MPAA Slaps Hatchet with NC-17

By Jon Condit
May 13th, 2007

In a showing of extreme out of touch, unfair, elderly assholery, the MPAA has seen fit to slap Hatchet (review here) with the dreaded NC-17 rating.

Ponder that if you will. Similar big studio gore-fests like 28 Weeks Later (review here) and Grindhouse (review here) get an R rating, yet the little guy? His stuff is far too vile for public consumption even though it's no more violent than either of those!

"We have a movie with a swamp monster chasing comedians with a gas-powered belt sander, and they gave us an NC-17," Green tells Variety. "With Hatchet, we’ve had audiences literally stand up and cheer at some of the gore, and everybody walks out smiling. I'm trying to go back to when it was fun."

Obviously the octogenarians at the MPAA missed the point completely. I wouldn't worry too much though, as the cuts to get an R rating will probably result in being just a few frames here and there. Still, this is infuriating. For all intents and purposes we have a glorified old folks club deeming what is and what is not acceptable for us. They cannot imagine there being an audience for this film, so for them Hatchet is the movie that they don't want you to see.

Time to prove them wrong, folks. On September 7th we have a rare opportunity to get our message out there, and that message is Fuck the weak shit! Call your theatres. Speak to their managers in person. Tell everyone you know that's ever had a good time watching a horror movie that something vicious is coming. Time to earn your bloody stripes and get to work.

Visit Hatchet's official site here, befriend the depraved on Hatchet's MySpace page here, and visit Dread Central's Hatchet archive here.

- Uncle Creepy