Victor Crowley [Review] by Kyle Laugh | "Straight up massacre made for gore hounds"

Back in 2006, a man named Adam Green wrote and directed a film entitled “Hatchet”. This 80’s inspired slasher throwback follows the story of a deformed, supernatural being who goes by the name of Victor Crowley who attacks and kills those who dare step onto his land.

Thanks to its resemblance to films along the lines of Friday The 13th, the film did incredibly well on the festival circuit and in turn, according to online reports, made roughly $6 million dollars from rentals of the film within its first month. Not bad for a technical first time movie maker if I say so myself!

Hatchet’s success aided it in spawning three sequels, the latest entry in the series, named after it's antagonist, Victor Crowley is what we are taking a look at today as the film has been released for the world to see.

Writer and director as he was for the first film is Adam Green and stars Parry Shen who was in the first two Hatchet films playing his own family members as well as the third film in which he is reprising his role of Andrew. It also stars Kane Hodder who is reprising his role as Victor Crowley and series newcomers Dave Sheridan, Krystal Joy Brown, Brian Quinn from Tell Em’ Steve Dave and Impractical Jokers, Laura Ortiz and genre favorite Felissa Rose of Sleepaway Camp fame.

I went into the film expecting three things and only three things. Carnage, destruction and gore. And all of these boxes were quickly checked off.

For this entry, we follow Andrew, a former paramedic whom we first meet in Hatchet 3, who is now, ten years later, cashing in on his personal story of survival while on a tour to promote his book. When offered a million dollars to do an interview at the site of the murders, Andrew decides that he does have a price and chooses to accept the offer. This leads to chaos after the plane bringing himself and the crew out there begins to falter, resulting into a crash landing directly into the swamp of one Victor Crowley.

The film is made simple as it primarily uses one setting throughout most of the runtime which some filmmakers could easily ruin but Green makes it work wonderfully, keeping the momentum going with unique kills, fun dialogue and tons of bloody goodness that will keep any splatter fan cheering for more.

One of the biggest questions most people had prior to the film was how Crowley would be brought back to life. While most speculated that it would be a prequel, Green found a fun and simple way to revive old Hatchet Face while using a mix of current technology and a familiar face that fans will be happy to see.

As for the kills, you’ll be happy to find that originality still shines through in this one. Particularly, and slight spoiler alert for you all who have yet to see the film, the kill involving Felissa Rose is disgustingly fantastic and hilarious. So much so that you will likely have one of two reactions. Pure shock or going into a ridiculous fit of laughter. Either way, you're guaranteed to be entertained by it!

If you're looking for a deep, well planned mystery with find of twists and turns, look elsewhere because this is a straight up massacre made for gore hounds by a master of the new age splatter film.

7 out of 10.

Check out the Trailer Below