Blood Night is the story of a young girl who turns into a woman. It just happens to be a woman who likes to kill everyone.
A particularly heavy and gruesome period is the catalyst for Mary's transformation from young girl to psychopathic woman, causing her to go apeshit, and kill her parents. Years later while in psychiatric care, Blood Night is born when she pops out her sprog and then goes on another killing spree around the hospital, before being shot unceremoniously in the head. Fast forward again, and her child, who Mary thought was dead, goes on a killing spree of their own on the anniversary of the original Blood Night. Sounds cool, right?
The retrospective beginning of The Legend of Mary Hatchet starts the film promisingly enough. The whole sequence has a wonderfully retro feel to it, from the camera angles, to the atmosphere, to the gloriously camp and grim kills.
However, once we move into the present day, the film starts loosing its identity.
The legend aspect of the film which is set up at the beginning, is lost relatively quickly, only present in the distant background of the story in that the events are taking place during the Blood Night celebrations. When the legend comes to the foreground again it has almost become defunct; a pointless Ouija board in the graveyard, a door bursting open which no-one takes any stock in. The reappearance of the ghost of Hatchet at the close of the film is a nice touch, but leaves the viewer wishing more had been made of it throughout.
The presence of horror stars such as Danielle Harris and Bill Moseley, suggest this is meant to be perhaps an homage to the slasher genre, or at the very least a postmodern nod to that "old school B horror movie shit," a reference a character makes to 'Attack of The Killer Tomatoes,'(John De Bello, 1978). But these thing alone are not enough to make the filmmakers intentions clear. The overly abundant characters aren't savvy enough to be anything except for sex-mad, disposable meat sacks, which goes against any self referential or post modern leanings this film may have had. They do lend themselves to some inventive kills, the 'pickaxe and twist' being a particular favourite, but sadly some dire acting distracts from this.
The occasionally pastiche and atmospheric production is sometimes marred by the occasional dodgy camera angle and edits, such as terrible circular transitions. This does improve as the film moves on, these cheapening effects fade themselves out and production becomes more linear. It makes the tone rather uneven however, and spoils the overall feel of the film.
By far the most convincing thing in the film is Danielle Harris, portraying the psychopathic daughter of Mary Hatchet with gusto and success. However, despite showing she can really grind an axe, once she is revealed to be the next in line to inherit the family menstrual psychosis, it throws up some continuity issues with the narrative - how she is meant to be have snuck out of the house to kill a bunch of kids and then deposit herself back into a bloody bathroom without anyone noticing is anyones guess.
Overall, with some nice kills and buckets of blood, Blood Night will satisfy many fans of the slasher out there, but definitely adds nothing new to the genre.
BOTTOM LINE: Uneven, bloody menstrual story, best viewed with a maxi-pad.
A particularly heavy and gruesome period is the catalyst for Mary's transformation from young girl to psychopathic woman, causing her to go apeshit, and kill her parents. Years later while in psychiatric care, Blood Night is born when she pops out her sprog and then goes on another killing spree around the hospital, before being shot unceremoniously in the head. Fast forward again, and her child, who Mary thought was dead, goes on a killing spree of their own on the anniversary of the original Blood Night. Sounds cool, right?
The retrospective beginning of The Legend of Mary Hatchet starts the film promisingly enough. The whole sequence has a wonderfully retro feel to it, from the camera angles, to the atmosphere, to the gloriously camp and grim kills.
However, once we move into the present day, the film starts loosing its identity.
The legend aspect of the film which is set up at the beginning, is lost relatively quickly, only present in the distant background of the story in that the events are taking place during the Blood Night celebrations. When the legend comes to the foreground again it has almost become defunct; a pointless Ouija board in the graveyard, a door bursting open which no-one takes any stock in. The reappearance of the ghost of Hatchet at the close of the film is a nice touch, but leaves the viewer wishing more had been made of it throughout.
The presence of horror stars such as Danielle Harris and Bill Moseley, suggest this is meant to be perhaps an homage to the slasher genre, or at the very least a postmodern nod to that "old school B horror movie shit," a reference a character makes to 'Attack of The Killer Tomatoes,'(John De Bello, 1978). But these thing alone are not enough to make the filmmakers intentions clear. The overly abundant characters aren't savvy enough to be anything except for sex-mad, disposable meat sacks, which goes against any self referential or post modern leanings this film may have had. They do lend themselves to some inventive kills, the 'pickaxe and twist' being a particular favourite, but sadly some dire acting distracts from this.
The occasionally pastiche and atmospheric production is sometimes marred by the occasional dodgy camera angle and edits, such as terrible circular transitions. This does improve as the film moves on, these cheapening effects fade themselves out and production becomes more linear. It makes the tone rather uneven however, and spoils the overall feel of the film.
By far the most convincing thing in the film is Danielle Harris, portraying the psychopathic daughter of Mary Hatchet with gusto and success. However, despite showing she can really grind an axe, once she is revealed to be the next in line to inherit the family menstrual psychosis, it throws up some continuity issues with the narrative - how she is meant to be have snuck out of the house to kill a bunch of kids and then deposit herself back into a bloody bathroom without anyone noticing is anyones guess.
Overall, with some nice kills and buckets of blood, Blood Night will satisfy many fans of the slasher out there, but definitely adds nothing new to the genre.
BOTTOM LINE: Uneven, bloody menstrual story, best viewed with a maxi-pad.