What you've heard already, Hatchet 2 pulled from theaters...

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Son of a bitch. Unfortunately I couldn't get to Adam Green's Hatchet II over the weekend, despite being a mere twenty miles from an AMC theater with showtimes. After showers granted me the day off yesterday, I checked the AMC website, like I did early Sunday morning, only to discover the film's listing completely missing. Late yesterday Green tweeted about his latest pulled from the theater chain, thus explaining this premature disappearance.

Unless this whole thing is merely a publicity stunt for the home video release (UNRATED! RIPPED FROM THEATERS!), it's a damn shame AMC decided to pull Hatchet II, especially if the reason stemmed from any thumped-up controversy stirred by the chain running an unrated feature. Big damn deal. It's hilarious some still get uptight over the possibility of "unrated" films playing at their local multiplexes when anyone can walk into any of the thousands of Wal Marts nationwide and purchase a bevy of unrated movies from various genres from every studio imaginable.

Only the under-rock ignorant would climb upon their self-righteous high horses over the prospects of a bit more fake blood and tits in a goofy slasher flick playing on the same screens as whatever hollow CG cartoon horseshit they consume. I still applaud AMC and Dark Sky for enabling the complete director's vision on mainstream screens, but AMC needs to grow a pair. It'll be very interesting to see how AMC's weekend openings (theater list here) of I Spit on Your Grave: Unrated will play out. While Hatchet is mindless fun, I imagine I Spit... will be more of a true uncut endurance test and hopefully have some real objectionable fodder for those who wish to fake outrage...

Via Entertainment Weekly: Just a couple of days after the release of Hatchet II, the AMC theater chain has pulled the unrated slasher sequel from all of the cinemas that were showing the movie. “We woke up this morning and the movie was gone,” says director Adam Green. “I’m bewildered and confused.”

Green had earlier told EW that AMC volunteered to exhibit an unrated version of Hatchet II after the MPAA declined to give the movie an R rating. “It turns out the people who make the decisions at AMC were big fans of the original Hatchet and loved the sequel,” the director said at the time. “I think the quote was that they thought it was the best slasher sequel they’d ever seen.”

The decision by AMC to exhibit an unrated film attracted a lot of attention in the media—as did Green’s attacks on the MPAA, which included his assertion that it was an “evil” organization. Green now speculates this may have been the reason why the chain pulled his movie, which stars Kane Hodder as a swamp-dwelling homicidal maniac named Victor Crowley. “I assume it probably had something to do with the controversy online about an unrated movie playing in theaters,” says the director. “To me, the whole thing is unfortunate because this is not a movie that deserves to be unrated. It’s a very funny, silly slasher movie about a swamp ghost that’s killing people in ridiculous ways. And now it’s become, you know, ‘Banned from cinemas.’ I’ve lost 11 pounds in the last week from stress.”

A spokesperson for AMC confirmed Hatchet II had been pulled from all of the company’s screens, and issued the following written statement: “At AMC theaters, we review all films in all of our theatres every week and then make our business decisions based on their performance.”

Green says that he is not disappointed with the performance of his film, which during its limited, truncated release grossed less than $70,000. “It’s an unrated cult movie that didn’t have commercials and all those other things,” he says. “I don’t see them pulling a movie on Sunday because it doesn’t look like the box office is going to blow people away.”

Green insists that while he has now given up hope of Hatchet II being granted any subsequent substantial life on the big screen, he remains sure that his film will still prove popular with horror fans. “The good thing is that the biggest audience for this movie—because it was for the first one—is going to with on demand and DVD,” he says. “I know that [Hatchet 2 distribution company] Dark Skies, in light of it being pulled prematurely, is going to do everything they can to get it to the fans as fast as they can. And that’s exciting. I don’t really make hardcore movies. I’m doing a kids movie next! Hopefully, this is the last time I’m ever even going to deal with something like this.”

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