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A bloodthirsty killer must be stopped. Only a few
know his identity, and most who see him don't live to
tell about it. Will shirtless Sheriff Dumpling solve the
crime before the hatchet falls again? An early Chambliss
work, and still one of the most defining, this version
features a new musical score.
"At first Chambliss's
handmade melodramas seem like the ultimate
so-bad-it's-good discovery, and then the movies'
strikingly peculiar dialogue and unpredictable editing
rhythms (cut mostly from VCR to VCR, or camera to
camera) sink their hooks in a viewer's brain. Especially
the dialogue, an endlessly quotable stream of non
sequiturs, bizarre aphorisms and low-life fatmouthing
that approaches ragged poetry. "I'd trade my place in
hell so you could listen a little better," snarls the
murderous husband to his wife in SHADOWS OF THE HATCHET-MAN,
after telling his girlfriend of his deadly intent: 'All
I need now is a plan and a hatchet, and I think you know
the plan.'" --Jim
Ridley, Cinema Scope magazine
Screenings: London Film
Festival, Nashville Film Festival, Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts, George Eastman House International Museum
of Photography and Film
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