1970 hatchet movie
Rating: 14/20
Plot: A psychopath with a tragic past has a violent hobby–killing brides with a hatchet. A detective tries to put all the pieces together to catch him.
This movie has the best pick-up line ever: “We’ll go to my place. My wife will see something she’ll never forget–not even in hell!” Surprised that didn’t work out for the guy, especially since he looks so much like Clint Eastwood in parts of this movie. If I were a woman and Clint Eastwood said that to me, I’d jump at the chance to go to his place. Hell, I might jump at the chance even as a man. Here’s a film that isn’t really very good at all but is saved by Bava’s customary stylistic touches. The murder sequences, lots of them involving reflections in the titular murder weapon, are experimental and probably a little pretentious. There’s a really cool shot after one key murder involving an arm hanging and dripping blood from a banister, and I liked another scene featuring a bunch of toys. And the mannequin room seems like the perfect place for scenes from a Bava movie to take place. I need to get myself a mannequin room actually, a place where I can just light candles, try on veils, and make out with plastic women. The story’s not all that interesting and the cat ‘n’ mouse game between killer and detective, if there was actually a cat ‘n’ mouse game, wasn’t very interesting at all. The twist, if there was actually a twist, turned out to be pretty predictable as well. Things do get a tad more interesting with the story when it turns into a ghost story though. This is unfortunately the most dated Bava movie I think I’ve seen. There’s so much music, and much of it just isn’t very good. And there’s some voice-over narration where the guy says things like “I must go on wielding the cleaver.” The guy’s fashion sense is pretty incredible though. Stephen Forsyth is a guy who knows how to rock feminine belts and ascots, and there’s a scene where he eats an egg while wearing this black and white jump suit thing that is pretty special. This isn’t all bad, but it’s not one of the first ten Bava movies you should see, and I’m not even positive I’ve seen ten Bava movies yet.
One cute touch: Forsyth is watching Black Sabbath at one point in the movie and uses that to explain to the detective guy why the neighbor heard a scream. The detective later says that he watched the movie and there was no screaming during that part which struck me as kind of funny. As did the wife’s performance and the “wielding the cleaver” line. Maybe this was a dark comedy actually.
