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[Blood Night:The Legend Of Mary Hatchet]
Plot:Based on the Long island legend of Mary Hatchet, who murdered her family with a hatchet, and set ten years after the initial killings.
Cast:Samantha Facchi,
Ricardo Cordero,
Nate Dushku,
Anthony Marks,
Nancy Malleo,
Danielle Harris,
Bill Moseley.
My Thoughts:Has it's moments.
Review:"Blood Night:The Legend Of Mary Hatchet", is an indie slasher pic from writer/director Frank Sabatella, who penned and helmed the film, which follows the legend of Mary Hatchet, and is set on Long Island. Mary went crazy and killed her mother and father when she was little, and was institutionalized for it. However during her tenure in the crazy-house, she was raped by one of the orderlies there.
The incident produced a child, which the doctors told Mary was born dead. This prompted Mary to go even further into psychosis, and her rage then turned to the mental hospital workers, whom she viciously slaughtered before she herself was killed in a hail of gunfire by police. Now fast-forward ten years later, some local teens decide to find and make their own fun on what is referred to by the locals as "Blood Night", the 10th anniversary of the death of Mary Hatchet.
But their fun soon turns to terror as Mary returns from the grave, seeking to punish them for their desecration of her legend. "Blood Night" is just like a lot of other slasher films. While the movie does give the viewer some teenager characters that are on a 45% tolerable and 55% intolerable level, which is a heavy upgrade from the usual 10% tolerable and 90% intolerable levels most teenage slasher movie characters operate on, it also uses teenage stupidity as a jumping off point for it's ghostly killer.
The kids not only trapsing upon property that they shouldn't, but they also mess around with a spirit board, and anyone who's read my past reviews knows how I loathe the spirit board plot arc in horror films. Sure, in the 80's, it worked. Because it was the 80's and all. But in 2000 and beyond horror fils, the spirit board is a weak way to spawn a story. For one thing, spirit boards are like that bad, seedy part of town where no one who doesn't live, dares to venture. As in if you lack common sense and a modest level of intelligence, you're gonna fuck around with a spirit board because you think conjuring up ghosts is fun.
And it is quite frankly, until they kill and mutilate you. Then....well...not so much...fun. In this film, the kids spirit board adventures get shut down by Bill Moseley, who plays Gus in the film, a war vet and a former employee at the hospital where Mary murdered all of those people at. He pretty much tells the kids to beat it off the property, and find somewhere else to screw around at. But not before he tells them the story of Mary Hatchet. In one of the films more entertaining sequences.
The kids then decide to go to one of their friends house, and have a "Blood Night" party, where a mysterious guest shows up, and that's when the bodies start dropping. Unfortunately, it takes way too long to get to that point, and instead, we get a lot of trash talk and usual crude jokes from many of the characters before the first victim at the party bites the dust. But the films party scene does open up some interesting questions about what or who is doing the "hatchet job" on the kids. Is it Mary's spirit back from the dead?
Did it just happen to return on the anniversary of the murders? Did the idiot kids conjure it up via the spirit board? Or is the mystery guest at the party the one commiting the murders? Or has Mary possessed one of the party guests ala "Night Of The Demons", and is using them to carry out her revenge from the grave? While the party scenes themselves are a bit flat, and the acting, beyond Danielle Harris who appears in the film as Alyssa, is somewhat questionable during said party scenes, all of these questions are enough to keep things interesting and thus, keep the viewers attention for a majority of the film.
The way the film is shot is pretty cool for an indie picture as well. It's a blend of the flashy-editing used in the "Saw" films, but also a mix of grindhouse as well. It works, although from time to time, the flashy editing is sued in moments which I felt would've been better left to play out without any jumpy camera work. Slasher and horror fans alike should enjoy the films final act, which returns the action to the abandoned mental asylum where Mary went on her killing spree after escaping her prisonership there.
The films final act is where the blood and gore really come into play, and the dark and dank atmosphere of the mental asylum really play up the creepy and scary elements that the film shoots for in it's final moments. There's also a twist at the very end of the picture, which is very reminiscent of a previously theatrically-released horror film which I won't name here so as not to give away anything. "Blood Night" has it's fair share of weak characters, but genre veterans Moseley and Harris, along with a great finale and some slick and edgy directing, manage to give the film some good moments which save it from total failure by quite a few miles.
Positives:Danielle Harris and Bill Moseley make the most out of their scenes and give the film a strong performance or two. Also Maryam Basir as Jen shows some flashes of talent, and it'll be interesting to see how far she gets five years from now in the genre. A great finale, and some really good directing and cinematography.
Negatives:Like I said, many of the characters can be annoying at times with their typical teen humor, and the party drones on too long before any significant kills happen. Also, the spirit board stuff, how I loathe it.
Overall:Two and a half stars out of four.
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