Several months ago I saw a monster movie called Abominable, which is an affectionately tongue-in-cheek throwback flick that reminded me of stuff like Grizzly and Prophecy. And then I stumbled across Hatchet, which would make for a perfect double feature with Abominable, because it feels like an old-school slasher flick that's been hidden on a dusty shelf for the past twenty years. And yes, I mean that as a compliment. If you possess any affection for flicks like Friday the 13th, The Burning or (ha) Humongous, then you'll consider Hatchet a grade-A treat.

The directors of Abominable and Hatchet are just about my age, which tells me that my generation of horror geeks is poised to hit the indie circuit with a vengeance. (The indie circuit and beyond, hopefully.) Hatchet wears its genre love right there on its gore-soaked sleeve, and that's why I had such a good time with the flick. It's funny without being a parody, it's unapologetically gory, and it's packed with actors who are obviously having a real good time with the material.

The plot couldn't be simpler: A chintzy tour of a New Orleans swampland turns into sheer terror as a group of goofballs find themselves haunted and hunted by the legendary lunatic known as Victor Crowley. That's pretty much it, plot-wise.

Last week's big winner at the box office was Rob Zombie's Halloween, so horror flicks are definitely on my mind. It's Scary Stuff week on Trailer Park.

Hatchet
While this is definitely an old school style horror flick, it's not a remake. In fact the poster proudly proclaims "It's not a remake. It's not a sequel. And it's definitely not based on a Japanese one." If it weren't for the modern production values, you could imagine this one playing drive-in theaters back in the early 80's. A child narrates, telling the story of Victor Crowley, a deformed boy who died in a fire set by a nasty bunch of kids. Now people are disappearing in the local woods, and it looks like Victor is the one doing them in. Kane Hodder, who wore the iconic goalie mask in three of the Friday the 13th films, stars as Victor Crowley, and horror vets Robert Englund and Tony Todd are in there too, as is Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Mercedes McNab. Looks like a decent modern take on the classic slasher formula, with an eye toward casting that will keep horror buffs happy. The movie opens today but only in 78 theaters, so if this movie does manage to find an audience it will be on DVD. Additionally, you can check out Scott's interview with Hatchet director Adam Green.

Saw IV
Like the trailer says, "If it's Halloween, it must be Saw." The franchise rears its gore-spattered head every Halloween with a new installment, with each film raking in some serious cash, so don't expect the trend to end anytime soon. Are there really four of these things now? The teaser trailer shows some brief snippets of the film being projected on what looks like a grimy warehouse wall, with shrieks of agony and people begging for mercy in the background. More of the same, so if you liked the previous installments you'll probably enjoy this one. Have a look for yourself:

One night in Austin a few months back I was hanging out in front of the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater waiting for my next Fantastic Fest movie to begin, and (as often happens at film festivals) I struck up a conversation with a hardcore handful of horror freaks. I leaned over to introduce myself and one of the guys said "Scott Weinberg? You reviewed my movie!" -- to which I replied "Adam Green? I liked your movie!" Two weeks later, we were married.

Just kidding. Adam and I did, however, become good pals with one very important thing in common: We demand high quality from our horror flicks, whether they're Overpriced PG-13 Studio Remake Part 4 or Tiny Little Horror Indie That Needs Some Love. So with the announcement that Mr. Green's Hatchet will be hitting semi-wide theatrical release (on September 7!) courtesy of Anchor Bay, I figured it was time to nail Green down and demand a few answers from the guy. Here's how our chat went down:

Cinematical: One doesn't write & direct a movie like Hatchet without having some very intensive slasher training early in life. What were the flicks that turned you from a normal New England kiddie into a raving horror fanatic? Did your parents support your twisted habit?

Adam Green: I was lucky enough to have an older brother who shared the splatter flicks with me and I had parents who were cool and involved enough in my life to allow me to see them. I think my folks appreciated that I looked at these movies as a creative outlet ... almost like magic shows if you will. When I would see a knife go through someone, it never scared me as much as it challenged me. "How did they do that?" I was always a good kid and I never really got in trouble or (even worse) became that weird kid who watches horror movies all the time and doesn't talk to anybody. (You know the guy, I'm sure he was in your class, too!) I think if I had ever shown signs of this stuff having a negative impact on me then my parents would have put the kibosh on it. I'm sure now, seeing what is happening with Hatchet, they are glad they supported my horror habit. My earliest memories of horror are Friday the 13th Part 2, John Carpenter's The Thing, Halloween, An American Werewolf in London, and A Nightmare On Elm Street ... and Hatchet is so obviously inspired by those films that I may as well have made it in 1984.

You gotta be kidding me. Looks like the MPAA ratings board has saddled the indie horror flick Hatchet with an NC-17 rating for graphic violence. While Lionsgate, Universal, Sony and the Weinsteins get consistent "breaks" on their gory fare, the little guy now has to contend with the blatant hypocrisy of the schizophrenic ratings board. (I guarantee that if Hatchet had been a Paramount pick-up, instead of it belonging to Starz / Anchor Bay, it wouldn't have to deal with this crap.) What this means is that director Adam Green must slice out some of the splat and then re-submit the film to a panel of frigid finger-waggers who wouldn't understand the tone of Hatchet even if you bought 'em the Friday the 13th box set for Christmas.

And I'm not just railing against the ratings board out of ignorance. I've already seen Hatchet, and I've also seen "R rated" fare like Grindhouse, 28 Weeks Later, Turistas, Hostel, Saw 3, The Hitcher and The Hills Have Eyes 2. And if those flicks (especially that last one) can earn an R, then it's a pathetic (and very suspicious) joke that Hatchet has been branded with an NC-17. (Hills 2 opens with a crotch-bursting birth scene and closes with a mutant viciously raping a young woman.)

The only difference between those flicks and this one? They come from established and very profitable distributors, whereas Hatchet will be the first wide release from a fledgling partnership. So basically the MPAA is picking and choosing which horror flicks they want to make "an example" out of, and hey, it's a whole lot easier to pick on Starz / Anchor Bay than it is to risk annoying someone at Lionsgate, Fox or Universal. (Yes, many of the aforementioned films had to lose some footage in order to get their R rating, but the theatrical cut of Hills 2, for example, is infinitely more "disturbing" than anything found in Hatchet.)

Matter of fact, the gore geysers in Hatchet are actually a little LESS disturbing than the material found in those other flicks -- and that's because of the tone Adam Green is employing in his debut flick. It's a very pulpy, very broad and enthusiastically "over the top" approach, one that will definitely tickle the intended audience -- but asking the MPAA to pay attention to the TONE of a horror flick, when all they really do is jot down a checklist of onscreen offenses, is obviously asking too much. "We have a movie with a swamp monster chasing comedians with a gas-powered belt sander and they gave us an NC-17 ... I'm trying to go back to when it was fun," is what Green had to say, clearly unhappy about being neutered in his first flick -- but perhaps not all that upset about the NC-17 news hitting Variety and blogs just like this one. Obviously the deletion of a few gory frames is not going to RUIN a very fun horror movie, but I'm just so tired of the blatant hypocrisy when it comes to the MPAA vs. the Little Guys.

When it comes to horror on DVD, we start with outfits like Lionsgate and Anchor Bay, and since I spend a good deal of time saying very nice things about (most of) LG's horror output, now's the time to celebrate a milestone for Anchor Bay: No, not another re-issue of Halloween or Army of Darkness ... They've picked a flick for their very first* theatrical rollout! That Hatchet movie! (And let's give it up for the festival-fave horror indies; both Hatchet AND Behind the Mask will be earning theatrical releases early next year, which is a testament to the quality of both flicks; movies like these -- good, bad or awful -- generally get remanded straight to the video stores.)

Yes, it's Adam Green's Hatchet that (according to a recent press release) will hit theaters next April, a film that's played a whole bunch of festivals and gave me a very entertaining 90 minutes when it screened at last September's Fantastic Fest. Chock-full of old-school horror staples (Kane Hodder, Robert Englund, Tony Todd, etc.), a sly sense of humor and more than a few ferocious flurries of gore, Hatchet is precisely the sort of horror flick that'll please anyone who grew up on the earliest exploits of Freddy, Jason and Mikey.

Check back in a few weeks for our interview with Gory Adam Green; you won't believe what his next project is.

*I could be wrong on this. Anyone out there know if Anchor Bay went theatrical on something before Hatchet?

Two of the more entertaining indie horror flicks I've seen recently are Ryan Schifrin's Abominable and Adam Green's Hatchet. And after meeting both knuckleheads at Austin's Fantastic Fest, I can safely state that these guys are horror nerds on par with the guys who run Fangoria, Bloody-Disgusting and Weinberg's Own Brain. These guys know the body count from Friday 3, the DP on Elm Street 4, and what the hell actually happened at the end of Halloween 5. So when I saw that these two gorehounds had collaborated on a short film called King in the Box, I just knew I had to check it out.

The story is about one particular junk food mascot who earns the unholy wrath of a second drive-thru deity -- and the result is pretty darn amusing. The short is a comedy, to be sure, although I have a sneaky suspicion that the terror-fans might get a nice goofy kick out of the thing as well. And while the mini-movie does get a little gory towards the end, it's nothing that wouldn't clean up with a medium Coke and a super-sized fries.

(Unfortunately it looks like Mr. Green's official website was unable to withstand all the traffic, so I'll offer you an alternate link ... at YouTube, of course.)

And, of course, Happy Halloween.

If there's one thing the media really loves to do, it's lump a bunch of barely-connected people into an ill-fitting group -- and then give that group a clever name. Whether it's The Rat Pack, The Brat Pack or The Splat Pack, I just get irked whenever a new "pack" makes it into the cultural lexicon. Oh, you're not familiar with that last one? Yeah, it's a moniker that's been given to a bunch of "new" horror filmmakers, one that seems to imply that these guys get together every weekend to smoke weed and watch Halloween 2 together.

According to a recent article in Time Magazine, one that seems to approach horror flicks the same way a prissy schoolmarm would approach some inappropriate comic books, the members of "The Splat Pack" are Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel), Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent), Alex Aja (High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes), Rob Zombie (House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects), and James Wan, Leigh Whannell and Darren Lynn Bousman of the Saw trilogy. (Apparently Wolf Creek director Greg McLean was part of the original pack, although he goes unmentioned in the Time article, probably because he hasn't made much money yet.)

But what do these guys have in common, really, other than the fact that they all make horror flicks? I see Americans, Brits, Aussies and a Frenchman in the mix, and while some of the guys are fresh-faced and 20-something, guys like Roth have been toiling away in backstage anonymity for years. Plus, c'mon, Rob Zombie is 42 years old, so how exactly does he tie in with these kids? And why is it that Neil Marshall never seems to be quoted in these articles? Is he just included because his horror movies are ... GOOD? Apparently the Splat Pack label was created by Alan Jones of Total Film, and I'm sure the guy's an absolute expert on horror flicks -- but labels create limits, exclusions and oversights. And, ultimately, articles like this one, I suppose. (Either way, I bet Jones bangs out a book called The Splat Pack by the end of 2008.)

The UK's Christopher Smith (Creep, Severance) is young and horror-heavy, so why isn't he a member of The Pack? Shouldn't (Dawn of the Dead screenwriter, Slither director) James Gunn be one of the den mothers? Lucky McKee has made only two feature films (May and The Woods), but they're both downright excellent pieces of horror. Why's he not a member? Uwe Boll's done a bunch of horror flicks that could be accurately described as " laden with torture," so why not throw him an invitation? You want a guy who loves the word splat? Try Jake West, the guy who directed Evil Aliens. Plus I read another article a while back in which Jonathan Liebesman (Darkness Falls, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning) was considered a member of The SP! Now, if that guy can be considered some sort of "future of horror," I'll eat my hat.

The common themes among the Splat Packers are ... what? They all like horror movies, they don't shy away from intense chills, harsh themes or copious gore, and they're all carbon-based life forms, I guess. But really: Does anyone out there think the work of Eli Roth is even remotely similar to that of Neil Marshall? Does a Rob Zombie flick remind you of what was seen in, say, High Tension? I mean, if you're going to define a term, then define it. And as a big fan of just about all these movies, I just gotta scratch my head when I hear these guys lumped together in one basket.

And what happens when guys like Ryan Schifrin (Abominable), Adam Green (Hatchet), J.T. Petty (S&Man) Scott Glosserman (Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon), Jon Levine (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) and Adam Mason (Broken) start to make their way up the ranks? Will we have the arrival of Splat Pack 2: The New Generation? Back in the late '70s/early '80s, did we need a goofy little heading to remember names like Carpenter, Hooper, Craven, Dante, Landis and Cunningham?

Ultimately, I have no real point. I'd just seen the phrase "Splat Pack" one too many times and felt the need to vent. Opposing viewpoints are welcome, as long as they agree with my own opinions.

The official Cinematical presence at the 2006 Fantastic Fest was the wonderful Jette Kernion, and I think she managed to bang out about eight reviews ... while the fest was still running! I saw JK everywhere, from the queues to the parties to the local barbecue pits. Frankly I think her coverage rocked the house, and I'm not just saying that because she let me butt in line with her for The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell.

But since the FF guys were cool enough to welcome Cinematical with such eerily open arms, I figure it's only right to share my favorite movies, moments and memories of mayhem from the 2006 FantFest. And so I shall.

The Best Flicks

Simon Rumley's seriously disturbing The Living and the Dead, the Swedish vampire flick Frostbite, Adam Green's fun-time slasher throwback Hatchet, William Friedkin's compellingly intense Bug and the quietly cool haunted Brit flick Lie Still. I also had an unexpectedly good time with Mel Gibson's Apocalypto -- and although I'd already seen Abominable, The Host, The Fountain, Pan's Labyrinth and Severance, they're all films I have no problem recommending. Oh, and William H. Macy's performance in Edmond ... wow.

I also trekked away from the festival to enjoy a good portion of Feast -- which was negated by my plane ride home. Lindsay Lohan's Just My Luck was the in-flight movie, and that flick packs perhaps the worst screenplay I've dealt with in three years. Stunningly bad.

Oh, and right before I nodded off every night, I watched just a little bit more of The Office: Season 2. If you don't watch this show, you're plain old robbing yourself of multiple peals of bulky laughter. And why would you want to do that?

Ask any experienced writer if they'd like to cover two whole film festivals over the course of three short weeks, and you'll probably get a response like "Um, no." But throughout all of the Toronto International Film Festival, I had a shiny little treat on the horizon: The Second Annual Fantastic Fest, which was to take place at the Alamo Drafthouse (South Lamar) down in lovely Austin, Texas. Upon returning home from TIFF, I was this close to simply bailing on Fantastic Fest, basically because I had a LOT of work to finish, plus I really wasn't all that excited about dealing with airports again so soon.

Fortunately I came to my senses and decided to attend the festival. And get this! A few days before the fest, super-cool festival honcho Tim League asked if I'd like to be a jury member! Now, film critics don't get a lot of back-pats or cap-feathers, but being asked to sit on a festival jury is very flattering indeed. Plus, this festival was mostly horror movies -- so obviously I was grinning like a pig in poop. So now that the festival is over and I've returned home (with a horrific cold), I thought you might be interested to know which flicks won what. So let's get to it...

Horror Jury Awards

Best Picture - Isolation
Best Director - Billy O'Brien, Isolation
Best Script - Dylan Bank and Morgan Pehme, Nightmare
Best Actor - Kane Hodder, Hatchet
Best Actress - Nicole Roderick, Nightmare
Best Supporting Actor - Lance Henriksen, Abominable
Best Supporting Actress - Kristen Bell, Roman
Best Art Direction - Alex Boynton, Unrest
Best Cinematography - Robbie Ryan, Isolation
Best Special Effects - Hatchet
Best Make-up - Broken

The Horror Jury was composed of four film freaks: Jay Slater of Hotdog Magazine & FilmThreat.com, Ed Neal of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Peter Martin of Twitch and Chris Cargill of AICN.

Short Film Jury Awards

Best of Show - The Listening Dead
Best Short Form - Cost of Living
Best Long Form - Rogairi (Villains)
Best Animated - If I Had a Hammer
Best Comedy - They're Made Out of Meat

The Short Film Jury was composed of three AICN writers: Brian Satterwhite, Jay Knowles and (again) Mr. Cargill.

Audience Awards

1st Place - Hatchet
2nd Place - Isolation
3rd Place - Firefly

The audience awards were decided by "average Joe" audience members who opted to cast ballots, obviously.

Fantastic Fest Jury Awards

Best Film - The Living and the Dead
Best Director - Simon Rumley, The Living and the Dead
Best Script - Larry Kent and Daniel Williams, The Hamster Cage
Best Actor - Leo Bill, The Living and the Dead
Best Actress - Jodie Jameson, Venus Drowning
Best Supporting Actor - Alan Scarfe, The Hamster Cage
Best Supporting Actress - Kate Fahy, The Living and the Dead
Best Art Direction -Starfish Hotel
Best Cinematography - A Quiet Love
Best Special Effects - Puzzlehead
Best Make-up -The Living and the Dead
Special Jury Mention - Blood Tea and Red String

The Fantastic Fest Jury was composed of Christian Hallman of the Lund International Fantastic Film Festival, Wiley Wiggins of Dazed and Confused and Waking Life, and Scott (dork) Weinberg of eFilmCritic.com, Cinematical.com and Rotten Tomatoes.

And I'll take this quick opportunity to share some opinions with you: I attend a solid handful of film festivals every year -- and Fantastic Fest was (far and away) one of the most entertaining trips I've ever taken. From fest-head Tim League down to the part-timiest festival volunteer, these folks were absolutely sterling. If you have even a passing interest in films best described as horror, sci-fi, fantasy or "plain old weird," I could not recommend Fantastic Fest highly enough. In only its second year of existence, FF looks to be one of North America's premiere genre festivals -- and I can only imagine what the 2007 event will look like.