Movies
SD Comic-Con ’10: Getting Blood with the ‘Hatchet II’ Panel
Last night be brought you the major news of an October UNRATED release of Adam Green’s Hatchet II, now we’ve got a full report from the panel that featured Green, and stars R.A. Mihailoff, Parry Shen, A.J. Bowen, Danielle Harris, Tom Holland, Kane Hodder, Rileah Vanderbilt, co-producer and second unit assistant director Jason Richard Miller, and creature and make-up effects supervisor Robert Pendergraft. After opening with a look at the red-band trailer, San Diego Comic-Con attendees were blasted with a ton of footage and a death montage (there are 17 deaths!) that has people freaking out!
Here’s a breakdown of what was shown:
“The footage opened with Marybeth (Harris) in Rev. Zombie’s (Tony Todd) Voodoo Shop way distraught and also inquisitive about the origin of one Victor Crowley, of which Zombie was happy to share the extremely torrid tale. In the interest of preserving some of the flick’s twists and turns, we’re just going to give you the gist of it.
While his wife, Shyann (Kathryn Fiore), lay dying in front of him due to a lingering stomach cancer, Thomas Crowley (Hodder sans make-up) ends up having an affair with his spouse’s Creole nurse, Lena (Erika Hamilton). Her sickness had lasted a really long time, and when she finally passed, Thomas and Lena embraced and kissed in front of her thought to be lifeless body. But the old girl, outraged by what was taking place in front of her, showed that she still had some fire left in her by placing her hand over Lena’s belly and cursing the duo’s then unborn son, who would grow up to be Victor.
We know from the original Hatchet how Victor met his fate, but we learn here that he is, in fact, a ghost who is forced to relive his own death and return to the exact state he was killed in each night. This reveal gives both the character of Victor Crowley and the vibe of the series a whole new supernatural spin while answering some of the lingering questions left behind by the first flick.
As part of the flashback we saw a death reel that included a host of super violent kills: a quick hatchet slice, a head being cut completely in half, an angry spear through the neck, someone’s face totally sliced off, and one of the most insane jaw-ripping scenes we’ve seen in quite some time. Robert Pendergraft, you are a very talented and sick man. Bravo.
Following a lively Q&A with the crowd, Green showed off two more kills: two people being sliced via chainsaw vertically in half from the balls up and one hell of a curb-stomp.
In a sea of mouth-breathers, overweight folks in spandex, and all manner of geeky shenanigans, one thing is for certain: The Hatchet fans who did manage to make it into the room left really fuckin’ satisfied.
Green promised a much more fulfilling ending to this entry into the franchise and said that the last eleven minutes of this movie will blow you away.”
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
You must be logged in to post a comment.