to the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" with a grotesque character that otherwise wields hatchets, machetes and even a sand grinder at one point. The national guard is called in at one point to stop the killer. This movie is pretty serious about the protocol everyone must follow; a few people want out but face consequences for leaving the scene of a murder. Lastly, the movie at one point brings in a rocket launcher to do the killer in. The drama is there, but moreso the facet of bludgeoning characters before a gory death, is all what this movie is about.Bad qualities of this movie include the crackpot journalist that knows the secret to doing the legend in. She yells and screams in her journalistic profession to get the story; she is even less of an enjoyable character when she provokes other characters needlessly, brings out their worst qualities, and turns them into bottom-of-the-barrel misfits. Other characters show their lack of control by aggressively swearing or provoking each other; one swat team member shows his badass side on grounds of not wanting to lose his job. The movie requires a leap of faith in following along with the urban legend – if such a thing could be believable is not known; it is a movie after all. Despite the aggravating characters, the movie redeems itself, and probably quite deliberately, by condemning the characters to a gruesome death.Whether you enjoy senseless killings, absurd gore and lots of spine rippings; this movie should be sure to please over some of the boring and less grotesque members of the horror genre. Those not interested in overly dramatic characters that love to yell; are probably better off looking towards other entries of the horror genre.Originally posted to Orion Age (http://www.orionphysics.com/? p=5870).

Director of previous Hatchet films Adam Green wrote this powerful entry in the tremendously effective series but gave BJ McDonnell a chance to try his hand at directing and the result is a masterpiece of this franchise. Filmed on location in New Orleans and the Louisiana swamps, the environment becomes even more menacing and the attacks even more frightening. While bloody at times, the mayhem is never over the top and serves always to advance the plot. This is an intense and suspenseful horror film that exceeds all expectations of a sequel and is a superb stand alone movie as well. Incidentally, Adam Green felt so strongly about giving those who have loyally followed the series some closure that this film fulfills that purpose and more. The director has obviously been schooled in German Expressionistic Cinema and he integrates techniques from that era with his own unique style resulting in utter motion picture genius. It is a very horrific motion picture experience but has well developed characters brought to life by an exquisite cast of fine actors. When Tamara Feldman was replaced by Danielle Harris in the role of Marybeth, many felt the franchise would suffer. But Harris breathed even more fire into the character and imbued her with a smoldering sexuality. The fear and dread the cast exhibits seems very real and one can almost hear their hearts pounding in terror as the horror builds to a shattering climax. You may discover that the sound of a desperately pounding heart is actually coming from your own chest because this is one of the most gripping and unrelenting horror films ever recorded on celluloid.

I did not have high hopes for this movie, indeed I expected I would be turning it off or fast-forwarding through it. But actually, I found it engrossing from the very beginning and I never once fast-forwarded it. There are some great actors mixed in with some not so great actors and there are several semi well-known names in this film. The story line was a bit lame, but the killings are really good, it has some scenes with great suspense and the special effects / makeup was pretty good. All in all, definitely worth a view. I think the director did a good job with what he had to work with. This movie has inspired me to want to watch parts 1 and 2, though I have been told this one is the best of the lot.