“Tell Me This Is Part Of The Tour.”
If you’re ever out in the swamps just outside of New Orleans late at night, listen closely and you might just hear Victor Crowley calling for his daddy. Beginning in 2006, horror got one of its newest slasher franchises with Hatchet. As almost every film that takes place in Louisiana does, the original Hatchet movie starts out in New Orleans at Mardi Gras. A group of college kids decides to take a haunted swamp tour and find themselves knee-deep in the swamp, battling against an unstoppable force known as Victor Crowley.
Kane Hodder has starred as Victor Crowley in all four of the franchise’s films. Crowley, a deformed child who was constantly bullied, was accidentally smashed in the face with a hatchet when his father attempted to save him from their burning home. Crowley apparently died in the fire and his soul has been haunting Honey Island Swamp ever since, looking for revenge. Crowley seems to have zero weaknesses, as he has been blown up, sawed to pieces, shot, and set on fire, among other things, and has yet to die.
While a hatchet is Victor’s main go-to weapon, he’ll utilize just about anything he can get his hands on in order to kill his victims. He’s a lot like Jason Voorhees in this aspect. In fact, Victor shares a lot of the same characteristics as Voorhees. Both of them were bullied and deformed children. Both of them will kill anybody that comes to their home (swamp for Victor/Camp Crystal Lake for Jason), and they are apparently unstoppable.
The first film guest starred horror icons Robert Englund (A Nightmare On Elm Street) and Tony Todd (Candyman). This is a trend that would continue with all three sequels to the original film. Legendary horror actors such as Derek Mears, Felissa Rose, Sid Haig, R. A. Mihailoff, and Tyler Mane all had guest roles in the franchise. Almost all of them were ultimately murdered by Victor. Danielle Harris, a scream queen in her own right, took on the role of Marybeth Dunston in Hatchet II, replacing the original star, Tamara Feldman, and has portrayed the character in each film that has followed. Parry Shen has appeared in all four of the Hatchet movies, albeit as a different character in all but two of the movies.
The Hatchet films are great, brainless, lower-budget slasher films and Victor is a very violent, somewhat generic slasher, but it’s still fun to flip on one of his movies and watch him kill and maim anybody standing in his way!
Thanks for checking out today’s Thirty-One Days O’Horror entry. See you tomorrow!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 