Hatchet III
Director: BJ McDonnell
Writer: Adam Green
Sequel to: Hatchet, Hatchet II
Cast: Danielle Harris, Kane Hodder, Zach Galligan, Caroline Williams, Parry Shen, Sid Haig
Part of: /slash Filmfestival

Plot: [Hatchet III starts the second Hatchet II stops, so don’t read on if you don’t want any spoilers for part II.]
Marybeth (Danielle Harris) managed to escape the swamp and Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder), only to be arrested when she arrives at the police station covered in blood. The police sends out a search and rescue mission to find the bodies Marybeth supposedly killed, only to provide new fodder for Crowley.

My expectations for this one were pretty low since I didn’t like either Part One or Two very much. And with those expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by Hatchet III, especially since they decided to take the self-ironic route for absolutely real this time.

Let’s be clear: Danielle Harris still can’t act her way out of a box. She couldn’t act her way out of a box she wasn’t actually in, she’s that bad. But for the film, it was entirely appropriate, so whatever. And the plot is, apart from dumb, just dumb. And they rehash stuff again.

But in this case Adam Green acknowledges all of that and really starts to fuck around with things. There are jokes on the meta-level and they are actually good. Stuff like that wins me over pretty quickly. And there is even less sexism than in the second film and no gratuitous boobs. If they continue like this, part 15 might have none at all. There was also a very nice cameo by Sid Haig.

The gore was nicely done again, too. It looks cheap, it probably was, and that’s quite alright. Though it sometimes becomes just so over the top that I don’t know if I could still say that it ends up on the right side of absurd.

All of that wasn’t enough though to make me a fan of the series. In fact, even though they leave the door wide open to make like 25 more sequels, I don’t think I would watch them, despite being surprisingly entertained by this one here.

Summarizing: ok if you don’t expect much.