Blood Night - The Legend of Mary Hatchet - DVD

Film: After Mary Hatchet (Samantha Siong) murders her parents with a hatchet as a 12-year-old girl in 1978, she is committed to Kings Park Psychiatric Hospital, where she is raped by a guard ten years later. Mary is pregnant after the brutal assault, but her baby dies at birth. This traumatic experience makes the young woman finally go crazy, whereupon she causes a bloodbath in the psychiatric ward. Mary is shot dead by the police who are called in. But her legend lives on. Twenty years after the bloodbath, the town's youth celebrate Blood Night. It's a wild party that involves pranks and, of course, sex and booze. But this year, a very special guest joins in the celebration, wreaking havoc on the teens in the tradition of Mary Hatchet...

Blood Night - The Legend of Mary Hatchet, the directorial debut of Frank Sabatella, is a slasher in the tradition of the genre representatives from the late 70s and early 80s. Whether Halloween 1 + 2, Bloody Valentine's Day or Prom Night, connoisseurs will recognize many borrowings from these and other classics of the genre. Sabatella also uses all the clichés that are almost necessary for such films, whereby dialogue and character development are of secondary importance. The teenagers who are murdered during Blood Night are absolutely interchangeable, with of course those who indulge in drugs or carnal lust being the first to die.

So besides a lot of blood, there is of course also a bit of naked skin, a lot of extremely flat dialogue and a hint of dramaturgy, which however ultimately fizzles out into nothing. Despite the obviously rather low budget, the effects - although often clearly recognizable as such - are implemented quite effectively, which significantly increases the entertainment value of the film. Admittedly, the whole thing isn't really original, the actors are only partially talented and the staging is a bit bumpy at times. But since Sabatella seems to know exactly what fans of the genre like to see and he at least tries to deliver exactly that, some of these flaws can be overlooked.

So if you don't expect more than a teen slasher that clearly follows the usual formula with some successful effects, if you can listen past the flat dialogue and also enjoy the not quite mature acting of the actors, you will definitely be well entertained by Blood Night - The Legend of Mary Hatchet. Recommended!

Picture + Sound: The picture quality of the film is on a decent level, although it is especially in the darker scenes repeatedly to slight image drizzle and weaknesses in the detail representation comes. However, the overall sharpness is mostly convincing, the color scheme is somewhat reduced, but leaves an overall coherent impression. The sound presents the dialogues very frontal and well understandable mixed, ambient noises are unfortunately somewhat lost. Thus, only isolated sound effects provide a little dynamic in the surround area.

Extras: As a bonus, there is an audio commentary on the DVD with the director, who tells quite enthusiastically about the making of his debut. In addition, there are two making of featurettes (approx. 7 + approx. 19 min.), as well as some outtakes (approx. 6 min.), the trailer for the film in German and English, as well as other program tips from the provider. Especially the audio commentary and the longer making of are recommendable, but all extras lack optional switchable subtitles, so only interested viewers with a good knowledge of English can enjoy the additional material.

Conclusion: Blood Night - The Legend of Mary Hatchet is a quite entertaining slasher in good 80s tradition, to which its low budget is always noticeable, but which also offers the genre fan often enough exactly what you can expect from a film like this. Certainly, the film is not one of the classics it keeps citing. However, the bloody goings-on of the ghost of Mary Hatchet is always entertaining. The DVD is technically well done, the bonus material is worth seeing, but does not have subtitles. The bottom line is for slasher fans a satisfied: Recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp