Hatchet II

Writer-director Adam Green's sequel to his threadbare 2007 shocker takes up precisely where the original left off, as Marybeth (Danielle Harris)—the sole survivor of a boat tour of the Louisiana bayou that left her companions slaughtered by disfigured mass murderer Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder)—ventures back to the murder scene with a troupe of gunmen headed by voodoo priest Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd). The group includes a predictable assortment of caricatures—a bald-headed strongman, a horny doofus and his gal, and the brother of the earlier boat pilot. What follows is a tedious chain of killings, staged with cheeky gross-out humor—splatter sequences with effects that, to put it charitably, are not state-of-the-art. As to motives, the script does provide reasons (farfetched) for both Crowley's bloodthirsty rampages and for Reverend Zombie's machinations, while the acting—even from a pro like Todd—is strictly amateur night. A sorry throwback to chintzy slasher movies of the 1980s, Hatchet II is not recommended. (F. Swietek)