Hatchet Jack, West Virginia Carnage

Gore, shock, and unbridled viciousness.  It all takes place in West Virginia...no, not any of the "Wrong Turn" films.  A better parallel would be George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" or Tobe Hooper's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre."  Pittsburgh area (West Virginia, actually) filmmakers create a movie with a cannibalistic killer seeking love and nutrients from those he abducts.  Perhaps a metaphor for many of our own existences. The story is semi-standard, but the beauty of 2008's "Hatchet Jack" is in the story telling.  Directed by Eddie Mahalick, this gore-fest will surely please during this Halloween season.

Two hunks and two babes depart Pittsburgh and travel to the wilderness of West Virginia to track down the legend of Hatchet Jack.  Jack murdered 18 with his hatchet and cut them up into little pieces.  Brian (Aaron Bernard) organized this outing and his girlfriend Nikki (Rebecca Hartley) is along for the ride...and probably some pre-marital sex.  Also along is Brian's best buddie, Mike (Mike Valley) and the beauty he hopes to make his girlfriend, Lori (Shayna Hickman).  The quartet are warned away from the woods by a creepy bartender but go forth anyway.  Their initial forages into the cursed wilderness are met with creepiness...you'll see.

So what's going on here? Sure...a bloody slasher film with a predictable plot.  Don't be fooled, Mr. Mahalick will introduce some ominous plot devices that weaves Hatchet Jack's plight with the Pittsburgh hunks and babes.  This won't bode well for the Pittsburgh kids.  Watch and listen closely for the backstories of Lori and Brian...perhaps those are more significant than initially they seem.  Yep...severed body parts, horrific torture and bondage, and one mean axe man will dot the landscape of this film.  But wait!  So will some ghostly apparitions that will be quite nightmarish.  Enough said...no spoilers here.

Will any of these hunks and babes make it back to Pittsburgh in one piece?  How about the nubile Lori?  Will Mike get to have pre-marital sex with her or does Hatchet Jack have dibs on her?  Did Major Harris receive a fair shot at quarterbacking in the NFL?  Creepy, ominous, gory, and vicious...see "Hatchet Jack" by clicking on the following YouTube link Hatchet Jack on YouTube .