I learned a few things from watching A Golpe De Hacha (roughly translated as "Hit From A Hatchet"). First, pizza in Mexico is pronounced "pisa". If your cat gets chopped up with a hatchet, then you will automatically receive 20,000 pesos in your checking account the following day. If your best friend, the local priest & your boss get killed with a hatchet, then you will also receive 20,000 pesos for each dead person. Also, if a guy with big hands starts flirting with you at work, then he clearly wants to date you and totally not kill you with a hatchet. Give the big hand guy a chance! Don't be mean!
In A Golpe De Hacha, a young woman named Emma (Patricia Rivera) is being stalked by a mysterious man. Emma becomes very frightened since this man follows her every night after work and proceeds to stand around near her apartment building and even goes as far as to call her on the phone longing for her admiration. Then things get much more serious & scary when Emma’s apartment is broken into, her cat is chopped up, her boss is killed by a hatchet to the neck and a priest whom Emma is close to also succumbs to the hatchet killer. After the cat and the 2 individuals are killed; Emma receives 20,000 pesos (for each dead close one) deposited into her bank account! All these people dying & receiving free money? What could this stalker/killer’s intentions truly be? Does he think paying her off will get her to like him? And more importantly, who could be the stalker/killer? Could it be the big-hand guy who’s always visiting the restaurant where Emma works at? Or is it someone that we "least" suspect?
With a title like A Golpa De Hacha, you would expect some brutal (& cheap) hatchet kills and a plot full of twists & turns—unfortunately we’re only left with off-screen kills & a motive that makes little to no sense. I mean we do get to see the hatchet killer claiming its victim, but we don’t actually see the killing action at all and the killer’s motives truly doesn’t make any sense. There’s this whole explanation at the end, but it is completely baffling. What little good I can say about A Golpe De Hacha is that it does have a mysteriously creepy tone to it with its loud horror stock music playing all-around and leading actress Patricia Rivera plays an excellent fearful woman. It’s also humorous to see Ana Luisa Peluffo in the movie get top billing, yet never speaks a word at all. Intentional, perhaps?
A Golpe De Hacha wasn't what I expected it to be, but somehow I wasn’t bored watching it. It’s worth a watch if you’re waiting around for something or just need something to chill out to that doesn’t require a lot of listening or caring.