Blood Night : Film Debut of Writer/Director “Frank Sabatella” Is A Scream
November 2, 2009
by Christopher Boyle
(Bellmore,N.Y.)-Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet is a the debut film of writer/director Frank Sabatella. It’s a bloody and gruesome tale reminiscent of 80’s slasher flicks such as Friday the 13th, but with a contemporary twist. I was invited to the first and only public screening of Blood Night before its October 30th direct-to-DVD release (it had previously been making the rounds at horror festivals to drum up publicity), and got the opportunity to speak with its director afterwards. As a fan of horror movies and an amateur filmmaker myself, I was looking forward to watching the production (filmed on location on and around Long Island, NY, and based on local urban legends), and despite a few minor issues, I was not disappointed with Mr. Sabatella’s fledgling effort.
Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet starts out with the eponymous Mary as a child carrying out the grisly murder of her parents and her subsequent incarceration in Long Island’s King’s Park Psychiatric Center. Years later, a now adult and completely withdrawn Mary enjoys spending her days sans clothing and rocking back and forth on the cold floor of her cell. After being horribly raped and impregnated by a repulsive orderly, Mary later gives birth to a daughter while sedated and is told upon awakening that the child was stillborn. Becoming even more unhinged at this news, the young woman stages a brutal escape from the asylum, slaughtering much of the King’s Park staff in the process. Unfortunately for Mary, it doesn’t take long for the police to find her- walking around in the middle of the street naked while holding a severed head tends to attract unwanted attention- and they end up gunning her down when she refuses to come quietly. Now, I’m sure the officers involved in the shooting had to do a great deal of explaining for blowing away a nude, unarmed women, but we’ll leave that discussion for another day. What’s important is that Mary’s dead, and her reign of terror is over. Or…is it?
Fast-forward a few years, and Mary’s tragic story has become the stuff of popular legend, with teenagers using “Blood Night” as a basis to commit all manner of pranks and tomfoolery. One such group, spurred on by the ramblings of cemetery caretaker Graveyard Gus (Bill Moseley, who’s always fun to watch), holds a séance at Mary’s grave with the all-powerful (in movies, anyway) Ouija board, an act which not only seems to work, but gets Mary peeved as well. The kids then head home to party, and all is well and good until they start sneaking off to the bedrooms, because once the nookie starts, so do the killings (it appears the killer shares Jason Voorhees’ rather prudish attitude toward rampant underage copulation). Is the murderer, in fact, the vengeful spirit of Mary Hatchet, still searching for her lost child after all these years?
The teens eventually discover the bodies, decide that Mary Hatchet is most likely responsible, and (naturally) haul butt out of the house right as Graveyard Gus is puttering on by in his pickup truck. Now, here’s where the plot gets a little off: instead of calling the cops after finding a load of dismembered corpses, the kids (like something out of a Scooby Doo episode) instead decide to go off with wacky Gus to the now-abandoned King’s Park asylum to…I don’t know, maybe search for clues about Mary? Breathe in some refreshing asbestos? It’s never made clear. And, of course, by the time one of these geniuses finally thinks of calling the authorities, it’s too late. But hey, if the characters in any horror flick acted rationally, the movie would only be 7 minutes long, right?
So, the teens and Gus must not only face off against the enraged specter of Mary Hatchet, but the appearance of a mysterious flesh-and-blood killer as well. But who is this wild card player with a pick axe, and how do they tie into the legend of Blood Night? You’ll only know if you head down to your local video store and pick up the DVD, pal.
Overall, Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet is an impressive first effort. Director Frank Sabatella informed me that the total budget for the film was a 1.1 million, an amount that covered not only shooting itt, but paying the actors and marketing as well. That said, Mr. Sabatella certainly knows how to spend his money, because Blood Night doesn’t look cheap or amateurish at all…there’s something to be said for a filmmaker who stays within his means. I’ve seen countless movies that were far more ambitious then their meager budgets allowed, and the end result is usually a mess (almost any Sci-Fi Channel original movie is a good example of this). But Blood Night gets the most out of every nickel it has. It helps that they appeared to have shot in all practical locations, but the professionalism extends further, from the slick cinematography, the smooth editing, and something horror movies live and die on: the gore effects. Ah, yes, the gore. Mary Hatchet dispatches her victims in a variety of vicious ways, and wisely, the growing trend towards pure CG gore has been eschewed by the filmmakers in favor of physical effects with subtle CG enhancements, giving each kill a much bigger punch.
Frank Sabatella managed to secure two well-known genre actors for Blood Night: Bill Moseley (”Chop-Top” in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, as well being a regular in almost all of Rob Zombie’s films) and Danielle Harris (who starred in the original Halloween movie series as a child and later as an adult in Rob Zombie’s Halloween remakes). Personally, I found Harris to be completely miscast- she just didn’t fit her part at all, especially later in the movie (I can’t go any further into it for risk of spoiling things). However, I always find Moseley to be a blast. He always plays nutjobs, and you really get the impression that, well…that he’s not really acting. But who cares? Having a veteran horror actor like Bill Moseley (who was originally at the top of Sabatella’s “Wish List” when casting Blood Night) in your movie only serves to legitimize the proceedings when you’re just starting out in the business. Quite shocking to me, however, was that the rest of cast, mostly comprised of unknowns, were all uniformly solid as well. I mean, this is a low-budget, independently-made, direct-to-DVD horror film. There’s NOT supposed to be good acting across the board! What is this Sabatella guy thinking, hiring actors that can actually act?
Of course, not everything is all rosy and perfect in Blood Night. While well-made overall, I had issues with the lighting in almost all of the scenes: the movie is just way too dark to see exactly what’s going on much of the time, and it ended up giving me a headache. The director informed me that was more the fault of the projector at the theater where the screening took place than the work of the DP when they were filming, so I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on that one. But one area I can’t do that in is with the overall story that drives Blood Night. While solid for the most part, the narrative is choppy and incomplete at times (confusing, unexplained events occur), one enormous coincidence pops up that is almost too outlandish to believe, and the characters are fairly vapid and stupid (at one point at least 8 of them run from the unarmed killer instead of attacking en masse). But these are complaints that I can easily level at almost the entire horror genre…I was just slightly disappointed that a guy as obviously talented as Frank Sabatella would fall into those same overused pitfalls while otherwise making such promising debut.
I can’t end my review without mentioning the ghastly design of Mary Hatchet herself. Now, one might think that having a female antagonist that spends nearly the entire film fully nude reeks of “cheesecake factor,” but in this case nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, Mary has a pin-up quality bod, but she’s also riddled with gunshot wounds and decayed flesh, her hair is matted and tangled around her face, and her skin is a chalky shade of blue. Eroticism and horror have always gone hand-in-hand, and the disturbing vision of Mary Hatchet embodies this perfectly.
Overall, despite a few problems, Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet is well worth the time of horror fans everywhere. Frank Sabatella is a rising talent, and I’m looking forward to his sophomore effort, so go and support Blood Night to ensure he gets the chance to film it.
Pictured from left to right: Director Frank Sabatella, NewsLI.com writer Chris Boyle, Producer Frank Mosca
Posted by News LI Editor · Filed Under Entertainment
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2 Responses to “Blood Night : Film Debut of Writer/Director “Frank Sabatella” Is A Scream”
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Excellent review - saw the film. Would have enjoyed seeing other cast members mentioned or credited in the article.
- Posted by: Day Shelley
You make a good point, Day. My reasoning while writing the review was that while the cast was very good overall, I didn’t really feel any one actor stood out from the others. I didn’t think it would be fair to say “actor X did a solid job as character B” just for the sake of doing so, especially at the cost of the other players. So instead I issued a blanket statement on the overall quality of the acting and concentrated more on the performers the viewers would be more familiar with, since they’re the main draws.
In retrospect, however, perhaps I could have singled out some other performances, especially Nate Dushku as Alex, who showed some great intensity in his big fight scene near the end of the movie.
- Posted by: Christopher Boyle