The good news? It sounds like Adam Green isn’t ruling out Hatchet 5. The bad news? It doesn’t sound like it’s happening any time soon. So far as new slasher franchises in the 2000s go, it’s relatively few and far between, with Hollywood still largely focused on reboots of old ideas. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but new is never bad. Green gave us something new when he introduced us to Victor Crowley in Hatchet back in 2006. Nearly 20 years and four movies later, it sounds like goings on behind the scenes are holding up the proposed fifth entry.
See also: ENCYCLOBLEEDIA Of Slashers
On a recent episode of the “Tales From The Crypt: Horror & True Crime” podcast (via Bloody Disgusting), Green was asked about a possible return to the Hatchet Franchise. The last time we saw the series was back in 2017 when the fourth installment, Victor Crowley, was released as something of a surprise. Though he declined to be specific, Green strongly hinted at disagreements with the powers that be.
“It’s always a possibility. I can’t get into all of the minutiae because it would take up six more hours, but the long story short is, once we can make the movie with different entities behind the scenes at the top level, then I’ll be interested in doing [Hatchet] 5. But things need to change. That’s probably enough; people can make of that what they want.
The creative team is still very much a happy family and would love to do it, but…we need to be under new management, maybe that’s the best way to put it. The diplomatic way to put it. I think the old management knows at this point, I’m not kidding when I keep saying I’m not going to do it. So we’ll see what happens.”
Again, Green didn’t get specific. Is he talking about Dark Sky Films, who distributed the previous three entries in the franchise? There’s no real point in speculating but he suggests that Kane Hodder, the horror legend who plays Victor Crowley, as well as Danielle Harris and the rest of the crew would happily get the band back together for Hatchet 5.
Green directed all of the movies in the series thus far, save for 2013’s Hatchet III, which was helmed by BJ McDonnell. All of them have been low-budget affairs, albeit ones with some wildly inventive, gory kills. Last year, Dark Sky Films released a steelbook collection, Hatchet: The Complete Collection, which contains all four movies. That suggests there is a demand for these slashers a full eight years removed from the last one arrived. Here’s hoping Green can work things and meet that demand sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, Green is busy working on a new shark thriller titled The Ascent, which will be his first feature directorial effort since Victor Crowley. So, even if things work themselves out, he would at least need to finish his commitments on that movie before moving onto another Hatchet adventure. If nothing else, he’s not ruling it out and for fans of these ultra gory, delightfully cheesy slashers such as myself, that will have to do for the time being.
The Ascent doesn’t currently have a release date but stay tuned. For more, get the latest on what’s going on with the next Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie.
