13. Friday the 13th - Here's one of my examples where just the poster of the film scared me. This one hung in my neighbor's house and I just had to know what happened at that summer camp! Why was that knife so bloody?! The neighbor kids told me about some of the death scenes in the film, which made me want to see it all that much more.

When I finally saw the film, it didn't disappoint in the least. The stalker POV was really effective on me as a kid, I loved the whole Friday the 13th series, a lot of it had to do simply with that POV. The classic musical stinger "Ch, ch, ch, ha, ha, ha..." would run chills up my spine no matter how many times I'd seen whichever version I was watching. I still love this series. The original is far and away the best and still holds up well. The rest are mostly fun for the 80's filmmaking and all the inventive ways they come up with how to kill the camp counselors. ”

Wow! This film hit me like a ton of bricks. For so long filmmakers have been remaking Friday the 13th into various states of disappointment. Using the archetype of teenagers in the woods getting killed off by some sort of psychopathic monster to create a few memorable horror films like Sleepaway Camp and a whole mess of crappy ones. So when I heard about Hatchet, I didn't think much of it, just another crappy try at the Friday the 13th thing that I'd forget five minutes after it was over.

The film opens with the pretty standard gag, of having a horror icon cameo, in this case it was Freddy himself, Robert Englund, getting killed in the first few minutes. What grabbed me was the use of gore, usually after someone gets killed in one of these crappy horror films, it's over in a second, or not shown at all. But the filmmakers went to great care to get down and nasty here, ripping limbs off and having guts spill everywhere. The whole point of these films is to see people get killed in disgusting ways, and they do that extremely well in Hatchet.

The film moves to Marti Gras, where are hero Ben, played by Joel Moore (currently in the awful looking Hottie & the Nottie), is having an awful time. He's bored of the drunkenness and the bare breasts. Why? Because his longtime girlfriend just broke up with him... but who cares, let's get to some more carnage! After another cameo from the Candyman, Tony Todd; Ben and his friend Marcus, played by Kenny from the Cosby Show, are unwittingly lead into the swamp by a con-artist running his first boat tour. Also on board are a dim-witted redneck couple, a shlubby guy directing a porno and his two slutty actresses, to make sure there are a couple of titty-shots, and a hot-loner-girl with hidden motives.

After they predictably crash their swamp boat in the very spot that Robert Englund was killed a few scenes earlier; the film kicks into high gear. It turns out the loner-girl is Robert's daughter, she's looking for him and her brother who went missing in Victor Crowley territory a few days back. She tells the tale of local legend Crowley, a retarded-mutant boy, who only knew the love of his father, and was then accidentally killed by his father thanks to a couple of jokesters who set their cabin on fire. He now haunts the swamp surrounding his burnt down shack.

The redneck husband breaks his leg, and being skeptical of the girl's story, him and his wife make their way to the only visible home, despite the other's warnings. In an instant Crowley pops out of his cabin and is upon them like a rabid dog. Both are dispatched in gruesome ways, including maybe the best kill I've ever seen in any movie of this type; he grabs the wife by the mouth and splits her head open like a Pez dispenser. The group splits up and runs terrified off into the woods. I was pumped for how Crowley was going to get the rest of them. The filmmakers don't wimp out on a single one in the group, each has their own disgusting death. When only two are left, you can probably guess who, they decide that striking back is their only means of survival. They're successful to a degree only possible in horror films, and the film ends with an appropriate shocker and satisfying "twist".

Writer/Director Adam Green announces himself as a major new talent in the horror genre. Even though he offers nothing really new, he get everything right in Hatchet. The tone successfully jumps from scary, to funny in the blink of an eye. He pushes his effects crew to gross out the viewer, but keeps it campy enough, that it's not disgusting, more nastily humorous. His creation of Victor Crowley, is the best mutant-psycho since the days of Freddy, Michael Myers and Jason; with him appropriately played by Jason's stunt-man Kane Hodder.

I haven't heard much about this film, outside die-hard horror fans, but I think now that it's on video more people will discover it's sickening genius. I wouldn't be surprised to see a sequel within a few years and for Victor Crowley to turn into the next Jason Vorhees with a whole series of ever worsening Hatchet flicks.

When I was growing up, the neighbor's kid, who was a couple years older than me, was a huge horror film fan. He had posters on the wall for a couple of the Friday the 13th films, and I was completely fascinated by them. From those images and what he told me about the films, I was able to terrify myself. I became a fan of Jason, years before I was able to see the films for myself. Even now the Friday the 13th series remains my favorite horror film series, over Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween and anything more recent like the Saw films.

Every so often I'll watch through them again. I watched parts 1-4 again before Halloween, and was finally getting around to part 5. I don't know if I'll bother with part 6-9, they start to get pretty intolerable after this one, though I may check out Freddy vs. Jason again, I haven't seen it since it was in the theaters.

I think Part V: A New Beginning is probably the third best in the series, after the original, and The Final Chapter. The film opens with Tommy, played by Corey Feldman, who killed Jason in part IV, seeing him reborn, thanks to a couple of yokels who've decide to dig him up. Smash-cut to a grown-up Tommy on the way to a half-way house for loony-kids. He's become a bit messed-up, since Jason chopped up his mommy and sister, before he himself cut off Jason's head.


The characters here are pretty stock; there's the couple who can't get enough sex, the nerdy guy who wants to get with the slightly less nerdy, but cute girl, the sass-talking-black-kid, an 80's punk-chick, the doctor, the sexy-nurse, the rage-filled-psycho and the clueless-fat-guy. The psycho kills the fat guy with an ax, within about 10 minutes of the Tommy showing up, so he gets to witness another brutal slaying.

Soon the kids are getting bumped off one by one, for most of the film we don't get to see who is doing it, but Tommy keeps seeing Jason everywhere. Leading to the questions; is he just crazy, is he killing these kids, or is Jason really back from the grave? And I think that bit of mystery makes A New Beginning a little more interesting than some of the other films, where Jason magically comes back again and again. In this film, there's an actual real-world explanation for all the murders.

The death scenes in this film are pretty stock for the series, nothing really stands out, but they're not bad. I think fans miss seeing Jason himself do it, so that's why this film may not be held as high. But on the plus side, it contains the best nudity of all the films. If you watch Part 1 through 5, skipping the crappy part 3, you're getting the best of the series, and the bulk of the "important" storyline.