Here Comes the Devil (2012) review

poster

Fuses the grindhouse with the arthouse into an interesting but unsatisfying hybrid.

Landscapes are scary. Their enormity makes us feel small. Their longevity mocks the brevity of our existence, reminding us that they were around before our birth and will continue after our death. They represent natural forces beyond our control, that shape our lives in ways we can barely understand, and if you stare at them long enough, you might start to imagine that these forces are not merely natural but supernatural – possibly incomprehensible and potentially malevolent. This brooding, irrational dread infuses the early scenes of HERE COMES THE DEVIL, lending an aura of uncanny menace, a la Peter Weir’s PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK, that lingers in the memory long after writer-director Adrián García Bogliano has diluted the atmosphere  with a potent but rather inchoate mix of exploitation horror, revenge, gore, and sex. Fortunately, in what is either a happy accident or a clever piece of cinematic jiu-jitsu, Bogliano’s inability or refusal to formulate the disparate elements into a rational whole leaves the film itself feeling a bit like an incomprehensible artifact – a metaphoric crevasse in the intimidating landscape the film depicts so unnervingly. So score this one as a partial victory, in spite of itself.
The story follows Sol (Laura Caro) and Felix (Francisco Barreiro), parents out for a weekend excursion with their children, Sara (Michele Garcia) and Adolfo (Alan Martinez). This kids want to explore a nearby landscape on their own. Felix grants permission, because he wants a few moments alone with Sol in the car, so that they can have sex (which we are led to believe happens too infrequently since the kids came along).

You don't need to be Freud to figure out the significance of this crevasse.
You don't need to be Freud to figure out the significance of this crevasse.

While Sara and Adolfo explore a crevasse in the rocks, Felix explores Sol’s crevasse in the car. There is an orgasm and an earthquake; the kids disappear; the police are called. The children are found the next day, and life goes back to normal. Well, not so much: there is something odd about Sara and Adolfo, almost pod-like; they seem too secretive about their mysterious absence, and a child psychologist suggests they may be too close for a normal brother-sister relationship. Did something happen on the mountain? Something vile and unspeakable? And was it sexual in nature, or supernatural?
In case you didn’t notice,  “crevasse” in this context is a deliberate pun on the use of the word as a slang term for female genitalia. I wish I could take credit for this, but that goes to Bogliano, who leaves us in little doubt about the true source of horror in the film. If there is one thing more profoundly disturbing than eternal landscapes, it is sex. Bogliano establishes this in the opening scene a gratuitous lesbian coupling that leads immediately to a violent confrontation with a home invader (later revealed to be a serial killer), who is wounded and retreats to the mysterious mountain top, presumably to die (though his death throes suggest a sex act with the local rocky terrain).
Clearly no good can come of this, at least not in a film titled HERE COMES THE DEVIL.
Clearly no good can come of this, at least not in a film titled HERE COMES THE DEVIL.

The sequence has little to do with what follows, except insofar as it provides one concrete example of the mountain’s ominous reputation for evil (like villagers in Transylvania, the locals warn the tourists to avoid the cursed spot). The real purpose of the sequence is to make the initial connection between sex, violence, and death. To be fair, there is at least a suggestion that the problem is not sex, per se, but feelings of guilt over acting in ways that violate conservative social expectations: Sol fears she is neglecting the children; one of the women in the opening seems to immediately regret her Sapphic liaison. In any case, the symbolic “little death” of the orgasm leads inevitably to literal death – suggesting a dark conspiracy of primordial forces both inside and outside of us, tempting us to indiscretions with fatal consequences.
If this sounds pretentious, don’t worry. HERE COMES THE DEVIL never makes the mistake of explicating this in the dialogue; the implications simply exist like raw ore, waiting to be extracted. Unfortunately, Bogliano is not content to let his viewers mine this vein on their own; he has other, more visceral concerns that trump thematic ambition, distracting him from what could have been an effectively ambiguous tale of sexual aberration hiding beneath a veneer of the supernatural (a la THE CAT PEOPLE or THE INNOCENTS).
Sol (center) wonders what's wrong with Sara and Adolfo.
Sol (center) wonders what's wrong with Sara and Adolfo.

Let’s face it: the audience for an unrated horror film such as HERE COMES THE DEVIL is not interested in subtle ambiguity; they want to see boundaries crossed and taboos broken, and Bogliano is happy to oblige, whatever the cost to his film. Besides establishing the sex-death connection, the lesbian prologue immediately grabs attention-deficit viewers, who might otherwise tune out during the slowly building tension of the first-act disappearance and the gradually escalating concerns of the parents after their children reappear. This kind of pandering is easy enough to understand – an artist has a right to hook his audience, after all – but later developments are not so forgivable.
HERE COMES THE DEVIL goes off the rails when Bogliano introduces a subplot in which Sol and Felix track down a misfit they believe sexually abused their children. Not only does this distract from the main story; it mars an interesting variation on the either-of ambiguity of the scenario: Most films would ask, “Are the children possessed, or are the parents imagining it?” HERE COMES THE DEVIL asks, “Are the children acting strangely because they are possessed or because they were abused?” Unfortunately, instead of exploring this concept, Bogliano uses it as an excuse to stage a bloody atrocity scene.
Working on the thinnest of evidence, Sol and Felix murder the suspected abuser. The scene is staged for maximum gore – and quite nonsensically. Felix slits the man’s throat, the inexplicably grabs his legs, which doesn’t seem a particularly effective way to restrain him but does give Sol access to the man’s upper torso. Not content to let the struggling victim simply bleed out, Sol reaches into his gaping throat and tears out his larynx with her fingers. The violence is spectacular but ridiculous. Even worse, it utterly destroys any sympathy we have for our protagonists, whose fate ceases to interest us, rendering the rest of the film as an archetypal example of the dreaded “Eight Deadly Words” syndrome: I don’t care what happens to these people.
Charitably, one might argue that there is a point to the scene: Faced with a horrible reality they cannot process emotionally, Sol and Felix seek a scapegoat. The irony here is that the “horrible reality” is demonic possession, and they mistakenly target a more tangible, believable source for their troubles. Whatever the intention, HERE COMES THE DEVIL starts to become less about the problem with the children and more about the parents’ getting away with murder, as a local sheriff starts showing up to ask questions about the missing misfit.
It's not PARANORMAL ACTIVITY but an amazing simulation!
It's not PARANORMAL ACTIVITY but an amazing simulation!

Along the way we see some paranormal activity focused on Sara and Adolfo; a babysitter recounts what sounds like supernatural sexual abuse and strongly hints at witnessing an incestuous relationship between the brother and sister; the story of the serial killer from the prologue is recounted, this time with a glimpse of his demonic visage. The clever touch here is that most effectively eerie supernatural phenomena are recounted second hand and seen in flashback, leaving us to wonder how literally to take these tales (is it real or imagination).
Just in case the title were not enough, HERE COMES THE DEVIL ultimately comes down squarely on the side of ominous occult forces, when we see Adolfo and later Sol levitating. The sequence with Adolfo is effective not only as a set-piece but also as a dramatic development driving the parents’ hysterical search for answers. Unfortunately, the later sequence with Sol leaves actress Laura Caro looking less like the helpless victim of supernatural menace than a comic relief character falling out of a hammock. In any case, after being menaced not only by her affect-less living children but also by zombie-like visions of their corpses, Sol returns to the mountain and learns the awful truth.
Not that we care by this point, but….
SPOILERS
… it turns out that Sara and Adolfo never came out of the crevasse: Sol finds their bodies inside the cave, suggesting that they have been replaced by evil dopplegangers. Just when you are wondering what she will do about it, the film takes another weird turn: she shows the awful truth to her husband, adopting an accusatory tone (presumably because he wanted to have sex while letting the children wander off on their own). Felix shoots Sol and then himself – presumably because he cannot face the guilty truth but really so that Bogliano can hit us with the “shocking” conclusion, in which duplicates of Sol and Felix emerge from the cave and drive home, presumably to reconcile with their duplicate children and enjoy a happily demonic home life. The nuclear family has been totally subsumed by the evil lurking in the mountain, their lives destroyed by the aftershocks of the parent’s sexual dalliance (a metaphor emphasized by the fact that an earthquake occurs whenever someone dies on the mountain and is replaced by an evil double).
SPOILERS
The downbeat ending might have had some impact if we had been in any way invested in the outcome, but by the time the film finally fades out, we have long since given up on the characters and are interested only in an explanation. The revelation about Sara and Adolfo is good enough to satisfy on a simple “What happened?” level, although strictly speaking it does not gibe with the legends surrounding the haunted mountain (which involve evil forces possessing people as vessels – not exactly what happens here).

CONCLUSION

In spite of all the narrative mis-steps, HERE COMES THE DEVIL’s gloomy aura of cynicism (which passes for authenticity in so far as it eschews Hollywood glitz) sustains itself for most of the feature length. Consequently, the usual suspects (Dread Central, Arrow in the Head, etc) have been singing praises to the film while overlooking that, far from being a radical departure, it is actually not far removed from todays’ mainstream horror film formula (in which families routinely succumb en masse to evil unseen entities).
What raises HERE COMES THE DEVIL a tad above the latest PARANORMAL ACTIVITY spin-off is more a matter of tone than content. Bogliano’s film adopts a grim 1970s exploitation tone that sets the viewer on edge. You see it in the cinematography and hear it on the soundtrack – not so much in the rapid-fire heavy metal song but in the background music, which offers echoes of Pink Floyd’s work for Barbet Schroeder’s mystical THE VALLEY and Fabio Frizzi’s work for Lucio Fulci’s gruesome THE BEYOND. (There is even a character named Lucio, though it is pronounced differently from the moniker of the Italian filmmaker.) Those two touchpoints may seem astronomically removed from each other, but they underline HERE COMES THE DEVIL’s singular achievement, which is fusing the art house with the grindhouse. The result may not be satisfying, but it is interesting.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW FILM
CLICK HERE TO VIEW FILM

HERE COMES THE DEVIL is currently in limited theatrical release, with engagements scheduled in Kansas City, Gainesville, Toronto, and Ottawa. Check Magnet Releasing’s website for details. You can also view the film via Video on Demand in the Cinefantastique Online Store, powered by Amazon.com.
[rating=2]
On the CFQ Scale of 0 to 5 stars, worth checking out if you like this sort of thing.

NOTE:

Adrián García Bogliano explores a similar theme in his “B is for Bigfoot” episode from THE ABCS OF DEATH, which also features a couple trying to get rid of a child so that they can engage in sex. Being a short film, “B is for Bigfoot” avoids the narrative detours the derail HERE COMES THE DEVIL. Also, the only characters who “get it” clearly deserve it, punished not so much for having sex as for cruelly terrifying a young child with a ghastly bedtime story (in order to get her to hide beneath the covers and thus put prevent further interruptions).

This babysister seems to have escaped from Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND.
This babysitter seems to have escaped from Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND.

HERE COMES THE DEVIL (2012). USA Video on Demand and Theatrical Release, December 2013 from Magnet Releasing. Written and directed by Adrián García Bogliano. Cast: Francisco Berreiro as Felix; Laura Caro as Sol; Alan Martinez as Adolfo; Michele Garcia as Sara; David Arturo Cabezud as Lucio; Giancarlo Ruiz as Sgt. Flores. 97 minutes. Not Rated.

Hatchet III review

HTC_Poster_lowIf you’re a card-carrying soldier in the self-proclaimed “Hatchet Army,” you already know whether you want to see this movie; in fact, you probably already have seen this move. But if you never enlisted, or if you took an honorable discharge after HATCHET II, you may be sitting on the sidelines and wondering whether to take another tour of duty around the swamp haunted by Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder). Well, as someone who defected because of the disappointing sequel,* I can say it’s time to rejoin the ranks. HATCHET III is almost as much gleefully gory fun as the original – a comedy-horror hybrid that elicits screams of laughter and disgust in equal measure, sometimes simultaneously.
Like HATCHET II (2010), HATCHET III is pitched to the fans who discovered the franchise with the original HATCHET (2006) – a came-out-of-nowhere sleeper hit on the festival circuit that never reached the wider audience it deserved. The problem with HATCHET II is that writer-director Adam Green over-enthusiastically pandered to the gore-hounds who loved the unrated mayhem the first time around; in the process, the delightfully tongue-in-cheek tone of the original degraded into dispiriting camp. HATCHET III ditches the camp and resurrects the clever comedy, adding numerous nods and winks that will only be recognized by those who have seen the previous films.**

Caroline Williams and Kane Hodder
Caroline Williams and Kane Hodder

Though directed this time by B.J. McConnell (Green is back as writer and producer), HATCHET III picks up seamlessly from its predecessor, with Marybeth (Danielle Harris) punching Victor Crowley’s ticket and marching into the local police station with his scalp. Unfortunately, Crowley is no mere madman but some kind of eternally resurrecting monster, who is soon decimating the crews sent to tag the bodies leftover from the previous films. A local reporter (Caroline Williams), who destroyed her reputation by hyping the legend of Victor Crowley legend, knows a way to end the curse (which has nothing to do with the method in HATCHET II – but who’s keeping track?) Reluctantly, Marybeth agrees to help; her family connection with one of the men responsible for Crowley’s death – and thus his afterlife – makes her the only one who return Crowley to the peace of the grave.
Unlike the previous sequel, HATCHET III avoids getting bogged down in back story, and script doesn’t waste a lot of time getting another crowd of victims into the swamp.  Once all the fish are in the barrel, director McDonnell keeps the action popping like a series of burst blood vessels as Crowley dissects his victims in a series of imaginatively gruesome ways.
If that sounds a little too hardcore for viewers with little thirst for movie blood, take note: the copious carnage is too outrageous to be regarded seriously; the aesthetic of violence is almost diametrically opposed to that of the recent V/H/S 2, whose crimson splatter paints a picture far more grim and depressing. Achieved with old-fashioned prosthetics and geysers of red-tinted water, the kills in HATCHET III are scary fun in a popcorn-movie kind of way that seems almost quaint in this era of torture porn and mumblegore.
Sheriff versus SWAT: Zach Galligan yields jurisdiction to Derek Mears without so much as a wimper.
Sheriff versus SWAT: Zach Galligan yields jurisdiction to Derek Mears without so much as a wimper.

At times, the script is a little too lackadaisical in its “only a movie” approach. Green’s script cannot decide whether local law enforcement is a police department or a sheriff’s department (there is a difference), and the question of jurisdictional authority is ignored when a SWAT team (led by Derek Mears as Hawes) shows up and takes over.
We’re simply not supposed to care, because we all know the real reason for the SWAT team’s presence is to shoe-horn Mears into the movie. The actor played Jason Voorhees in the recent remake of FRIDAY THE 13TH (200) – a role that Hodder played several times in the 1990s – and you can bet that HATCHET III will serve up a scene in which the two former Jasons go mano-a-mano. Unfortunately, the result turns out to be an even bigger anticlimax than the confrontation between Hodder and former Leatherface R.A. Mihailoff in HATCHER II.
Performances are mostly good, but variable. Galligan turns out to be a capable character actor, and it’s nice to see Williams (of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2) on screen again, but some of the comic relief supporting players are stiff (every horror film needs its Private Hudson, but not every actor can pull it off like Bill Paxton in ALIENS).
Marybeth (Danielle Harris) faces off with Victor Crowley once again.
Marybeth (Danielle Harris) faces off with Victor Crowley once again.

As for the returning cast: Playing his third character in three films, Parry Shen regains some of the humor he lost in Part 2. With no more of the previous films’ flashbacks, Hodder’s dual role (as Victor Crowley and Victor’s grieving father) has been reduced to one; fortunately, no one can project aggressive body language through layers of makeup better than Hodder. As returning heroine Marybeth, Harris is a bit one-note, but the script gives her only one note to play (essentially, “f-ck you!”). At least Green avoids inserting the ostentatiously “dramatic” scenes from HATCHET II, which pushed Harris and Hodder beyond the limits of what they could achieve within the context of a genre film (no amount of emoting can sell emotions in a film that achieves coitus interruptus by means of decapitation).
HATCHET III manages to deliver another rousing finale that at least seems to break with tradition by offering an apparently definitive death for its mon-star. But that’s the nice thing about the film: along with the expected genre elements, there are a few surprises, too – a “dead meat” character who survives, a death that takes place mostly off-screen (leaving the violence if not the outcome in our imagination). The film may not win many new converts to the Hatchet Army, but it should bring back any troops who went AWOL.
[rating=3]
On the CFQ Review Scale of zero to five stars, a moderate recommendation

CLICK HERE TO RENT ONLINE
CLICK HERE TO RENT ONLINE

Note: HATCHET III is currently in limited theatrical engagements around the country. The film is simultaneously available via Video on Demand. Click here to rent it now.
FOOTNOTES:
*As far as I’m concerned, HATCHET II is a dishonorable discharge – of putrescent decay.
**In case your memory is a little fuzzy, here is a sampler of inside jokes in HATCHER III:

  • After playing victims in the first two films, Parry Shen appears as yet a third character, who objects to a crime-scene co-worker’s suggestion that he resembles one of the bodies  (“All Asians look alike to you!). Meanwhile, we in the audience wonder whether Shen will go zero-for-three in the survival department.
  • A brief, hysterical cameo by David Joel Moore finally ties up the loose end of what happens to Ben after the abrupt ending of HATCHET.
  • In a truly great meta-moment, the local sheriff dismisses an account of the events of the first two film for being illogical, incredible, and inconsistent, while a local drunk (played by screenwriter Green, with a look of dismay) listens  from an adjoining cell. The sequence is even funnier when you note that the sheriff is played by Zach Galligan, who appeared GREMLINS and GREMLINS 2; in the later, his character’s attempt to explain the events of the former met with similar ridicule from skeptical listeners.

Kane Hodder as Victor Crowely
Kane Hodder as Victor Crowely

HATCHET III (Dark Sky Films: theatrical and Video on Demand release on June 14, 2013). Written by Adam Green. Directed by B.J. McDonnell. Cast: Danielle Harris, Kane Hodder, Zach Galligan, Caroline Williams, Cody Blue Snider, Derek Mears, Robert Diago DoQui, Parry Shen, Sid Haig.

Hatchet III in theatres and on VOD June 14

Dark Sky Films gives limited theatrical exposure, concurrent with a Video on Demand, to this sequel from Ariescope. Adam Green, creator of the franchise, is back as writer-producer, but this time he has handed the directorial reigns over to BJ McDonell. The cast includes Danielle Harris (HALLOWEEN 4 and 5) as Marybeth and Kane Hodder (Jason in FRIDAY THE 13TH VII, etc) as Victor Crowley, along with Zach Galligan (GREMLINS), Caroline Williams (THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2), and Derek Mears (Jason in the remake of FRIDAY THE 13TH).
HATCHET III makes its premiere in Hollywood at the Egyptian Theatre on June 11, with cast and crew in attendance. Theatrical engagements being on June 14 in New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Columbus, and Kansas City.

HTC_Poster_low

Danielle Harris
Danielle Harris

Caroline Williams and Kane Hodder
Caroline Williams and Kane Hodder

HTC_Image_01_low
Derek Mears

Hatchet II review

Hatchet II posterAlthough clearly inspired by ’80s slasher movies, HATCHET had enough going for it to appeal to horror fans interested in something more than just creative kills. Sadly, HATCHET II delivers little of interest to anyone but gore-hounds. Yes, it should appeal to fans of the original- the self-proclaimed “Hatchet Army” – but HATCHET II falls prey to a problem that typically plagues sequels: it’s not just more of the same; it’s way more of the same, as if more and bloodier kills are all that were needed – forget about the clever humor and aura of mystery that made the gore in the first HATCHET feel like part of a really good, fun horror movie. “Hold on to all of your pieces,” warns the poster tagline, and it might just as well be directorial advice to the editor: HATCHET II is little more than a series of splatter effects set-pieces held together loosely, if at all, by the screenplay.
HATCHET II gets off to a decent start, picking up literally where the last frame of HATCHET  left off, as Marybeth (now played by Danielle Harris) escapes from Victor Crowley and finds shelter in the cabin of Jack Cracker (John Carl Buechler, who did the makeup in the previous film). There’s a good disgusting joke regarding a drink container that fans of the first film will recognize, and there is an equally funny bit with Jack thinking he has found the mother lode: a video camera with a “Girls Gone Wild” type recording – only to be sorely disappointed when the girls (Mercedes McNab and Joleigh Fioravanti, returning in cameos) are too busy insulting each other to disrobe.
Things go almost immediately downhill, however, when Victor Crowley predictably shows up to dispatch Jack. Killing off a returning character is an overly familiar cliche, and HATCHET II does nothing amusing or unexpected with it (unlike HATCHET, which played with our expectations that the white guy’s black buddy would be the first to go). Instead, we get an overly protracted gore scene in which Crowley disembowels Cracker, who miraculously does not die but instead runs away – until he comes to the end of his rope – er, intenstines – at which point Crowley uses said intestines to slowly pulls Cracker back across the floor before delivering the coup de grace.

Please, sir, may I have another - I'm not dead yet!
Please, sir, may I have another - I'm not dead yet!

The scene establishes the formula that will be repeated almost without variation throughout the rest of HATCHET II: Something bloody will happen, but the victim will not die, giving Crowley time to inflict more damage, and he will take his own sweet time about it. The promotional campaign is breathlessly touting that HATCHET II is being released “uncut and unrated.” At times like these, it feels un-edited as well, as if every possible frame were included. Consequently, the rhythm of the kill scenes is off; they don’t build so much as drag on. With the victim’s fate sealed, there is no suspense, only a vague curiosity about just how long the torture will be extended – usually well past the point when all but the most hardcore horror hounds will have lost interest.

PLOT

As for the story and characters – well, there ain’t none, at least not much. There is a back story, explaining the origin of Victor Crowley, but it is delivered in an unimaginative way: a lengthy flashback with voice over. It’s a long piece of exposition that comes too early in the film, slowing things down instead of doing what a sequel can do best: hit the ground running, on the foundation laid by its predecessor.
The flashback does tie up some loose ends from HATCHET, but most of it relating to Crowley’s birth- which involves infidelity and a curse – does nothing to affect the events that follow. It also dispels some of the mystery surrounding the character. One of the interesting elements of the first film was that Crowley was the subject of conflicting legends: was he dead or a live? a serial killer, a zombie, or a ghost?

Marybeth, now played by Danielle Harris
Marybeth, now played by Danielle Harris

Once the back story is out of the way, HATCHET II finally gets started, sort of. Marybeth wants to go back into the swamp to retrieve the bodies of her dead brother and father, so she enlists the aid of Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd), who has his own reasons for wanting to be rid of Crowley (Crowley is bad for the tourism business). We get an extended sequence of the Reverend enlisting a posse of sorts to go into the swamp and take out the rampaging killer, a scene padded with shots of the camera slowly panning across anonymous faces in the crowd. (Judging from the response at the cast and crew screening, this was a chance to give cameos to everyone who worked on the film.)
Around about this time, you know that HATCHET II is in serious trouble. The script is filled with obligatory lip service dialogue to explain why characters do things we never believe they would do; we’re simply supposed to accept the behavior because how else are we going to get a dozen more victims into Crowley’s path? Marybeth will not go to the police. The victim’s from the first film will have no one else looking for them who would go to the police. Marybeth will hook up with Reverend Zombie even though he is not particularly trustworthy. Her uncle will go along for the ride against his better judgement. Reverend Zombie will hire lots of hunters because he wants safety in numbers, but when in the danger zone, he will split the group up, thus undermining the safety that comes from large numbers. Lots of other people will follow him into the swamp, hoping to claim the bounty on Crowley’s head, even though most of them don’t believe Crowley exists. (Boy, are they in for a rude awakening!)
hatchet 2
There's safety in numbers - let's split up!

Even with all the set-up, there is ultimately not much to do once the posse gets into the swamp. There is a connection between Marybeth and Crowley, but it is never exploited. Although Marybeth should be the lead character, she is sidelined while we watch the newbies killed off one by one. Reverend Zombie turns out to be the prime mover, more or less leading the lambs to slaughter, believing that when Crowley has sated his thirst for revenge, he will finally stop terrorizing the swamp.
Unfortunately, this last plot thread leads to the all-time worst twist ending. The Reverend – who knows precise details about events that took place outside his personal knowledge – is surprisingly ignorant about crucial details that should be within his personal reach (like the name of his late friend’s brother). Even worse, Marybeth, who is aware of Zombie’s error, keeps her mouth shut until it’s too late to save anybody, springing her revelation like a trump card after the damage has been done.

CHARACTERS & PERFORMANCES

One of the great things about HATCHET was that the characters were engaging; even when we knew that the rules of the genre marked them as archetypal victims (e.g., the Jerk), we were sorry to see them go. As much as the film was based on a gore aesthetic, it still maintained suspense, presenting its kills in a manner designed to provoke screams of fear, not shouts of approval.
HATCHET II, conversely, gives us generic victims whose deaths never register as anything more than bodies to be battered bloody, and the cast does little to bring them to life before their unexpectedly untimely deaths. Even Parry Shen, who was so funny the first time out, seems completely stumped by his obligatory role (as the twin brother, of course), which requires him to perform a variation on his previous routine (speaking with affected accents that do not match his Asian appearance). What was funny once, provokes only exasperated sighs the second time.
Kane Hodder is back as Victor Crowley and (in flashback) Victor’s father. Although he pulled off a nice dramatic moment or two in HATCHET, here he is pushed too far by writer-director Adam Green, and the emotions start to feel forced and melodramatic – a director indulging his star at the expense of the film.
If you wonder why I’m blaming Green for Hodder’s performance, the reason is that something similar happens with Danielle Harris, when she is called upon to express grief. Harris is cute and feisty, but the script doesn’t know what to do with her: is she an emotional wreck or a righteous avenger? Also, she seems less authentic than Tamara Feldman did in HATCHET; there is something a bit too glamorous and “Hollywood” about Harris for us to accept her as the daughter of a local gator-poacher. Her presence is really a sop to the horror fans, who remember her from HALLOWEEN IV and the 2007 HALLOWEEN remake.
Tom Holland seems to be around for much the same reason: not because he used to act way back when, but because horror fans may remember him for having directed FRIGHT NIGHT. He’s given more or less the John Agar role, and he certainly makes an effort, but he comes across a bit stiff, as if uncomfortable being back in front of the camera.
6a00d8341c630a53ef0133f3710f58970b-600wiTony Todd, having made a cameo in HATCHET, is rewarded with a lead role here. A fine actor who has been poorly used by the horror genre since his memorable debut in CANDYMAN1992), Todd seems to be enjoying himself as Reverend Zombie, but his joy may come at the expense of the film. He throws in a series of exaggerated spook-show hand  gestures, suggesting that the Reverend is a charlatan, yet the scripts seems to want us to take his knowledge of the supernatural as authentic. Todd is also victimized by some awkward dialogue that sound uncharacteristic when coming from a voodoo houngan.

THE REAL PROBLEM

Ultimately, HATCHET II never makes any of its characters into anything interesting enough to hold our attention. For all the back story dumped on us in the first act, the lead characters turn out to be not much more important than the supporting victims; there is little or no dramatic tension, because the connections between characters are too tenuous.
When Trent (R. A. Mihailoff) finally comes to grips with Crowley, the scene should explode on screen, because Crowley is settling a personal score instead of targeting another random victim. (Trent was one of three kids whose Halloween prank resulted in Crowley’s death, from which he returned with a literal vengeance.) But the scene does not exploit this possibility with an exchange of closeups or even a glance of recognition. Nor does HATCHET II play with the fact that, for once, we might root for Crowley.
Instead, the only tension in the scene comes from the fact that Mihailoff played Leatherface in THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III, a film for which Hodder acted as stunt supervisor. If you know the behind-the-scenes background, then you know why Trent is just about the only character who lays a glove on Crowley: it’s so we can see a cool fight seen between two stunt men, one who played Leatherface and the other who played Jason (Hodder wore the hockey mask in FRIDAY THE 13TH 7 through X). It’s almost a good moment – the only time when Victor Crowley seems to work up a little sweet, even seem almost vulnerable – but the end result is not half what it should have been.
Even more disappointing is the final face-off between Crowley and Reverend Zombie. The later has certainly done enough wrong so that we are happy to see Crowley sights land on him, but there is no strong personal connection. (Zombie, we are told, could have been – but was not – with Trent and his friends on the fateful night of Crowley’s death.) Considering the effort spent on establishing a back story, there should have been something in there to make the confrontation payoff on something that had happened in the past.
Also, it would have helped if Zombie had not been such an idiot – ditching his shot-gun and preferring to go hand-to-hand with Crowley. As with Mihailoff, the motivation here is less the characters than the actors: instead of Leatherface-versus-Jason, we get Candyman-versus-Jason. The script needed to give us some reason to think the Reverend might prevail, something that would put the outcome in doubt – something hat would make us sit up and take notice, instead of sit back and wait for the inevitable demise of another victim.

COUP DE GRACE

Marybeth tries to level Victor Crowley's karma.
Marybeth tries to level Victor Crowley's karma.

It must be said that, for all its failings, HATCHET II ends on a wonderful note, one that works brilliantly by setting up an overused cliche and then overturning it. SPOILER For once, at least, a final girl does what we have always wanted her to do to make sure that her apparently unkillable opponent does not rise one final time before the fadeout. END SPOILER
In a film plagued by sequel cliches, it is nice to see that setting up the next installment in the franchise was not a concern that was allowed to ruin the ending of this film. If there ever is a HATCHET III, one hopes it takes its cue from this moment and tries to do something subversive with the slasher formula, instead of simply offering up more lambs to the slaughter.
HATCHET II (Dark Sky Films, October 1, 2010). Written and directed by Adam Green. Cast: Danielle Harris, Tony Todd, Kane Hodder, Parry Shen, Tom Holland, R.A. Mihailoff, A.J. Bowen, Alexis Peters, Ed Ackerman, David Foy, Rick McCallum, John Carl Buechler, Kathryn Fiore, Mercedes McNab.
[serialposts]