Marybeth escapes the clutches of the bayou-butcher Victor Crowley and returns to the swamp with an army of hunters and gunmen, determined to end Crowley’s reign of horror once and for all.
4 years after “Hatchet” was released we FINALLY got the sequel we’d been demanding.
This time the role of ‘Marybeth’ is being played by Danielle Harris instead of Tamara Feldman, this replacement caused a-lot of on-line rumours as to why, from drugs to financial demands. Director Adam Green stated himself – “I know people want to hear dirty stuff, but it just wasn’t going to work out. She’s at a place where I don’t think she’s necessarily making smart choices. We started to have conversations, and then before we ever really worked it out, I already had moved on in my mind”.
Usually a character change like this annoys me intensely but as much as it changed the continuity of the films I actually didn’t mind, Harris is by far a better actress and if nothing she’s a bigger draw. The fact that I’m a huge fan of her work is in no way a factor in that decision, well maybe a little.
This time around we get to see more of Tony Todd’s character ‘Reverend Zombie’ which is a win for everyone as Todd is an unbelievably talented actor, he maybe overlooked in mainstream cinema but there loss has definitely been Horrors gain. We also get to see Horror legends Tom Holland, R.A. Mihailoff, John Carl Buechler and a re-appearance from Parry Shen.
A-lot of people had problems with this release and to be honest I don’t know what they were expecting, “Hatchet II” is supposed to be fun and gory and that’s exactly what it delivers. There’s no pleasing some people but if you enjoyed the first release then you are definitely onto a winner with this one.
“Hatchet II” is filled with gore, gore, gore. If that doesn’t make you happy then I don’t know what will?!
Miscellaneous facts about the film:
While most every store, rental and streaming carrier will carry Hatchet 2 in the director’s theatrical unrated cut, Red Box insisted on the distributor creating an R-rated version that has most every death scene taken out of the film. Adam Green’s comment to press was that he looks at it no differently than when a film has to be edited for television or airplane rentals and does not blame Dark Sky for censoring the film for Red Box. Hatchet 2 only had ratings problems in the United States of America, further supporting the film-maker’s claims that the ratings board here was being unfair.
The R-rated version of the film that Dark Sky Films created for Red Box rentals is missing close to 2 full minutes of gore/violence that the MPAA insisted they pull out. Director Adam Green is not happy about that version but has stated that he supports Dark Sky’s decision and understands why they had to do it for that one outlet. Green has publicly stated that those who feel the film’s stance on staying unrated for theaters was a “publicity stunt” should compare this R-rated version to understand just how severely the MPAA was trying to castrate the film and change the tone of it. All other retail outlets supported Green’s claims when they agreed to carry the film Unrated in their stores. They felt there was nothing that offensive about the film in the first place and that it never should have been given an NC-17 like the MPAA tried to give it to keep it out of mainstream theaters.
“Hatchet II” marked the first of Adam Green’s films where his name was credited above the title (“Adam Green’s Hatchet II”) and the film was written, directed, and executive produced by Green.
The unrated version of the movie was shown in 60 theaters on its debut weekend across the United States & Canada. Most of the theaters were unaware of the extent of the violence and vile content in the film, and nearly all of the theaters had stopped playing the movie by Monday morning.
It was reported on the horror websites that a crew member quit on day 2 due to “moral reasons” with what was taking place within the scene.
The crew is almost entirely the same crew who made Hatchet 1, one of Green’s stipulations for whether or not he would return at the helm for Hatchet 2.
Hatchet 2’s final tally of fake blood used in the making of the film is 136 gallons. That’s 81 gallons more and more than double the amount used in the making of Hatchet 1, which reportedly used 55 gallons of fake blood.
During one scene a guy mentions “Jason Vorhees” when they discuss “who is Victor Crowley”. Jason Vorhees is an another killer and mysterious bogeyman with supernatural powers performed by Kane Hodder, who plays Victor Crowley and Victor Crowley’s father in this movie.
Adam Green, Kane Hodder, R.A. Mihailoff and Rick McCallum are all members of the paranormal investigation group Hollywood Ghost Hunters.
The first horror movie to be theatrically released unrated in mainstream cinemas across the United States since George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) over 32 years earlier. When the MPAA kept giving Hatchet II an NC-17 rating with each submission, the filmmakers decided to circumvent them and go straight to a major cinema chain and show them the film. When AMC theaters saw the uncut movie they loved it. Then, after hearing just how much of the violence would have to be cut out to get an R rating by the ratings board, AMC agreed to release Hatchet II in their theaters unrated. However, they later pulled the film from their theaters when it was released for only a few days.
In Canada, the film was scheduled to play in Toronto and Montreal theaters on October 1, 2010. However, because the film was not rated by the cities’ provincial rating agencies, the theaters were threatened with fines if it still played and, thus, it was pulled from release. On Twitter, Adam Green referred to the occurrence as “sad”.
To accommodate his promotional duties for the film Frozen (2010), Adam Green needed to split the shooting schedule into two parts.
To keep details under wraps, even the crew did not receive copies of the script and the majority of cast only received select pages. Fake scripts, fake endings, and fake story lines were circulated around the industry and no visitors or guests were allowed near the set.
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