Rental of the Day: Hatchet and Hatchet 2

Today I'm doing the Rental of the Day a little differently. This film comes with a personal back story! In 2010, I attended nerdvana, otherwise known as the San Diego Comic Con. In addition to wildly popular panels like those for the shows Big Bang Theory and True Blood (which had an audience of thousands), I also found myself in a tiny room at the hotel across from the convention center for a panel with Lloyd Kaufman, the creator of the infamous Troma Entertainment film studio and director James Gunn (Super, Slither). There was another director on the panel, Adam Green, with whom I wasn't familiar. Green showed a clip from film Hatchet 2, the sequel to his first film about Victor Crowley, a terrifying disfigured monster who lives in the swamps of New Orleans and hunts down tourists. The trailer was both gruesome and hilarious. Green proudly announced that the movie would be going into theaters unrated so that he didn't have to cut out any of the gore that earned the film an NC-17 rating. He urged us all to see it in theaters and tell our friends about it. If an unrated movie could be successful, we'd all be sticking it to the tyrannical MPAA. I was so excited about the film that as soon as I returned to Miami, I tracked down Hatchet 1 and watched it with friends. It was a deliciously campy gorefest. I was even more excited for the sequel.

On October 1, 2010, the film began playing in AMC theaters as a part of their independent film series. My husband and I made plans to see it on the 5th, but much to our dismay the film was inexplicably pulled from theaters October 4th. It found a home on Video on Demand and DVD, but we were disappointed that we'd missed it on the big screen and that the film wasn't given a fair chance to shake up the ratings game.

I highly recommend checking out both films. The first features a group of friends in town for Mardi Gras who decide to take a haunted swamp tour. When their boat crashes and sinks they are picked off by the murderous Crowley who calls the bayou home. Green gives us what the PG-13 horror movies today don't- truly disgusting gore. He balances the carnage with humor, making both films a really entertaining ride.

Both films are available on Netflix Instant, Netflix DVD or Blockbuster online.


**If horror is your thing, be sure to come back soon for a review of Cabin in the Woods!**