It's safe to say that writer-director Adam Green is willing to sacrifice himself and his work for the betterment of the horror genre itself. I know it's safe to say this because he said it himself, at the Hollwyood premiere of Hatchet II just a few days ago. However, he didn't really need to say that for it to be true. After a grueling battle with the MPAA over his first Hatchet movie - which thankfully fans can witness in its true glory on DVD/BD - Green decided to make an unprecedented move, and release Hatchet II in theaters unrated, with AMC Theaters distributing the movie exclusively in major markets across the country. When it hits theaters this weekend, it won't have a monumental release, screening in a just a few hundred theaters, but it will have the largest release of any unrated theatrical release in 25 years. While the movie is certainly a gruesome horror masterpiece, Green's unorthodox release strategy may just be more innovative than the movie itself.

If any movie deserves to be seen in its purest/rawest form, it's certainly Hatchet II. While Green's original film certainly doesn't skimp on the blood-splattering and inventive kills, Hatchet II goes even farther than I would've imagined, and most faint-hearted people wished he wouldn't. The sequel picks up literally right where the first movie left off, with Victor Crowley (horror legend Kane Hodder) trying to make Marybeth (Danielle Harris) his next victim. Marybeth manages to escape and heads back to the vomit-infested streets of New Orleans to find the man responsible for the nightmarish turn of events we saw in Hatchet: Dr. Zombie (another horror legend, Tony Todd). She wants to complete her task set out in the first film, to bring back the bodies of her father and brother, who were killed by Crowley. After we get some very intriguing backstory on Crowley, Marybeth eventually convinces Zombie to take her back into the forbidden swamp (it's actually illegal to be there) with a group of misfit hunters to complete Marybeth's mission and to put an end to Victor Crowley once and for all.

It's wonderful that there are so many appearances from original, deceased cast members in this movie, such as Mercedes McNabb and Joleigh Fioravanti as "actresses" Misty and Jenna, Parry Shen as Shawn... er, I mean his brother Justin and the voice of Joel Murray, but it's ironic that the one who survived is played by a different actress. The lovely/awesome Danielle Harris portrays Marybeth in the sequel, taking over for Tamara Feldman and, while this different actor/same character technique usually bothers me (i.e. The Dark Knight), honestly, how could I be mad about a Danielle Harris upgrade? She fits the Marybeth bill to a T here and only strengthens her status as a horror goddess with her performance here. I was more than happy to see that Tony Todd had a much beefier role here as Dr. Zombie as well, along with John Carl Buechler, who's no stranger to MPAA woes as the director of Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, returning as Jack Cracker. Kane Hodder is, once again, in fantastic form both in and out of the prosthetics as Victor Crowley and his father Thomas in flashback sequences and horror icons such as Lloyd Kaufman, Tom Holland, Rick McCallum appear in smaller roles as well.

The real star of this show, however, is writer-director-producer Adam Green, for his uncompromising vision and the balls to have it shown in theaters the way it should be seen. The kills in the first Hatchet were incredible, and yet, with his twisted mind and an phenomenal make-up effects team, Green managed to take it to a level even I thought couldn't be achieved. Green sets up each kill as a marquee event, and there are truly no insignificant kills in this movie at all. The movie, like many horror movies, can almost be divided into two equal parts, the main through-line of the story, and the parts where everyone else gets killed leading up to the main showdown, etc. The great thing is that Green gets that he doesn't need to change this formula, but he will make sure that every blood-soaked moment is worth every single penny you paid to see it. There are things shown in this movie that you've never seen before and these are some of the best kills you'll ever see on film. I'd love to tell you more about them, but, honestly, my words can't do them justice. You just have to see them. All I will say, though, is the movie features undoubtedly the biggest chainsaw you've ever seen at the movies and it's used in a phenomenal way.

I also enjoyed the rich backstory we are given on Victor Crowley in these flashback scenes, showing just how he became the disfigured child he was... although we still get no real explanation of what Victor Crowley really is. Is he a ghost? A man? Man-ghost? Ghost-man? Ghost Dad? I can see how critics might bag on the ambiguity of what this man-thing really is, but it's not like this technique hasn't been used before in the horror genre, and used quite successfully/profitably.

The term "unrated" and the horror genre have gone hand-in-hand for years, although 99.99999% of the time, we only get to see this unrated form on home video. I'm usually surprised at the "unrated" material, as it never really seems all that bad, to me, leaving me wondering about the MPAA's bizarre process of what's fit for the silver screen and what's too risquee. Hats off to Adam Green for giving a big fat middle finger to the archaic MPAA and rolling the dice by releasing his film in this unconventional format. Now it's in your hands. If you want to see truly hardcore horror films in theaters, the way they should be seen, go see Hatchet II and maybe, just maybe, others might follow in his footsteps.

With fantastic nods to the original movie and kills that make the Saw franchise look like a game of Duck Hunt, Hatchet II throws the MPAA to the wind and gives horror fans what they truly want.