Earlier this week, Adam Green celebrated the 10th anniversary of debut feature Hatchet by dropping the super huge surprise reveal that brand new film Victor Crowley was not only shot in secret, but it’s heading out on the road this year!
So what better time to revisit Crowley’s 3-film reign of terror thus far, which has spilled massive quantities of blood in the past 10 years?
The Hatchet franchise has given us some of the most outrageously over the top kills in the history of slasher cinema, all brought to life with old school practical effects that feel like they were ripped right out of the decade Green pitch perfectly pays tribute to. They may not have been made in the ’80s, but the Hatchet films sure do feel like they were.
Crowley has torn countless unlucky victims (literally) limb from limb, but what are his most memorable kills? Put on your raincoat. Things are about to get messy.
5) DECAPITATED WITH INTESTINES – HATCHET 2
If a slasher sequel is supposed to one-up its predecessor in the gore department, oh boy did Adam Green check off that particular box with Hatchet 2. Makeup effects legend John Carl Buechler reprised the role of Jack Cracker for the sequel’s opening death scene, wherein Victor Crowley rips out his intestines and chokes him with them. Going one step further, Crowley chokes Cracker so hard with said intestines that his head literally pops off – which we see in shadow against the wall of Cracker’s cabin. It’s a comically INSANE kill, promising right off the bat that Hatchet 2 was damn sure gonna be going for broke.
4) SKULL AND SPINE RIPPED OUT – HATCHET 3
Adam Green did not return to direct Hatchet 3, instead handing over those duties to B.J. McDonnell. The third installment in the franchise was more of the same, but I’m not sure any of us really wanted anything else from it. Derek Mears, who played Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th remake, starred in Hatchet 3, coming face-to-face with Kane Hodder’s Crowley for a kill scene that was pure fan service for the Friday diehard. Crowley reaches into the stomach of Mears’ character, grabbing hold of his spine and pulling both spine and skull clean out of his body. The effect is incredibly disturbing in execution, as you see Mears’ neck wrinkle as his skeleton is being removed from his body.
3) CHAINSAWED IN THE GENITALS – HATCHET 2
Anything other horror icons can do, Victor Crowley can do it… more brutally. Giving Leatherface a run for his money, Crowley enlists the help of the biggest chainsaw in horror movie history for one of the most memorable scenes in Hatchet 2. Brandishing the big ass chainsaw, Crowley uses it to murder two men at once, sticking it between their legs and literally lifting them off the ground with it while he slices them straight up the middle. True to the over-the-top nature of the films, a pair of bloody testicles drop to the ground beneath the bodies.
2) SKINNED ALIVE – HATCHET 2
Victor Crowley makes sure his victims die painfully, and few characters got it worse than poor Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd). In Hatchet 2, Zombie takes the fight to Crowley in his final moments, but it’s all for naught; Crowley repeatedly swings his trusty Hatchet into Zombie’s body, separating his top half from his bottom half. But he’s not done just yet. Crowley then grabs the spine sticking out of Zombie’s top half and pulls on it so hard that he rips him clean out of his skin… through it all, Zombie is still alive.
You’re a sick man, Adam Green. And we love you for it.
1) HEAD RIPPED IN HALF AT THE MOUTH – HATCHET
The Hatchet sequels got pretty damn gruesome and creative, but if you’re asking me, Green has yet to top the infamous “jaw rip” from the first film. This was the very first scene I ever saw from Hatchet, when it was shown as a sneak peek at a horror convention I attended right before the film was released – needless to say, it made me an instant Adam Green fan. After dispatching her husband, Victor Crowley rips Mrs. Permatteo’s head completely in half with the ease of you or I opening up a can of soda. A cleverly hidden edit makes the kill look like it was filmed in a single take, solidifying it as one of the most gruesome and well-executed horror movie kills of all time.
How much more brutal can this franchise get? We’re thinking we ain’t seen nothing yet.