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Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet is a 2009 slasher film distributed by Aspect Film. It stars Bill Moseley as Graveyard Gus, Danielle Harris as Alissa, Nate Dushku as Alex, and Samantha Facchi as Mary “Hatchet” Mattock. It is written by Frank Sabatella and Elke Blasi. The director is Sabatella.
In the late 1970’s, a 12-year-old girl named Mary Mattock murders her parents. Years later in a psychiatric hospital, she is raped by a night guard. Nine months after that, she gives birth to a child but is told it died at birth. During an escape attempt, Mary is shot to death. The small town where she committed her murders begins to celebrate that day as “Blood Night”. The story is told that every year, Mary returns to find her lost child. One particular “Blood Night”, teenagers start turning up dead, brutally murdered. Has Mary returned?
The storyline is entertaining, but it takes too long to develop. In the beginning, we see Mary killing senselessly. Then the premise of “Blood Night” is explained. Almost nothing happens for about the next half hour of the film. Mary is rarely even mentioned. Considering the film is only roughly 85 minutes long, a half hour is a long time not to have anything significant go on. The hints in the plot could have been a little more spread out throughout the course instead of bunched together at the very start and the very end. That may have made things a little more interesting.
If you’re a fan of the legendary Halloween franchise and Michael Myers, you may see some parallels in this film. In Halloween, Michael kills without any strong motive, as does the killer here. Mary mysteriously kills her family, as Michael does, and is sent to a psychiatric hospital. Years after she supposedly died, she seems to resurface and the killings resume, just like in Halloween. Once again, we see how a classic horror series from the past heavily influences a modern-day horror film.
To wrap, Blood Night does have a somewhat original plot with a little inspiration from Halloween. You will enjoy this film if you’re a fan of that sort of thing.
