At one point or another, we have all wound up in a situation where we ask ourselves, “How on earth did I get here? How on earth will I get out of this?” Hatchet is classic case of this scenario. Tourists hitch a boat ride with a faux supposed local tour guide, only to become lost in a swamp as it was raining, shipwrecked, and stalked/killed by reputed boogeyman, Victor Crawley.










A fun cast goes a long way. Familiar faces and some spirited comic timing can mean the world to a slasher film like Hatchet which wants so badly to please the intended audience. Joel David Moore plays a forlorn sad-sack enduring melancholy for losing his girl. Moore’s buddy (with a face and delivery that adds a little extra to his lines, even making them better a lot of the time), played by Deon Richmond (The Cosby Show), tries to talk him out of the tour, but if they went back to Bourbon Street, there’d be no heroes for us to watch attempt to avoid being ripped apart. Tamara Feldman is the beauty Moore finds potential romantic interest in…well, she’s someone he talks to about his pain to. Feldman has a reason for being on the tour and it isn’t for the ridiculously wrong insight of her tour guide, played by Parry Shen (I thought he was a treat as this Asian kid passing off a Cajun accent that comes and goes, with his anger infuriated to the point thanks to corrections from those in his group that he bursts into his native language much to their surprise). With others in the cast bringing their comic chops to the horror shenanigans--Richard Riehle and Patrika Darbo (as a sweet and overly jolly Midwest couple), Joleigh Fioravanti and Mercedes McNab (as a couple of dimbulb babes) being recorded by Bill Murray’s bro, Joel Murray (as if he were a legit director; when in actuality, he just wants to get their tits in multiple shots), with make-up effects legend John Carl Buechler (as “Jack Cracker”, a fisherman whose warnings to the group go unheard) and Tony Todd (as “Reverend Zombie”, normally the one who conducts “swamp tours”) adding cameo value--Adam Green has a wealth of talent at his disposal to dispose of.

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