HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON
Bravo for Bava
Yes, the PG rating kinda worried me. A horror movie doesn't have to be R-rated (or unrated) to work, but let's be honest - a PG rating is usually a sign that a movie just doesn't go very far at all. So I was quite relieved to find HFTH a creepy, amusing, and entertaining chiller.
The setup for the plot is pretty nifty - this guy's mother was killed when he was a lad, and now, as an adult, he's compelled to kill brides on their wedding nights with a meat cleaver (more on this later), for each time he does so, his memory of the event and the face of his mother's killer becomes a little more clear. Things really get problematic for him when he elects to knock off his completely unloveable wife, who continues to harass him as (this is a new one) an apparition that everybody but him can see. And, of course, nobody else knows she's been killed, so they're all making references to her when this poor guy just has no idea what they're talking about.
This leads up to a really extraordinary moment when our, uh, hero is at a nightclub. All he knows is that everybody else sees his wife and he doesn't, and feeling a little foolish, he orders one drink for himself and one for the dead wife who surely can't be there, next to him, can she? A very inspired little moment.
Now, the resolution of this plot can be seen a mile away (I mean, at least one or two other suspects would have made for a better "who killed mom?" aspect, but we're left with...), but it's no less satisfying for it, and it has a nice twist afterward that's very cool.
The film also contains a very strange and incredibly effective shock sequence. Usually, things just pop up out of nowhere and make you jump, right? Well, here, it creeps into the frame so slowly and unnoticeably that by the time you see it, realize it's there and realize just what it is, you jump right out of your skin. Strange, but damn...my heart! My heart!
So what's with putting "hatchet" in the title, when the weapon of choice is clearly a meat cleaver? Maybe it loses something in the translation, like with the "Hatchet Murders" cut of Argento's Deep Red.