Adam Green is a horror writer, director, and actor beloved in the community for his independent horror filmmaking and love of the genre. Most well known for Frozen and the Hatchet series, Green has made a name for himself with writing that winks at tropes of the horror genre while still showing a lot of love for the classics.
While most of Green’s films fall into the horror genre, he has also released one romantic comedy as well as a documentary, and frequently brings comedic elements into his movies. His strengths lie in creating engaging and believable characters with dialogue that feels incredibly realistic, which succeeds in both horror and comedic scenes.
Playing with a variety of formats and types of films, Green has a filmography filled with great full-length movies, a TV series, and a twenty-year history of releasing Halloween short films each October. Here’s all of Green's directorial endeavors, ranked from worst to best.
10. Coffee & Donuts (2000)
Adam Green’s first feature film, Coffee & Donuts is his experiment in the romantic comedy genre. A semi-autobiographical film, Coffee & Donuts follows main characters Adam and Steve as they try to get their small-town radio show into the big-time, while Adam struggles to get over a breakup and get back into the terrifying world of dating.
While this film wasn’t widely released and is nearly impossible to see these days, it is the original incarnation of the story that would eventually become the much more successful and well-made TV series, Holliston. While Coffee & Donuts isn’t at all a bad movie, it’s simply not as good as Holliston. While fans might enjoy getting to experience the origins of the show, it’s probably not worth hunting down.
9. Chillerama (2011) Segment "Diary of Anne Frankenstein"
Chillerama is a horror comedy anthology movie that plays homage to different genres and styles through the framing of a drive-in theater playing horror movies. Green’s segment is the third in the film, a black and white short entitled “Diary of Anne Frankenstein”, a title that was given to the piece before he took charge of writing. Green immediately decided to take the short to an over-the-top, silly place in order to avoid being offensive.
The resulting short is laugh-out-loud funny, and features Joel David Moore giving an absolutely hilarious performance in the role of Hitler, ed by a German-speaking cast. The short focuses on Hitler trying to create the perfect killing machine using doctor Frankenstein’s old writings, which he steals from the Frank family. While the Chillerama short is funny and intelligently made, the rest of Green’s filmography edges it out.
8. Hatchet III (2013)
Picking up immediately where the last film left off, Hatchet III follows Marybeth Dunston as she escapes from Honey Island Swamp after having just blown off Victor Crowley’s head with a shotgun. She shows up at the Jefferson Parish Police Department covered in blood and carrying a shotgun; she's promptly arrested.
The only one of the Hatchet films not directed by Adam Green, it’s included in his filmography because Green is credited as both the writer and producer on the film, and was heavily involved in the making of the movie despite not being credited as the director. While it’s hard to break the Hatchet movies apart, this movie felt a bit more tired, where the first two in the indie slasher franchise were more fresh and fun in comparison.
7. Spiral (2007)
A twisted psychological thriller Green co-directed with leading actor Joel David Moore, Spiral follows the introverted painter, Mason, who is struggling to get over his ex-girlfriend while battling with severe hallucinations and untreated mental illness. When he meets Amber, a new co-worker at his insurance sales job, he begins to come out of his shell a bit more, but his inner world begins to unravel at the same time.
Taking a unique look at the psychological thriller plots that came to be very overdone during the late 2000s, Spiral offers characters and dialogue that feels real and engaging. While some plot twists are expected, Spiral plays on those expectations by taking things a step further, always staying one step ahead of the audience and finding ways to surprise jaded viewers.
6. Hatchet II (2010)
The sequel to Adam Green’s original slasher, Hatchet II Tony Todd) organizes a team to go back into the swamp with her.
Featuring an ensemble cast of horror icons, Hatchet II ranks only barely below its predecessor, offering a solid horror experience full of camp, but tempered with a clear knowledge of genre classics and tropes.
5. Frozen (2010)
Adam Green’s Frozen follows three friends on a weekend ski trip who find themselves trapped on a ski lift as the resort shuts down early because a storm is moving in. Childhood friends Dan Walker and Joe Lynch, along with Dan's girlfriend Parker O'Neil are essentially the only characters in the film; the plot focuses largely on their relationships and dynamics. With so few characters and very little action actually happening on the screen, the film is a true character study, relying almost entirely on Green’s dialogue to build plot and tension, which it does expertly.
Truly the most chilling of Green’s productions, in every sense of the word, Frozen is relentlessly real, offering characters, dialogue, and plot progression that is so believable it’s a bit sickening to watch. It only ranks below other Adam Green offerings because of how difficult it is to watch, though it’s a serious horror movie that proves highly successful at its goal of scaring the audience.
4. Hatchet (2006)
Hatchet is Adam Green’s homage to the slasher movies of the '70s and '80s. Set in the swamps of Louisiana during Mardi Gras, the plot follows a group of tourists on a New Orleans haunted swamp tour who accidentally get stranded in the wilderness, only to be hunted by the vengeful ghost of Victor Crowley, who kills anyone that enters the Honey Island Swamp.
The movie features a variety of horror greats, showcasing Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th Part VII) as the monster Victor Crowley and also Crowley’s father, Thomas. It’s the first time audiences got to see Hodder actually play a character without a mask, and he excels at the emotional role of Victor Crowley’s father.
Like all the rest of Green's other work, the writing is amazing, and Green’s love of horror really shines. Unlike some other horror movies that use their knowledge of genre meta in a way that ends up feeling like they’re making fun of horror and horror fans, Hatchet is a love letter to both. While it is an obviously over-the-top horror movie with a lot of comedic elements, it excels because it has so much heart.
3. For the Love of Halloween (2018)
Adam Green’s only documentary film, For the Love of Halloween is a collection of interviews about the 20 year tradition of making horror shorts every year for Halloween. Adam Green, Will Barratt, and Cory Neal, the co-founders of ArieScope Pictures, sit down to talk about the horror shorts they released every year, starting in 1998.
While the documentary is obviously a lot different from Adam Green’s feature films, it really shows how much everyone who is a part of ArieScope Pictures and has worked with them on the yearly Halloween shorts has genuinely loved doing them. It also explores a bit of Green and Barratt’s filmmaking history, and offers a truly heartwarming look at their friendship and production company over the years.
2. Victor Crowley (2017)
The fourth film in the Hatchet movie franchise, Victor Crowley sees a group of amateur filmmakers come out to Victor Crowley’s swamp to film a mock trailer for a B-movie they’re making about the Crowley massacre. At the same time, a private plane carrying the only survivor of Hatchet III, Andrew Yong, and a film crew coming to interview him on location crash into Honey Island Swamp, killing the pilots.
This movie is possibly the most comedic and over-the-top of the series, really taking the kills to the next level, but it works. Bringing in genre veterans like Chase Williamson (John Dies at the End), Laura Ortiz (The Hills Have Eyes), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), and Tiffany Shepis (Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV), the movie amps up the meta feel while also increasing the comedy and gore in concert.
1. Digging Up the Marrow (2014)
Adam Green is famously a fan of meta horror, but Digging Up the Marrow takes it to the next level with a Ray Wise of Twin Peaks), a retired Boston detective who says he can prove that monsters are real.
The idea for the movie is based on an interaction Green had with freelance artist, Alex Pardee, who sent him fan mail telling the backstory of Hatchet character Victor Crowley. When Adam Green met with Pardee at a convention, Pardee shared his story Digging Up the Marrow, in which an artist is commissioned to paint purportedly real monsters. Green combined the two ideas to create the concept for the final films.
The biggest criticism weighed against Green’s movies is that they can only be enjoyed by a select subsection of horror fans who get the injokes and appreciate his specific type of humor. Digging Up the Marrow shows those detractors that Green’s movies can work for horror fans of all types. While there are a few easter eggs to be found, the movie is scary, funny, and enchanting all at once, and in it, Adam Green is able to build a world that feels real.
