thesar-2
When your franchise is long-over dead, try just naming your latest installment the main character's name! Let's see, it worked for: Jigsaw, Hannibal, Leatherface, Chucky, Jason, heck - even Jason Bourne and now Victor Crowley!Actually, technically, the Hatchet series is one of the most consistent in quality and structure. They even have the gorgeous Parry Shen as a constant element in all four films. And that all said, it's time to hang up those overalls.I did a marathon of the four Hatchet films and that's really the way to go with these. Each one, with the exception of today's delightment of derangement, takes place the exact second the previous left off and makes sense to do so. Parts 1-3 take place over a consecutive couple of days. Only one issue.Well, more than one. The horrible move from the fantastic final girl of Amara Zaragoza in part 1 to the Halloween regular, Danielle Harris, was a severe downgrade in part 2. Like the Friday the 13th franchise this humbly plays homage to, they killed off the bad guy in #3 and a nice/complete conclusion to the series. No need to contin...damnit. They fooled me.In further homage, they once again brought back their utterly unlikable villain to the kill count because, yep, another homage to the Jason Voorhees series. Clever girl (or boy?)In a lot that absolutely mirrors today's social issues, the movie opens with a book tour from the dude in each one of these, my favorite character - because of his humor throughout the films and because of those damn good looks, played by Parry Shen. The opening is hilarious, as are all the Hatchet movies - mostly with Parry, but also a wonderful 50's style homage with MST3k's Jonah Ray.And speaking of Ray, I heard him in an interview talking about how they actually almost killed him because they refused to let him wear his glasses or contacts for the scenes he ran around the swamp. He is almost completely blind without the aid of his contacts/glasses, but this didn't seem to bother the crew filming him run with sharp branches and hatchets around him in the dark...I digress. Even though Part III was a funny Aliens knockoff, this one went back to Aliens again getting Part III's only survivor back into arm's length of the creature he was lucky enough to escape many years prior. God, now I wanna stop writing and go watch Aliens again. Man, Aliens is such a good movie. I just love how Ripley saves her friends and nothing at all could possibly go wrong for her newly saved friends in any sort of follow-up to Aliens...So. Victor Crowley was good and worth seeing, but it does need to end. While I liked all four movies and will highly recommend the series, they each have progressively gone downhill. Yeah, it's real easy to rank these: 1, 2, 3, VC. Done.Also, funny enough, especially with this film's title, he's so unlikable. In real life, we're supposed to hate serial killers like Jason, Freddy, Chucky and Leslie Vernon, but they're all so much fun to watch on screen. Victor? Well, he's the most brutal of all modern day monsters. He makes Letherface look like an amateur. But, he's just so, so dark. So mean. And zero charisma. He's not the reason to see these movies.Fine. If you're here JUST for the gore, Victor would be your reason to see this. To me, that's 5-9% of the features. The majority of the film focuses on humor, homage, inside jokes, references and wonderful cameos. Those are why, well, those plus Parry Shen, I continue to see them.It's just that, you've made your point. You killed off the baddie, like they did to Jason in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. And now you resurrected him like they did in the 6th film: Jason Lives. I really don't think they need to continue, even though they're still pretty creative with how to approach the same outline in each installment.***Final thoughts: Despite my criticism above, yeah, I totally recommend this movie. Especially the commentary on people's 15 minutes of fame exploited here. Plus we get a scene where Parry Shen cannot stop staring at another man's junk. He even says he cannot look away from seeing the other man's balls and penis. Had to watch that scene several times....
Stephen Abell
Oh, Dear what can the matter be? Victor Crowley is back on my TV!!!Now, I don't have anything against Crowley (Hodder) as horror film monsters go, he's climbing up there. It's actually Green's story and direction which irked me the most about this film.Firstly, the story is pretty much non-existent. Ten years after the first attack, the sole survivor, Andrew (Shen) is doing the rounds pushing his book on how he survived Crowley's attack. This puts him on his ex's TV show Sabrina (Brown). She's over antagonistic and bullies him in the interview. She later cons him into another interview, this time an outside broadcast back in Crowley's swamp. Meanwhile, a film crew accidentally resurrect Crowley and his killing spree starts up once again...The major problem with the writing is the characters, particularly that of Sabrina and her relationship with Andrew. Supposedly they were a loving couple, though there's no evidence of it here. You're not even given a reason for why she treats Andrew so vehemently. This is unrealistic and unbelievable. It's also so obvious that their relationship is there as a comedic element. However, it's more annoying than funny. To be truthful, though labelled as a comedy there are very little laughs in the film. Not once did I smile at a joke, let alone laugh. Had this been played as a straight horror then it would be a stronger film. Another thing is Green relies on characters to add humour, such as Dillon (Sheridan). The trouble is we've seen this type of character so many times so you need to add something new to make it funny. There's nothing new in any of the characters. Though I have to say that Sheridan does put his heart and soul into his portrayal of the character, which was nice to see as other actors are less enthusiastic.This could come down to direction as Brown, who plays Sabrina, is too shouty and angry. This needed to be toned down a little. As it stands, the handling of the character is part of the reason she comes off so badly. Then there's the scene at the shed. This is meant to be funny, but it's telegraphed too early so you know what's coming and you're waiting for it to happen. So when it does eventually come the comedy has been rendered unfunny. This is the case with a lot of the sight gags. As for the direction of the rest of the film, it's standard and dull, especially the scenes within the plane, of which there are too many.In fact, the only saving grace to the whole film is Victor Crawley himself and his slaughters. The special effects team have my respect, these are gloriously nasty wet-work. I was just sad to see the turbine kill effect was shot at a sideways angle so there was little viscera. Shame they missed out on the chance for a nasty and grisly ending. If they could have pulled it off it would have gone down in history.This is not the best in the Hatchet franchise and I'd not recommend it to anyone except those steadfast horror fans who have watched the previous three flicks.
trashgang
My God did I liked the Hatched franchise and when rumours came out that the next one was going to be made I was happy and looking forward to see it. Don't know why it isn't called Hatchet IV but hey, Vicor Crowley is alive.Seen it I still don't know what I have to think about it. Where the franchise was made for the gore this one here do offer gore again but it also has a lot of overacting and stupid humour. And the humour used in the beginning I could dig, the co-pilot thing I really found it funny, but after a while the humour took over from the horror. Not a thing we expect from this kind of flicks. Still, it do has pure gore just for the gore of it but the stupid situations and humour teared it down. But hey, the worst in the franchise but the open ending makes you want more...
Gore 5/5
Nudity 0,5/5
Effects 4/5
Story 2/5
Comedy 0,5/5
