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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - June 14th

"HATCHET III" released in 2013

The third and final installment in the Hatchet series picks up immediately, as has the rest of the films in series, at the end of the previous film - with Marybeth Dunston (Danielle Harris) blowing off the head of the deformed, swamp-redneck murderer Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder) with a shotgun!

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She then walks back into the city, bloodied and disorientated, and hands herself into the Jefferson Parish Police Department, immediately being arrested. Marybeth recounts the events of the night (Hatchet and Hatchet II) to Sheriff Fowler (Zach Galligan), while a team of policemen are sent to Honey Island Swamp to count the bodies and take the "body" of Crowley away. But Crowley won't die quite so easily and quickly goes on yet another bloody rampage. Marybeth and Fowler, also aided by the Sheriff's ex-wife, journalist Amanda Fowler (Caroline Williams), must delve deeper into the legend surrounding Victor Crowley if they hope to stop him forever!

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Hatchet II director (and series creator) Adam Green originally stated that two more sequels would follow, and in 2011, Dark Sky gave the green light for Hatchet III. Green declined to helm the sequel himself, but still wrote, produced, presented, and retained creative control having final cut over the film while hand-picking the director, Hatchet series cinematographer BJ McDonnell. Danielle Harris and Kane Hodder return for the final film, joined by new cast members Galligan, Williams, Derek Mears (as SWAT team leader Tyler Hawes) and Robert Diago DoQui (as Deputy Winslow). A quick aside, Mears once replaced Hodder in the role of Jason Voorhees for the Friday the 13th (2009) remake, a role Hodder had played for four consecutive films in the series - so it does make you wonder how much Hodder enjoyed the scene where his Crowley literally rips Mear's Hawes spine and skull from his body with his bare hands! Towards the end of the film, actor Joel David Moore, Ben from the original Hatchet, makes a cameo and is abruptly killed again with a hatchet to the head.

Principal photography for this film was shot on location in New Orleans, Louisiana from May 30, 2012 through June 17, 2012. After just one week of shooting, Kane Hodder declared it "the hardest job he's ever done". Performing rigorous action and stunts in sweltering Louisiana summer heat and humidity while wearing 30 pounds of silicone and make-up on his body. It was crucial to Green, if they were to make another Hatchet film, Victor Crowley look better than ever while still using only prosthetic make-up, priding himself on the "no CGI rule". As shooting continued, scripts given to cast and crew for production were all missing the film's last 5 pages, so only Adam Green and BJ McDonnell knew what the ending would be while in production.

Hatchet III received mixed reviews from critics, Village Voice writing, "There's no shortage of visceral, gross-out thrills." While the New York Daily News reviewed, "The crowd that likes these things will certainly be psyched. Everyone else, not so much." Although the box office for Hatchet III was non-existent - as was the gross for Hatchet (US$175,281) and Hatchet II (US$52,604) - the release of the film on DVD a month later proved just as popular as its predecessors.

Now that Crowly is dead and buried for good, we come to a close on the Hatchet series (so far, that is). Interesting fun fact, if you were watch all three Hatchet movies in a row without opening and end credits, it would be one uninterupted storyline, revolving around a few days - just ignore how Marybeth goes from looking like Tamara Feldman in the first film to Danielle Harris in the two sequels!

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:    55%