HATCHET 3 (2013)

Directed By: BJ McDonnell 
Written By: Adam Green 
Cinematography By: Will Barratt 
Editor: Ed Marx 

 Cast: Danielle Harris, Zach Galligan, Kane Hodder, Parry Shen, Caroline Williams, Sean Whalen, Derek Mears, Sid Haig

A search and recovery team heads into the haunted swamp to pick up the pieces and Marybeth learns the secret to ending the voodoo curse that has left Victor Crowley haunting and terrorizing Honey Island Swamp for decades.

A return to the series that barely gets a chance to age before you can Miss it.

Director Adam green doesn't return to direct this installment but he does script it.

Series creator Adam Green prides the Hatchet films on their "no CGI rule". All make-up effects are done the "old school" way with prosthetics, make-up, latex, and silicone in order to give the films their throw back feeling and tone. CGI and digital enhancement is only used for such things as wire removal or fixing any camera issues that occurred while filming, but never to create the films' outrageous special effects. Hatchet 3 was no exception to this rule and Green continually challenged the make-up effects crew by writing crazy death scenes and sequences that most any other modern production would have brought in computer generated visual effects teams to accomplish.

One of the things I have admit about the series is that these films seem to take place It seems about a year in between the first and second and a day between the second and third. While I enjoy the films as a throwback to the unstoppable beast that haunts the Forrest and offer a kind of nostalgia for classic 80's horror. I truly felt the first one got it right the second one while I was excited to see felt like it was stretching the premise and humor a bit far and leaving it at it's limits. The Films are enjoyable on their own merit but feel more juvenile and perfectly centered of teen males with the films full of jokes, nudity and plenty of gore.

After just one week of shooting Hatchet 3, actor Kane Hodder declared it "the hardest job he's ever done". Performing rigorous action and stunts in sweltering Louisiana summer heat and humidity while wearing 50 pounds of silicone and make-up on his body, Kane Hodder truly suffered for his craft in making Hatchet 3.

The biggest disappointment has been with each film the entertainment value and quality has gone down. So when a third film in the series was announced I was interested yet skeptical.


I had a good reason to be, this film is just not needed it stretches the plausibility Into the ridiculous. It seems more a film made for either fans of the series or gore and torture porn enthusiasts. He violence is that excessive ad unnecessary.

The humor is corny and juvenile while having the characters add curse words to every line of dialogue for no reason. Even the setups for humor seem strange and Staged. Like they are only there to pass the time until the next slaughter.

Hatchet 3 is the first of the Hatchet films to be filmed almost entirely in New Orleans, LA. The first two Hatchet films were mostly shot in Los Angeles.

Actor Parry Shen has appeared in all three Hatchet films but as different characters. In Hatchet, he played Shawn, who worked for the Swamp Tours. In Hatchet II, he played Justin, who was Shawn's brother. Justin also worked for the Swamp Tours. In Hatchet III, he played a paramedic named Andrew. Andrew is not related to Shawn or Justin. A joke is even made in the film about how one of the bodies they find looks like him.

Danielle Harris is the star of the film, but really is In only half of it.

Zach Galligan delivers a horrible embarrassing performance that doesn't even come close to credible or camp. He is never believable and you can't wait for him to be off-screen.

Both Kane Hodder and Derek Mears played Jason Voorhees in different Friday the 13th films. Hodder played Jason in "Jason X," and Mears in the Friday the 13th reboot in 2009.

The film has plenty of horror veterans in the film who feel strangely wasted through out the film who only seen to be in the film because this is the only offers made to them to play straight roles instead of murderers .

Sorry for fans of the series there is no nudity this time around by they make up for it by adding even more unnecessary violence. Ivan say no one does peacefully or easily

I can't say the film Is without it's delights hey just come few and far in between

This film feels like the beginning of Jason goes to hell only without the self aware wit and satire.

Filled with characters making unbelievable mistakes that even suspension of disbelief couldn't solve and while as usual it's nice that he film makes throwback jokes to the previous films that is not enough to help save this endeavor.

I really wanted to enjoy this film. It just became monotonous after awhile and really added nothing we haven't seen before. That seems to be the problem even with these straight to DVD sequels sure you know what you are going to get, but you hope at least they will try to make it a unique experience instead of giving what you think the audience wants but really it is more of the same, that barely registers a difference other then cast and year making it feel like the film came off of an assembly line

This is supposed to be the last of the series. I hope so, I wouldn't mind a return to it as long as they have a new story or something new to say with it.

 Grade: F