Looking for a little more “substance” in my movie selections, I decided to go with “Hatchet”. As the poster clearly says, “Old School American Horror” plain and simple. Like the Friday the 13th movies reborn for a new generation.

Every horror movie is made better by it being some what believable. The story of Hatchet is one such tale. Hatchet is about a group of people out for a “Ghost Tour” of a swamp in the Louisiana Bayou. As they run aground along their trip, they learn that one of the ghost “stories” is actually based on an actual event. All to quickly they learn that ghosts sometimes don’t stay dead. Escape is the only way, and it won’t be easy. Navigating the swamp in the middle of the night with a murderous freak chasing you is hard enough, add in alligators trying to get a bite, makes it all the more difficult.

Hatchet is a wonderful horror movie. It’s well acted, produced and directed. Excluding one character that I felt was a bit over the top, it was well written as well. You can tell that everyone involved on the back end of this movie was a true fan of horror and wanted to do the genre proud. Though it does fall into some of the usual tropes of horror movies, there was never any point where I was laughing AT the movie instead of WITH the movie. Also, it has to be said, I loved the ending. A total throw-back to the horror movies of yesteryear.

Victor Crowley could be the next big horror character, if they handle him correctly. I have seen a lot horror movies in my life and seen a lot of characters come and go. Some you can tell they wanted to make a slasher staple like Freddy, Jason, or Michael but failed to, for one reason or another, deliver. Crowley has just enough back story to be creepy, and just enough of that supernatural feel to it to continue making these movies. It’s probably no coincidence that Kane Hodder who played Jason in his later movies, plays Crowley. I guess what I am saying is that, this story has potential to go much further, if given the right amount of love and attention.

The horror genre has changed so much since I started watching movies. Just being creepy or having a lot of “jump scares” isn’t enough to make a movie anymore. You need to have something special. Be that special effects, or a creative plot, or what have you, but it has to have something to set it apart from the rest. I think that Hatchet can be that series. There apparently is at least one movie already out there and possible a third in the works. With the right amount of campy humor and gory horror, this story could go on for a while. Hard to believe, but I am totally fine with that.