Review: Victor Crowley (Hatchet 4) 2017
Victor Crowley is back!! (oh and, of course, the movie is not in Spanish as the picture I used might suggest…it was just the biggest :p). If you’ve read my Hatchet Trilogy review, you’ll already know I could not LOVE them more and this newest installment is no exception! However, this one does differ from the others in many ways… fortunately all of them are awesome! For starters, Hatchet 4 is more of an obvious comedy, but of course it still maintains the tradition of over-the-top gore that was started with the trilogy. This film also just has a different feel to it, at least I think so, the director/writer, Adam Green has grown and changed, in addition, from listening to the commentary, I learned that he had also gone through a number of things in his life, and this movie was a very cathartic experience for him. Not to mention that, in my opinion, Hatchet 4, with its surprisingly strong, outspoken, and evem promiscuous female lead, along with its unique combination of serious subject matter, horror, gore and humor, challenges many preconceptions and stereotypes of horror. Before I move on to my synopsis, I want to warn that if you haven’t seen the first 3 Hatchet films (mainly the 3rd) then you may not want to read until you watch them as the synopsis kinda has no choice but to contain spoilers (I mean, really, if you haven’t seen them all then not only are you doing yourself a great disservice, assuming you’re a horror fan, but also…what are you even doing reading the review for the 4th film?? Go watch the trilogy first and thank me later 😛.)
Hatchet 4 begins with a brilliant and hilarious flashback to remind us just how many decades Victor Crowley has been terrorizing Honey Island Swamp! Then we go to present day, of course, after the end of the trilogy, the swamp is actually no longer cursed with the brutal murderous ghost and has of course become a massive tourist attraction! Our story has two main centers, a group of friends hoping to make a movie based on Victor Crowley, and, of course, our “final guy” Andrew Yong (Parry Shen) is back and somewhat of a celebrity for being the only survivor of the the original massacre. Once Victor Crowley is inadvertently resurrected, a plane crash leads the groups to converge.
My favourite character by far in this movie, is Dillon McMaster, he’s absolutely brilliant, hilarious, brave, sweet, cute…pretty much everything but smart (although he really has his own way of thinking, who’s to say? Regardless, I love him.) I highly recommend all four Hatchet films to all horror fans who have a fondness for gore, and I hope there’ll be more Hatchet movies to come!
