Let's be realistic.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

This story picks up with Marybeth (Danielle Harris) "killing" Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder) again. It was nice of the producers to use the same person to play Marybeth this time. She is in jail while local police check Honey Island Swamp only to find a bloody mess. Like Jason, Victor never dies so you can figure out the rest.Sid Haig has a bit part in this film having comedic "Paula Deen moments." I did not enjoy this as much as the one with Tony Todd. This film had its comic and dark comedy moments, but was pretty much an over the top slasher with blood spraying unrealistically all over the screen as if it was coming out of a pressure washer. The characters were decent in this one, but the film lacked a certain eye candy. Plenty of blood and gore, easy on plot.Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity. Danielle Harris being hosed in shower with discreet arm and leg placement.

Have you ever watched a 'slasher' film and really enjoyed it? Have you then gone on to watch the THIRD instalment of the same franchise? Yes, I know - quite a drop in quality. I remember the first 'Hatchet' film. It was hardly 'high art' - it was about a killer who killed people with - guess what - a hatchet! It could have effectively been a script in the early days of the 'Friday 13th' franchise - it was that original. However, it was actually quite witty and self-knowing - something they seem to have forgotten how to do between parts I and III.I have to confess that I never watched part II, therefore I'm not entirely sure how xxx Crowley suddenly upgraded himself from psycho-killer, to supernatural, indestructible psycho-killer. Anyway, he's unstoppable now... and he kills people. If you've ever watched a 'Friday 13th' film or any type of 'slasher' film like that then you'll know what to expect. One death after the next until the cast of Z-list actors are gradually chopped down to just a couple.There's little else to say about this film, as I've seen it so many times before. About the only name on the cast I recognised was Kane Hodder (who plays Crowley), simply because he's played Jason Voorhees a couple of time. But he's silent all the way through as he butchers his cast-mates, so he could hardly 'save' the film.The one thing I have to say was that the gore/kills were good. They were at least imaginative with what little budget they had at their disposal. If you like this sort of film then you'll already have a dozen similar (and better, obviously!) films in your collection. Just watch one of the 'Scream' films (even part IV is better than 'Hatchet III') or even the first 'Hatchet' film. And, was it just me, or did a killer known as 'Hatchet' fail to use his chopper as much as his name suggests he should? Oh well, that's the least of this film's sins!

Deep in the woods of the Lousiana swamp, an urban legend familiar to the locals is underway. An undead murderer possessed by a supernatural curse, is forced to relive each night as he was killed, nearly 300 years ago. His goal is to settle his debt by finding the father and the one that killed him. This translates into wandering the Lousiana swamp, and killing everything that gets in his way. One such night, as the movie begins, involves a massacre as a girl fights for her life and otherwise saws the supernatural killer into pieces. She turns herself in, shotgun; the sheriff doesn't believe her story, and his ex- wife wants a piece of the action in the form of a news story for the Internet.The local law enforcement and medical teams are dispatched to recover the dead bodies and perform an investigation as to what just happened in the bayou. There is little doubt that a single girl could have done all of this; instead one of the medical coroner's finds a huge body and believes it to be the murderer. As most horror movie stylings go, the body starts to move towards nightfall and the murders begin.No one is safe from this killer; he is everywhere in the swamp at once; it is his and he knows it better than anyone. Knowing what they have on their hands, the sheriff decides to call in the local swat team. Characters exchange small talk, personalities and banter as they patrol the swamp woodland for the killer. Finally, they slowly get picked off one by one. Characters die, left and right – they all die gruesome and grisly deaths; the horror mode is set and the gore is rampant. The killer is a throwback to the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" with a grotesque character that otherwise wields hatchets, machetes and even a sand grinder at one point. The national guard is called in at one point to stop the killer. This movie is pretty serious about the protocol everyone must follow; a few people want out but face consequences for leaving the scene of a murder. Lastly, the movie at one point brings in a rocket launcher to do the killer in. The drama is there, but moreso the facet of bludgeoning characters before a gory death, is all what this movie is about.Bad qualities of this movie include the crackpot journalist that knows the secret to doing the legend in. She yells and screams in her journalistic profession to get the story; she is even less of an enjoyable character when she provokes other characters needlessly, brings out their worst qualities, and turns them into bottom-of-the-barrel misfits. Other characters show their lack of control by aggressively swearing or provoking each other; one swat team member shows his badass side on grounds of not wanting to lose his job. The movie requires a leap of faith in following along with the urban legend – if such a thing could be believable is not known; it is a movie after all. Despite the aggravating characters, the movie redeems itself, and probably quite deliberately, by condemning the characters to a gruesome death.Whether you enjoy senseless killings, absurd gore and lots of spine rippings; this movie should be sure to please over some of the boring and less grotesque members of the horror genre. Those not interested in overly dramatic characters that love to yell; are probably better off looking towards other entries of the horror genre.Originally posted to Orion Age (http://www.orionphysics.com/? p=5870).

Hatchet III picks up were part II left us--Marybeth trying to kill Crowley. It takes a couple of attempts till he finally falls on a running chainsaw and he's split in half. She scalps him and walks into a sheriff's station. Of course no one believes her and they place her in a cell. After some discussion finally deputies, the sheriff, paramedics (why paramedics?), a SWAT team go to the swamps and find countless bodies and body parts. They start dragging body bags onto the boat of the paramedics.Meanwhile an annoying reporter who has been listening to the police frequency shows up at the station, demands to speak to Marybeth. Turns out the reporter is the ex-wife of the sheriff on top of that so she manages to manipulate one of the deputies into doing whatever she wants. She has bad news. Crowley can't be killed. He always returns because he's on a mission and Marybeth is the solution--she and Crowley's father, or rather his ashes. So the three go to pick up the ashes in order to confront Crowley and put and end to him.Crowley of course has resurfaced and is killing any all law enforcement he can. A paramedic, a SWAT girl, and the sheriff manage to hide in a boat. It's not long until Crowley shows up and starts making his way inside. That's when the other three show up and try to lure him to them so they can present him with daddy's ashes.The other two Hatchets were alright but didn't convince me. One problem is that poor Kane Hodder is made to look so dysmorphic under all that make up that he just doesn't look menacing at all. And in the past neither the story nor characters were all that interesting. Part III is more focused, has a better story and it's just so enthusiastic about gore. And there's lots of great gore. I also enjoyed the subtle comedy and then the hilarious politically incorrect scene with Sid Haig. Director McDonnell also does a better job than Green. All that's missing in Hatchet III was more of Danielle Harris, who doesn't get to do a whole lot here, and more nudity, and it could have been a 10/10.