When your franchise is long-over dead, try just naming your latest installment the main character's name! Let's see, it worked for: Jigsaw, Hannibal, Leatherface, Chucky, Jason, heck - even Jason Bourne and now Victor Crowley!
Actually, technically, the Hatchet series is one of the most consistent in quality and structure. They even have the gorgeous Parry Shen as a constant element in all four films. And that all said, it's time to hang up those overalls.
I did a marathon of the four Hatchet films and that's really the way to go with these. Each one, with the exception of today's delightment of derangement, takes place the exact second the previous left off and makes sense to do so. Parts 1-3 take place over a consecutive couple of days. Only one issue.
Well, more than one. The horrible move from the fantastic final girl of Amara Zaragoza in part 1 to the Halloween regular, Danielle Harris, was a severe downgrade in part 2. Like the Friday the 13th franchise this humbly plays homage to, they killed off the bad guy in #3 and a nice/complete conclusion to the series. No need to contin...damnit. They fooled me.
In further homage, they once again brought back their utterly unlikable villain to the kill count because, yep, another homage to the Jason Voorhees series. Clever girl (or boy?)
In a lot that absolutely mirrors today's social issues, the movie opens with a book tour from the dude in each one of these, my favorite character - because of his humor throughout the films and because of those damn good looks, played by Parry Shen. The opening is hilarious, as are all the Hatchet movies - mostly with Parry, but also a wonderful 50's style homage with MST3k's Jonah Ray.
And speaking of Ray, I heard him in an interview talking about how they actually almost killed him because they refused to let him wear his glasses or contacts for the scenes he ran around the swamp. He is almost completely blind without the aid of his contacts/glasses, but this didn't seem to bother the crew filming him run with sharp branches and hatchets around him in the dark...
I digress. Even though Part III was a funny Aliens knockoff, this one went back to Aliens again getting Part III's only survivor back into arm's length of the creature he was lucky enough to escape many years prior. God, now I wanna stop writing and go watch Aliens again.
Man, Aliens is such a good movie. I just love how Ripley saves her friends and nothing at all could possibly go wrong for her newly saved friends in any sort of follow-up to Aliens...
So. Victor Crowley was good and worth seeing, but it does need to end. While I liked all four movies and will highly recommend the series, they each have progressively gone downhill. Yeah, it's real easy to rank these: 1, 2, 3, VC. Done.
Also, funny enough, especially with this film's title, he's so unlikable. In real life, we're supposed to hate serial killers like Jason, Freddy, Chucky and Leslie Vernon, but they're all so much fun to watch on screen. Victor? Well, he's the most brutal of all modern day monsters. He makes Letherface look like an amateur. But, he's just so, so dark. So mean. And zero charisma. He's not the reason to see these movies.
Fine. If you're here JUST for the gore, Victor would be your reason to see this. To me, that's 5-9% of the features. The majority of the film focuses on humor, homage, inside jokes, references and wonderful cameos. Those are why, well, those plus Parry Shen, I continue to see them.
It's just that, you've made your point. You killed off the baddie, like they did to Jason in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. And now you resurrected him like they did in the 6th film: Jason Lives. I really don't think they need to continue, even though they're still pretty creative with how to approach the same outline in each installment.
***
Final thoughts: Despite my criticism above, yeah, I totally recommend this movie. Especially the commentary on people's 15 minutes of fame exploited here. Plus we get a scene where Parry Shen cannot stop staring at another man's junk. He even says he cannot look away from seeing the other man's balls and penis. Had to watch that scene several times....
Actually, technically, the Hatchet series is one of the most consistent in quality and structure. They even have the gorgeous Parry Shen as a constant element in all four films. And that all said, it's time to hang up those overalls.
I did a marathon of the four Hatchet films and that's really the way to go with these. Each one, with the exception of today's delightment of derangement, takes place the exact second the previous left off and makes sense to do so. Parts 1-3 take place over a consecutive couple of days. Only one issue.
Well, more than one. The horrible move from the fantastic final girl of Amara Zaragoza in part 1 to the Halloween regular, Danielle Harris, was a severe downgrade in part 2. Like the Friday the 13th franchise this humbly plays homage to, they killed off the bad guy in #3 and a nice/complete conclusion to the series. No need to contin...damnit. They fooled me.
In further homage, they once again brought back their utterly unlikable villain to the kill count because, yep, another homage to the Jason Voorhees series. Clever girl (or boy?)
In a lot that absolutely mirrors today's social issues, the movie opens with a book tour from the dude in each one of these, my favorite character - because of his humor throughout the films and because of those damn good looks, played by Parry Shen. The opening is hilarious, as are all the Hatchet movies - mostly with Parry, but also a wonderful 50's style homage with MST3k's Jonah Ray.
And speaking of Ray, I heard him in an interview talking about how they actually almost killed him because they refused to let him wear his glasses or contacts for the scenes he ran around the swamp. He is almost completely blind without the aid of his contacts/glasses, but this didn't seem to bother the crew filming him run with sharp branches and hatchets around him in the dark...
I digress. Even though Part III was a funny Aliens knockoff, this one went back to Aliens again getting Part III's only survivor back into arm's length of the creature he was lucky enough to escape many years prior. God, now I wanna stop writing and go watch Aliens again.
Man, Aliens is such a good movie. I just love how Ripley saves her friends and nothing at all could possibly go wrong for her newly saved friends in any sort of follow-up to Aliens...
So. Victor Crowley was good and worth seeing, but it does need to end. While I liked all four movies and will highly recommend the series, they each have progressively gone downhill. Yeah, it's real easy to rank these: 1, 2, 3, VC. Done.
Also, funny enough, especially with this film's title, he's so unlikable. In real life, we're supposed to hate serial killers like Jason, Freddy, Chucky and Leslie Vernon, but they're all so much fun to watch on screen. Victor? Well, he's the most brutal of all modern day monsters. He makes Letherface look like an amateur. But, he's just so, so dark. So mean. And zero charisma. He's not the reason to see these movies.
Fine. If you're here JUST for the gore, Victor would be your reason to see this. To me, that's 5-9% of the features. The majority of the film focuses on humor, homage, inside jokes, references and wonderful cameos. Those are why, well, those plus Parry Shen, I continue to see them.
It's just that, you've made your point. You killed off the baddie, like they did to Jason in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. And now you resurrected him like they did in the 6th film: Jason Lives. I really don't think they need to continue, even though they're still pretty creative with how to approach the same outline in each installment.
***
Final thoughts: Despite my criticism above, yeah, I totally recommend this movie. Especially the commentary on people's 15 minutes of fame exploited here. Plus we get a scene where Parry Shen cannot stop staring at another man's junk. He even says he cannot look away from seeing the other man's balls and penis. Had to watch that scene several times....