Source: Shock Till You Drop
That’s right boils ‘n ghouls. Adam Green will not be returning to direct the next installment of the Hatchet series. Instead, he’s passing the reigns to the former cinematographer for the first two Hatchet flicks, BJ McDonnell. All I know of the plot for the upcoming Hatchet 3 is that it continues from where Hatchet 2 left off. I assume Green is still writing the script in crayon somewhere.
If you’ve been reading this site for a while, you may know my feelings about the Hatchet series. After a promising trailer that had me drooling for the flick for ages, I jumped on the hype machine and nearly drove to TEXAS just to see it in a theater. Luckily, I didn’t, as my drunken review from 3 years ago will tell you, Green dropped the ball. The thing is, he’s not a bad director. FROZEN is a very well done movie and shows that he can bring the talent when he wants to. But then there was Hatchet 2, and I’m sorry, but that movie was the largest steaming pile I’ve seen in a long time. The gore was over the top, and that’s fine, but the writing and the acting…GeeeeeeZUS it was awful. Some viewers are in it for just that sort of ride, however. They don’t care about the things that used to make horror movies great. They just want to see titties ‘n blood. Not that there’s anything wrong with two of the three B’s (Blood, Boobs, & Beasts), the Hatchet series has ‘em in spades, but while all good horror films should have at least two of the three, Hatchet 1 & 2 having all three, that shouldn’t be ALL the film consists of.
While fresh directorial blood is being brought to the table for Hatchet 3, if the writing remains the same I’ll have issues with it, no matter how good it looks. That’s the thing with the first 2 Hatchet movies. Green could be blamed for the entire fiasco because he directed and wrote the films. He was wholly responsible and wholly accountable. It seems that when most people think of films being terrible, they only blame the director. Granted, the director is captain of the ship, and it’s his job to see that everything works together to make a great film, but people forget the other players. The admiralty (to continue the analogy) of producers/production houses control the film because they have the money. No matter what a director wants to do, if the production part of the film decides they want to cut something, put something in, or just shelve the whole project altogether, they can. And producer intervention has fucked up a lot of movies. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a story where it was a good thing. Then there’s the writer(s). You could look at the writer in our nautical analogy as the one who dreamed up the ship and charted the course to begin with. The writer is just as important as the director and a lot of people do not realize this. Bad writing means the end of a film before it’s even started because no matter how good the film looks, if the story and dialogue are garbage, it’s going to stand waaaaaay out. I could go into the actors being part of the crew, but who gives a shit about actors? They’re either good or bad and it’s up to the director to accurately decide which. So you see, Adam Green had a lot of control over his Hatchet movies, so when I say they were abysmal, and say it’s his fault, that’s why. None the less, given that he’s proven himself somewhat with Frozen, I’d like to see where he goes with any film NOT in the Hatchet series, and I’m interested to see where BJ McDonnell takes the franchise. Given the sub-genre, and the nods to Friday the 13th, could Hatchet 3 be 3D? That’s all the speculation you get!
