Movies
‘Hatchet II’ Arrives Uncut On Demand December 1
It’s the horror that they didn’t want you to see- the film that spurred a media storm of controversy. Today, Dark Sky Films announced that Adam Green’s Hatchet II will be available on Video on Demand on December 1, 2010. The first unrated independent horror film to be exhibited by a major theater chain in more than 25 years, only to be yanked from screens almost immediately, Hatchet II will be shown on VOD on Time Warner and Comcast systems in its original unrated and uncensored cut.
HATCHET II – a Dark Sky Films production written and directed by Adam Green, creator of 2007’s hit Hatchet – was set to a fall breakout release. AMC Theatres booked screens in top U.S. markets, while Green and other iconic cast members scheduled simultaneous midnight and opening-weekend appearances at theaters around the country. In response to the intense and vocal demand of fans, the much-anticipated sequel opened at special midnight screenings on Friday, October 1, 2010.
Despite being hailed and “one of the best slasher films ever,” the film was pulled from all theaters following, or during opening weekend leaving many to speculate if this highly unusual action was due to the ensuing controversy swirling around the film being released unrated in mainstream cinemas.
Outraged horror fans and supporters of independent cinema instantly began a campaign via the Internet, Twitter, Facebook and other outlets to have the film released. Dark Sky Films immediately moved into action, working feverishly to bring HATCHET II to fans in its complete, uncompromised version – the way the film was meant to be seen. The movie will be available as Video on Demand on Comcast and Time Warner systems on December 1, 2010.
A ferociously fun tribute to the old-school horror sensation slasher movies of the 80’s, HATCHET II is the follow-up to the popular original film, which was released theatrically in 2007 and became a sleeper-hit, gaining a wide following on DVD. Just as the 80’s had their signature murderous maniacs–HALLOWEEN’s Michael Myers of Haddonfield and FRIDAY THE 13th’s Jason Voorhees of Camp Crystal Lake– the original HATCHET marked the arrival of the latest and most lethal of the genre’s stalking murderers: Victor Crowley, a crazed backwoods killer stalking the bayous of New Orleans.
HATCHET II picks up right where the 2007 original film ends, as Marybeth (Danielle Harris from HALLOWEEN) escapes from the clutches of the deformed, swamp-dwelling killer Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder from FRIDAY THE 13th). Marybeth returns to the Louisiana swamps along with an army of hunters to recover the bodies of her family and exact her revenge against Victor Crowley. The film also stars other genre icons including Tony Todd, Tom Holland and well known names including Parry Shen, AJ Bowen and others.
There’s been a lot of talk about how Christopher Nolan snuck in some horror elements into his epic adaptation of The Odyssey. However, even before the Cyclops began to eat Ithican soldiers and Circe subjected them to magical body-horror, cinemagoers were already witnessing supernatural terror through a certain trailer that was attached to most IMAX screenings of Nolan’s film.
It turns out that this trailer was for Rob Savage’s Other Mommy, an adaptation of Bird Box author Josh Malerman’s horror novel, Incidents Around the House. With the teaser now available online and revealing that the award-winning Jessica Chastain is playing the titular antagonist (as well as her ill-fated human counterpart), not to mention the fact that the picture is being helmed by the director of hits like Host and The Boogeyman, genre fans are understandably hyped for this upcoming thriller.
That’s why I’ve decided to take a closer look at the trailer and share four things we learned from this sneak peek at Other Mommy!
4. Rob Savage is Going Back to His Supernatural Horror Roots
I know I’m in the minority when I admit that Dashcam is my favorite Rob Savage movie, but even I understand why the filmmakers’ fans have been waiting a while for the director to get back to telling more grounded paranormal stories as he did with 2020’s Host.
Other Mommy obviously isn’t a found footage movie, but moments like the poltergeist activity on the kitchen table combined with the nature of the source material, which actually features a full-on exorcism, indicate that this adaptation is more than a simple creature feature. That’s why I think Savage is once again going to borrow from the same ghostly narratives that made his debut film such a viral hit.
3. Other Mommy is a More Convincing Doppelganger in the Adaptation
Part of the horror from Malerman’s original novel came from the fact that the entity taking on the form of Bela’s (Arabella Olivia Clark) mother wasn’t very good at passing itself off as human. This resulted in several uncanny moments where other characters began to notice that there was something visibly wrong with the family and decided to keep their distance.
Savage’s film appears to be taking a different route, with the trailer showing a version of the entity that can, at least physically, imitate Chastain’s character perfectly. This change is likely the result of the filmmakers wanting to incorporate more paranoid scenes where Bela and her father, played by Jay Duplass, are confused about which Mommy is safe to interact with.
2. The Family is Also Better Off This Time Around
Incidents Around the House featured some interesting subtext about how poverty can negatively affect American family dynamics. After all, the main characters were already feeling scared and isolated before the entity emerged from Bela’s closet and began scratching at their emotional wounds. The trailer for the movie, however, depicts the family as being relatively well off before these incidents begin to occur.
I can only imagine that this part of the story was changed so that the family’s fall from grace can be even more dramatic as the mom and dad’s pasts are revealed and Bela falls further into the clutches of the demonic antagonist.
1. Jessica Chastain is Embodying Evil Dead Rise’s Alyssa Sutherland
Mothers turning against their children is one of the most disturbing horror tropes out there (just check out classics like Hereditary and Carrie if you need proof), but it takes a remarkably skilled actress to pull off such a monstrous transformation. This is especially true when both a regular, loving mother and the Other share the screen in the same film.
That’s why I appreciate how Chastain appears to be channeling another evil redhead mother that recently traumatized audiences with her performance. It’s too early to be sure, but I’m fairly confident that Chastain’s character has at least some amount of Ellie in her cinematic DNA – Ellie being the iconic deadite brought to life by Australian actress Alyssa Sutherland in 2023’s Evil Dead Rise.
Let us know in the comments if you think we missed any important details from the trailer, and don’t forget to check out Other Mommy when it hits theaters on October 9!
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