Just when you think it’s safe to incarcerate a child who has murdered their parents, spend the anniversary of their murder spree in a cemetery, AND play with a Ouija Board all at the same time… someone just has to come back and start axing all your friends… “Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet” is the newest (well, it came out in 2008… so semi-newest…) slasher film released onto DVD and directly into the hands of those who appreciate them most… teenagers. And though I am decidedly not a teenager, I still am a semi-fan (I really like the word ‘semi’) of the slasher genre. I’d be a full time fan, but there are too darn many slasher films out there made by every Tom, Dick and Indie filmmaker that you really never know when you’ll actually get a good one.

Well, shock of all shocks… “Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet” is actually a good one.

The story in a nutshell… and stop me if you‘ve heard this one… starts off with little Mary Mattock, home with her family on what seems like any normal night. Until the alarm clocks go off in her body, sending her on a murderous rampage for which she is locked away in an institution. Jumping ahead a few years, we find little Mary isn’t so little anymore, and as you have come to expect from any self-respecting asylum she ends up raped by a guard, impregnated, and upon losing her baby…. given the opportunity to go on yet another murderous rampage.

Jumping ahead yet again, we are introduced to Blood Night, a harmless holiday created to celebrate the night of Mary’s rampage in order to allow teenagers to run around causing havoc… pretty much like they do every night of the year. The focus of the film at this point is on one group of teens who have opted to hang out at Mary’s grave and play with a Ouija board. Sounds fun right? Well, it is at first… but then Mary’s spirit gets all kinds of peeved off and begins yet another bloody rampage…and at that point I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

So, taking the storyline into consideration, what makes this a good slasher flick? It was a combination of several things, good production value, terrific cinematography, decent acting, and some over the top scenes of death and decapitation delivered by a top notch special effects crew. “Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet” doesn’t take itself too seriously, layering just the right amount of humor, mixed in with a generous helping of suspense. It is everything a slasher flick should be, fun… silly… and bloody. What it doesn’t do is become one of those torture porn movies pretending to be a horror movie, like “Hostel”.

The DVD release offers up a lengthy behind the scenes featurette, several interviews with members of the cast and crew and a brief blooper reel.

“Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet” surprised me quite a bit. I felt like the filmmaker asked me beforehand what I wanted to see in a slasher flick and then went out and made this one. If you’re a horror movie fan, you’ll love this one!

Directed by: Frank Sabatella
Starring: Danielle Harris, Bill Moseley, Nate Dushku, Samantha Facchi
Extras: The Making of Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet; Interviews; Outtakes
Studio: Lion’s Gate
Release Date: 6/14/2011
MPAA Rating: R
http://www.lionsgate.com

We'll give Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet a B.