ADAM GREEN talks to Macabre Daily about HATCHET: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION! (INTERVIEW)
Image: Dark Sky Films
After hearing him talk for several hours for the past 10 years, what on earth could I possibly ask Adam Green that he hasn’t already shared on his podcast? He’s an open book on “The Movie Crypt,” his long-running podcast with fellow director Joe Lynch. Thankfully, we had a lot to unpack with “Hatchet: The Complete Collection,” the newly-released steelbook omnibus. Containing all four “Hatchet” films with all previous special features and two new hours of content, Dark Sky Films is pulling out all the stops for their first release for their Dark Sky Selects imprint, and Green was game to talk about it all.
Lowell Greenblatt: You’ve always been very generous with supplemental features on your Blu-rays. How do you come up with new things to include as your films are reissued?
Adam Green: Well, this was really Dark Sky’s idea. I first heard they were going to do this towards the end of last year. One of the hurdles is that Lionsgate technically has the rights to the first film, but Dark Sky has the right to and produced the rest of the films, so I didn’t know if there would ever be any kind of boxed set or collection. I might be wrong, but I think they worked something out to be able to do this for a limited edition. Most fans already have all four Blu-rays, so we had to do something new and substantial. I personally made the two new hours of special features for this steelbook release.
Typically, you record commentaries before films are released, so you don’t know how they’ll be received. You’ll talk about challenges, but generally try to focus on the good parts. Now that it’s been almost twenty years since “Hatchet,” Will Barratt, the cinematographer and producer for all the films, and Sarah Elbert, the main producer on all the films, sit down and tell all the stories we haven’t told. Maybe there’s a reference or two on a commentary, but it’s mostly [stories of[ what went wrong. I didn’t know if it would work when I went to film it, but if you’re a fan, the stories are fantastic. It gets pretty brutally honest by the end, especially when we talk about the financials. Normally, you wouldn’t see that in an official release, so I applaud Dark Sky for leaving it in. Joe Lynch and I did a commentary for “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” where the audio drops out occasionally. We wondered what we said that had to be taken out, because as you know, we don’t stop talking [Laughs].
The other special feature is an hour. “Hatchet” was my first movie, and we had no idea if it would be released or if it was any good, so at the time, we had the cast and crew post journals every night on the film’s website. Just about what they did that day and how they felt about it. It was the first and last movie we did where we had a professional set photographer for the entire shoot, so there’s thousands of beautiful hi-res photos of the making of the movie that nobody’s seen. I had everyone come in and read their journals in their own voices, which was a trip, because they haven’t seen them in twenty years, and I put that with the photography. It’s just for the first film, obviously, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that before. It was amazing what the photographer was able to capture, especially the effects stuff.
LG: The roundtable segment was great, but the readings felt like a camp slideshow in the best way.
AG: Yeah, I think if you’re buying a boxed set, you’re already a fan. We try to give something more. Just those two hours alone feel like it’s worth the purchase. And of course, Dark Sky did a great job with the packaging and all that. My only gripe is that they called it “the complete collection,” because as horror fans, how many times has there been a “complete collection” then there’s a new movie 2 years later? [Laughs]. You know many editions of “Halloween” and “The Evil Dead” I bought?
LG: And how many of us still have those “Necronomicon” editions rotting somewhere?
AG: With this genre, and with Victor Crowley, you never know if there will be another film, especially since we’re coming up on twenty years. Also, some of the newer “Hatchet” fans only saw the films on streamers for the past decade, but some streamers don’t tell you they don’t have the uncut versions. I’ve had people at conventions say “My friend said this happens, but I watched it and didn’t see it.” Well, where did you watch it? That’s not the movie. At least now people will have the original uncut versions of all films with all the special features and two new hours of material.
Adam directing (Image: Nerdly)
LG: The special effects still hold up. It shouldn’t seem remarkable, but it is.
AG: That’s all Rob Pendergraft and his crew. Everyone always says this, but these films have been cobbled together with blood, sweat, and tears. Nobody does these movies for a paycheck. I know people get frustrated when they have to wait years for a sequel, but we do them when we have to do them. Phone calls and texts start getting made, and it happens. I don’t know many franchises where so many of the key people come back to do them. It’s helped with the quality.
“Hatchet” hit theatrically in 2007. We were coming up as the floor of the industry was falling out. Piracy hit us in the indie scene really bad, and now streaming isn’t really helping. On a positive note, more people than ever are seeing what we do, but budgets are getting smaller and residuals are out the window. It’s been challenging, but it’s sort of our own fault. If you want to do something independently, these are the hurdles you have to face. So far, we’ve faced them all, but we’re starting to get old [Laughs]. Shooting a film so fast, with so little resources and still, having it be good, is tough.
LG: Didn’t you shoot “Victor Crowley” in 18 days?
AG: It was 11 days. I still don’t know how we did it. It was the only thing I’ve done that Will Barratt wasn’t involved in, but he booked a huge gig, and we couldn’t make him give that up. We got Jan-Michael Losada to DP and he and his crew were incredible. But I don’t know if I could survive that again [Laughs]. The good thing was that it was a secret [production], which took some of the pressure off. It was really ambitious, but knowing nobody knew we were doing it, so there were no set visits or press, really helped.
Typically, when it’s up to me, I don’t like to tell people what I’m working on. Not that everything needs to be a surprise, but in the age of the internet, we sometimes hear about movies way too soon. Then production or the release gets delayed and there are rumors that there’s something wrong with it.
LG: I’m still curious about the film you were going to make years ago, “Exorcism on Crooked Lake.”
AG: I’ll tell you right now. Those producers were absolute crooks and liars who never had their money. I think their plan was to get someone of value attached, announce it, then money would come. That’s why I don’t like to announce these things.
In just these past few years, I was finally about to do [long-gestating project] “Killer Pizza” as a series. It was a huge budget and I was at Legacy, who were doing the effects and I saw Marvel stuff to my right and Star Wars stuff to my left. It was literally that night in March 2020 when the country shut down and I knew it was over. Everyone said “no, it’ll just be two weeks,” and I said, “you think this’ll be over in two weeks [Laughs]?” Then there were two other things killed by the pandemic and strikes, but things are starting to get back to normal, at least for us. I’m about to go do something cool, so we’ll see. I always need to say I feel bad that I lost a series when so many people lost loved ones or got sick.
Kane Hodder in full Victor Crowley makeup, and Adam Green in full Adam Green makeup on the set of “Hatchet 2” (Image: Ariescope Pictures)
LG: At what point during the making of “Hatchet” did you go from being a fan of Kane Hodder’s to considering him a peer?
AG: Honestly, because of what a down-to-earth guy he is, after our first meeting. We talked for like 2 hours, and by the end we were excited. This was like 2004 after he turned 50 and lost his mother. He was passed over for “Freddy vs. Jason,” and to this day, nobody will explain why that mistake was made. As much as we wanted “Freddy vs. Jason,” we wanted Robert Englund versus Kane Hodder. That’s no slight to Ken Kirzinger, who did a great job [as Jason], but for the die-hards, we know what we wanted and we didn’t get it. That’s unfortunate, but I think coming along with “Hatchet” meant a new character for him to play, which involved makeup effects from his friend John Carl Buechler, so he read it and took it seriously. If you think about it from his perspective, it’s a huge risk. What if it sucked or never came out? Then he’s no longer Jason and he did something terrible.
Horror fans already know this, but the biggest inspirations for “Hatchet” were “Fright Night” and “An American Werewolf in London.” I wanted to do what they did, where they made good, entertaining movies with great actors, a funny script, and great effects. I wanted to do that for slashers, but not in the “Scream” way. I wanted an unstoppable monster with lots of gore and fun. At the time, torture porn and PG-13 horror were trending. I just wanted to make the type of thing I wanted to see, which is the advice I always give to people. If you’re trying to write towards what’s making money at that moment, and if it beats the odds and gets financed and made, the craze is usually over and people go “Oh, ANOTHER one of those.” So just write the thing that you really want to see and do it the best you can. Hopefully, it’ll click with people. It was like that with Kane.
There was one moment during the making of “Hatchet,” where I totally fanboyed inside. It was the second night of shooting, and we only had Robert Englund for a night and a half. Nobody was allowed to see Victor Crowley until they were on screen together, but when [Robert] first got there, he was like “Where’s Kane? I want to see Victor Crowley.” Kane was in his trailer, and he only came out because Robert wanted to see him. It was the first time I saw him in full makeup on set, and I’m just standing between the two of them while Robert’s raving. “Kane, this is incredible! This is your new thing. Can’t you tell this is going to be a series?!” I’m just standing there between them like “Where am I right now?”
I’m still like that on every set. Like the first night, it’s always “How did I talk people into this? I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m a fraud.” It’s so daunting because you have so much work in front of you and so little time to do it. Then you find your footing and go, but having that fear is a good thing. Once you start walking on sets with confidence, that’s how the movie comes out.
LG: We’re all kind of dorks, but you’re the dork that made good. You’re “King Dork.” Send my apologies to Joe Lynch.
AG: [Laughs] No, Kevin Smith is “King Dork” and the rest of us are fools in his kingdom.
LG: What parting advice do you have for people who have a project they NEED to finish for themselves? How do you get through it and maintain your sanity?
AG: First of all, you probably won’t maintain your sanity. There will be moments where it’s so hard, it breaks you. It’s completely different when you have the time, money, and resources, but most times when you’re doing a passion project, you won’t have any of those things. You’ll have to do your day job and take care of your real life, but if it’s what you really want to do, finding the time shouldn’t be that hard.
Just finish it, even if it takes way longer than you originally thought. You might say you’ll write for 4 hours a night, but there could be several nights you don’t feel like writing. That doesn’t mean it’s over, so just don’t give up on it. I meet so many people who abandon scripts when they get to like page 65 and it gets hard, or they get negative feedback on a first draft. Just finish it. You owe that to the thing you love so much, which made you want to do it. I think you’ll be surprised. Even if it’s a draft that still needs work, you can do the work, because you got to that point. Even if it takes years. “Killer Pizza” took 11 years and “Holliston” took 13. I put it away for a few years because of issues with a network. The weirdest things will happen.
The interview was edited for length and clarity. “Hatchet: The Complete Collection” is available now where Blu-rays are sold through Dark Sky Selects. For more on Adam Green, check out Ariescope Pictures.
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