Hatchet II - DVD

Film: Victor Crowley is back! And he, of course, immediately pounces on Marybeth (played by Danielle Harris in Part 2), the sole survivor of the bloody events of Part 1. But Marybeth manages to escape and vows revenge. She wants to finally put an end to the disfigured killer that she deserves. With the help of Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd) and her uncle (Tom Holland), Marybeth gathers a group of intrepid hunters to track down and kill Crowley. But no sooner do they arrive on Victor's turf than it becomes clear who is hunter and who is prey.

With "Hatchet", Adam Green directed an amusing homage to the backwoods slashers of the '80s in 2006, delighting genre fans around the world. Now comes the long-awaited sequel in our home theaters, which promises even more weird wit, more blood and much more gore. But "Hatchet II" can keep this promise only conditionally. Admittedly, there are numerous quite amusing moments and the play with the clichés of this subject is again successful in the second attempt. Nevertheless, the whole thing comes across as if Green tried too hard to be even funnier, even cleverer than in the first part. This makes the humor in many places too overdone and silly to still be able to pass as a loving homage.

Anyway, the film could still score with its completely exaggerated splatter interludes. Could, if there were not for the release in Germany vigorously the scissors would have been applied. From the crude effects, which have made the quite existing fun factor of the sequel, is hardly anything left. This is surprising, since the effects are so exaggeratedly focused on comedy and not on horror, and since they are also very clearly recognizable as effects. That any viewer could confuse reality and fiction here, which may be much more the case with some horror films, would thus hardly have been expected with "Hatchet II". Nevertheless, just under 3 minutes fell victim to the scissors in Germany. And even if viewers unfamiliar with that uncut version that screened at Fantasy Filmfest in 2010 don't notice every cut, some scenes have apparently been edited with Victor Crowley's chainsaw.

What's left is splatter fun that's stalled whenever it gets up to full speed. Genre fans will admittedly enjoy the appearances of Kane "Jason" Hodder, Tony "Candyman" Todd or "Chucky" director Tom Holland and will be amused by the small guest appearances of actors from the first part. Especially the way Parry Shen, whose character Shawn actually passed away in the first movie, has been brought back on board is quite amusing. Genre pro Danielle Harris ("Halloween 4 + 5", "Dark Legends"), who has stepped in for Tamara Feldman, also does a pretty good job, even if she raises an eyebrow a little too often, especially at the beginning.

In itself, then, "Hatchet II" is a thoroughly enjoyable sequel, suffering only from the fact that it tries a little too crampedly to outshine all the successful elements of its predecessor. If the cuts in the German home cinema version were not sometimes too obvious, this DVD could be warmly recommended to all fans of Part 1, because the film is always entertaining. So but such a recommendation is only very limited possible.

Picture + Sound: Technically, the DVD is on a good level. The picture is pleasingly sharp in the bright sequences and the red tones in particular are very effectively realised. Black levels are good, though in the darker sequences there are some weak points in contrast and sharpness of detail. The audio remains largely quiet, but some moments of suspense feature purposefully effective surround effects. Good!

Extras: The cut of the main film also has an impact on the bonus material. For the German release, for instance, a short documentary that deals primarily with the gore effects has been cut altogether. But also with the other extras the scissors were used strongly. In the Making of there are 7 minutes that deal with the moments that were cut out of the main film. Otherwise, this documentary is well worth watching and informative - even if here, as with the film itself, the most interesting moments are missing. The shorter "First Look" promotional documentary is also cut, but only by 7 seconds, which can be forgiven.

Not cut, on the other hand, are the two audio commentaries, which are unfortunately not optionally subtitled, but the result is that they run out of sync with the actual film after only a few minutes due to the cuts in the main feature, and they still continue past the credits at the end - increasing the running time of the film from just under 78 minutes to 82 minutes. The first commentary was voiced by Adam Green, cinematographer Will Barratt, and special makeup effects supervisor Robert Pendergraft, while the second was voiced by Green and actors Kane Hodder and Tony Todd. While the first commentary looks more at the technical aspects and contains a lot of interesting making of information, the second commentary goes more into the events during the filming and fan reactions. Of course, what's a bit annoying is that some things are talked about here that the viewer doesn't get to see, or scenes are still discussed that are long gone due to the cuts. And of course, once those involved take a break and the film's original soundtrack is on, it's not in sync with what the German viewer sees. Still, it's nice that at least the commentaries haven't been cut.

Conclusion: Not quite as lightheartedly enjoyable as its predecessor, but still entertaining and bloody, "Hatchet II" unfortunately presents itself in Germany in a heavily edited version. So what makes this sequel worth seeing is barely recognizable here. And also the bonus material appears in this country only in abridged form, which makes it extremely difficult to put this home theater premiere genre fans to the heart

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp