HatchetMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 57 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
16 Iffy for 16+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 80
    L.A. Weekly | Chuck Wilson

    This horror comedy is loaded with decapitations, bodies torn in two and spewing blood, and yet, unlike the grim, torture-filled gore-fests of late, Hatchet's mayhem is so giddily over-the-top that you end up applauding the low-budget aplomb of it all. Read full review

  • 78
    Austin Chronicle | Marc Savlov

    No other film in recent memory has featured such a terrifically retro maniac or revisited the heyday of Eighties gore films with such gleeful, moist abandon. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Tribune |

    This is not a film intended for a wide audience. But B-movie fans who find their way to Adam Green's gory schlock extravaganza are going to like it. Read full review

  • 50
    New York Post | Lou Lumenick

    Director Adam Green's genuine affection for the genre helps make Hatchet a cut above average. Read full review

  • 50
    The Globe and Mail (Toronto) | Stephen Cole

    Hatchet is further evidence of the decline of Western civilization. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | Jeannette Catsoulis

    Horror without suspense is like sex without love: you can appreciate the technicalities, but ultimately there's no reason to care. Read full review

  • 50
    Variety | Justin Chang

    Joel David Moore leads a cast full of token minorities and bickering bimbos, whom writer-helmer Adam Green dispatches with knowing glee and an obvious love for genre conventions that almost overcomes the derivative scripting. Read full review

  • 40
    Los Angeles Times |

    Even after appropriately lowering expectations, it's kind to call this one a cut below. Read full review

View more reviews for Hatchet on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Gory monster/slasher spoof is drenched in blood.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this gory, low-budget monster/slasher spoof is drenched in blood, including fake-looking but explicit dismemberments and beheadings. The first violent scene is typically sketchy (though it leaves bloody corpses), but later scenes are incessant, with blood spewing, lots of screaming, and limbs and heads flying. Weapons include a gun and sharp implements (chainsaw, hatchet), as well as gasoline and a lighter. There are frequent breast shots (part of a repeated joke about girls baring their chests for a "girls gone wild"-style video) and descriptions of adolescent male sex fantasies, with crude language. Swearing includes "s--t," "b--ch," and a select few "f--ks."
  • Families can talk about what draws people to this kind of movie. Why do people enjoy scary and/or gory movies? Does this fall into the "torture porn" subgenre? Why or why not? Does the quality of the production affect how scary (or not) a horror movie is? Families can also discuss whether this movie is innovative or conventional -- how is it similar to and different from other horror movies? Are you looking for creativity in a horror movie, or just blood and guts? Why or why not?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Victims are rude, selfish, careless, and self-pitying; locals are demented (one is said to "drink his own piss"). An Asian character is especially stereotypical, soliciting a snide comment about "Uncle Remus meets Bruce Lee," with both terms being meant disparagingly.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Lots of spurting blood and eww-inducing vomit/spit. Monster (hunchbacked, deformed, gooey, and nonverbal) attacks two men at the start, leaving exposed bloody body parts and pulling out entrails in close-up, with blood spatters. Description and flashback of father "whacking" Victor in the head with a hatchet (bloody). Alligator attacks boat party; Marybeth shoots it (more blood). Once Victor appears in the woods, the assault is nonstop, featuring jump edits, screaming, running, falling, bloody hacking, insides pulled out, heads cut off and bouncing, a chainsaw, and (of course) a hatchet. Bodies look as if Victor has eaten them. Weapons include a gun and sharp implements (chainsaw, hatchet), as well as gasoline and a lighter (monster set on fire).
  • sex false5 Sex: Repeated "girls gone wild"-style breast barings (nipples visible), as well as a girl-on-girl kiss encouraged by a sleazy videomaker. A couple tongue-kisses. Much talk about sex and desire by young men, including slang ("skank," "boobs," "t--ties," "nipple," "cooch," "sweaty balls," "d--k," "bag of d--ks," "lick me"). Discussion of syphilis ("You can't hook up with itchy chicks"). Ben describes imagined scene of ex-girlfriend "bent over" a love seat during sex with another man. Mentions of Playboy and condoms. Derogatory slang ("queer") and repetitive Marilyn Manson song lyrics ("Sex sex sex").
  • language false5 Language: Plenty of strong language, including multiple uses of "f--k" and "s--t" (with more in the Marilyn Manson song "This Is the New S--t," which plays at the beginning and end of the movie), as well as "bitch" (again, with more in song lyrics), "damn," "hell," "a--hole," "bastard," and "c--ksucker." Frequent obnoxious exchanges are peppered with "shut up" and "you suck."
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: Mentions of Mini-Cooper, Emeril (Lagasse), Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Father smokes a pipe. Various background characters smoke cigarettes and drink beer in an early Mardi Gras scene. A boy wears a necklace shaped like marijuana leaves.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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