Hatchetman is set in Los Angeles where wannabe lawyer Claudia (Cheryl Wagner) makes ends meat by working in a strip club at night, one ordinary night fellow stripper Brittany (Fonta Sawyer) is brutally murdered by a hatchet wielding maniac. Soon after another stripper named Michele (Elizabeth Ryan) is murdered in the same fashion, Claudia's cop boyfriend Sonny (Jon Briddell) is on the case which makes everyone feel better although all he seems to do is to tell the girls to stay indoors. Anyway, the murders continue & the killer is dubbed 'Hatchetman' by the police as they franticly try to discover they're identity before anymore bodies turn up...
Written & directed by Robert Tiffi this is pretty bottom of the barrel stuff that I didn't like, at all. The extremely repetitive script which takes itself very seriously is rubbish, the mystery elements are awful & it tries so hard to point he finger in the direction of one character & it's painfully obvious it isn't them, since there are only two other suspects you've a 50/50 chance of getting it right, it's no surprise when the killer is revealed & their lame motives are given a whole one line of dialogue, I don't think much effort or thought went into the story which plays more like a murder mystery than out-and-out slasher that it's deceptively exploitative title might lead you to expect. The character's & dialogue are equally awful, all these girls seem to do is give each other advice about stripping. Their actions are stupid, I mean if there'a killer running around murdering all your mates would walk around late at night on your own? The cops are clueless, there is no motive given to the suspects so it's impossible to care & I wasn't really bothered who did it because I wasn't given any reason to care. There's no imagination in the murders, there's not enough of them & one felt while watching Hatchetman the filmmakers weren't trying anything more ambitious than to make a gory slasher with plenty of nudity & they even failed to do that.
Director Tiffi does OK actually & you get the impression there was some money behind this as it looks professional if nothing else, however there are no scares, no tension or atmosphere & the exploitation elements are disappointing. You know just having girls go topless every five minutes doesn't mean it's erotic or sexy as despite all the nudity & breasts on show it gets boring to watch, the gore is none existent really with lots of blood splashing over nearby objects but apart from a brief slit throat there's no actually special make-up effects here. Overall I was expecting more from a film called Hatchetman.
The budget probably wasn't big but it looks alright & is quite well made, at least they saved some money on the costume budget because the girls don't often wear many clothes. They probably saved a load on special effects too as there aren't any. The acting is poor from just about everyone.
Hatchetman is a terrible slasher that piles on the nudity but is still as bad as most of these straight-to-video potboilers, definitely not recommended.
Written & directed by Robert Tiffi this is pretty bottom of the barrel stuff that I didn't like, at all. The extremely repetitive script which takes itself very seriously is rubbish, the mystery elements are awful & it tries so hard to point he finger in the direction of one character & it's painfully obvious it isn't them, since there are only two other suspects you've a 50/50 chance of getting it right, it's no surprise when the killer is revealed & their lame motives are given a whole one line of dialogue, I don't think much effort or thought went into the story which plays more like a murder mystery than out-and-out slasher that it's deceptively exploitative title might lead you to expect. The character's & dialogue are equally awful, all these girls seem to do is give each other advice about stripping. Their actions are stupid, I mean if there'a killer running around murdering all your mates would walk around late at night on your own? The cops are clueless, there is no motive given to the suspects so it's impossible to care & I wasn't really bothered who did it because I wasn't given any reason to care. There's no imagination in the murders, there's not enough of them & one felt while watching Hatchetman the filmmakers weren't trying anything more ambitious than to make a gory slasher with plenty of nudity & they even failed to do that.
Director Tiffi does OK actually & you get the impression there was some money behind this as it looks professional if nothing else, however there are no scares, no tension or atmosphere & the exploitation elements are disappointing. You know just having girls go topless every five minutes doesn't mean it's erotic or sexy as despite all the nudity & breasts on show it gets boring to watch, the gore is none existent really with lots of blood splashing over nearby objects but apart from a brief slit throat there's no actually special make-up effects here. Overall I was expecting more from a film called Hatchetman.
The budget probably wasn't big but it looks alright & is quite well made, at least they saved some money on the costume budget because the girls don't often wear many clothes. They probably saved a load on special effects too as there aren't any. The acting is poor from just about everyone.
Hatchetman is a terrible slasher that piles on the nudity but is still as bad as most of these straight-to-video potboilers, definitely not recommended.