HATCHET

Sampson and his son Ainsley are hunting alligators in a swamp. While Ainsley is urinating, Sampson falls silent; Ainsley finds Sampson dead before he, too, is killed by an unseen being.

During a Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, a group of friends, including Ben and his best friend Marcus, decide to go on a swamp tour. They find the tour closed because the guide, Rev. Zombie, was sued for negligence. Rev. Zombie suggests they try a place farther down the street owned by the inexperienced tour guide, Shawn. Ben pays for himself and Marcus, and Shawn leads them to his tour bus, where the other tourists, Jim and Shannon Permatteo, a Minnesota married couple, two models, Misty, Jenna and their agent, Shapiro, and hot-tempered Marybeth are waiting.

Guiding their boat through the swamp, they are warned to leave by a hermit, Jack Cracker, whose warnings are dismissed. As they venture further, the boat begins to sink, forcing them to abandon it. Jim is then bitten and injured by an alligator while Marybeth finds an abandoned shack, which she identifies as the old Crowley house. Marybeth tells the story of how deformed Victor Crowley and his father, Thomas, lived in the house until Victor's accidental death when Thomas accidentally struck Victor in the head with a hatchet while trying to free him from the house when it caught fire due to teens throwing fireworks at it in an attempt to scare Victor. After Thomas's eventual death, Victor is now said to roam the swamp as a vengeful spirit, killing those he comes across. Marybeth warns the group that they aren't safe in the swamp, but they dismiss her story as an urban legend.

As Jim and Shannon approach the house, Victor appears and kills them, causing the group to flee. Shapiro splits from the group and is killed by Victor. The remaining survivors decide to return to the house where they can arm themselves.

While at the house, Marybeth and Ben discover Sampson and Ainsley's remains. Marybeth reveals they were her father and brother, and she had come to the swamp to find their bodies. Victor then ambushes the group and critically injures Jenna with a belt sander. Shawn attempts to save Jenna by attacking Victor with a shovel but is disarmed and decapitated with it by Victor, who then finishes Jenna off by impaling her with the shovel.

The survivors decide to lure Victor back to his house and set him on fire with the gasoline tanks in the shed. While they do this, Misty goes missing; Ben then discovers her mutilated body when Victor throws her remains at him. Luring Victor into the house, the group ignites the tanks and sets Victor on fire, but rainfall extinguishes the fires. Victor then kills Marcus and chases after Ben and Marybeth, where a pole thrown by Victor impales Ben's foot. Marybeth and Ben push the pole forward, resulting in Victor being impaled on it when he charges after them, seemingly killing him.

Taking a spare boat out of the swamp, Marybeth falls into the water and is ensnared by seaweed. She sees Ben's hand at the surface, reaches up to it, and is pulled out, only to be met by Victor, who had severed Ben's arm and used it to bait Marybeth. Victor grabs Marybeth as Ben lies dying in the boat.

The survivors attempt to fight Victor Crowley using gasoline tanks and set his house on fire, but the final confrontation leaves their fate uncertain.

The ending leaves the survivors in a perilous position, highlighting the relentless threat posed by Victor Crowley and underlining the genre's tradition of ambiguous survival. The final moments embrace the cyclical, seemingly unstoppable nature of slasher villains, leaving the audience with a taste of unresolved dread and a wink to continuing the mayhem.