Hack/Slash is an unusual project, sort of a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for those who came up on Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and other slasher flicks. Seeley's script walks a line between overtly silly and darkly horrific, sometimes slipping a bit too far in either direction but generally presenting a pretty entertaining read. I'm actually not that much a fan of the slasher genre in general, so this hip and ironic take on the genre doesn't really push my buttons, but I know enough about the genre to get what Seeley is going for here and get some enjoyment out of it. The book is let down a little by some very cheesy and stilted dialogue and an unfortunate decision to digitally paint the artwork, which makes it dark and hard to read for the most part, and without the wit of Buffy, Hack/Slash does come off as a bit of an also-ran, but fans of the slasher genre or those who miss their beloved Buffy comics might look here for their latest fix.
Probably the neatest thing about Hack/Slash is that it follows up what happens after the slasher movie series is over. Recently, Hollywood chanced upon the idea of crossing over the killers of Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, but Seeley goes one better, taking the heroine of one series of slasher flicks and putting her on the road to being the heroine of all the others. Seeley has clearly seen more than his fair share of these flicks, because the story of Cassie Hack and her serial killer mom really rings true in terms of slasher genre cliche, complete with the idea of a sequel with a more over-the-top monster and a perfect serial killer name ("The Lunch Lady"). Where he gets innovative, though, is in exploring the notion that the heroine of this movie might be forever changed into something else, something that was toyed with in the Scream series but really never explored on this level.
Indeed, Seeley has created an interesting world here, where the slasher is a class of monster not unlike a zombie or a vampire, and that means he doesn't have to give any kind of radioactive meteor or heightened magic explanation for their existence. It's just a thing, and you either accept it or you don't. The coincidence of Cassie running into Vlad likewise falls into this "accept it or don't" and it makes perfect sense in context of the world Seeley has created.
While I enjoy the concept and the backdrop that Seeley has created, however, I unfortunately have some problems with the execution. Seeley has a pretty good tone here, but he occasionally takes things into a realm that is a little too jokey or a little too dark. The relationships between men and women in general tend toward the melodramatic, and while I've known overly demonstrative couples in real life, it seems like every couple we see is too wrapped up in one another and given to painful romantic platitudes, which makes them feel less real, even against the backdrop of serial killers and monsters. There's also some generally awkward dialogue, and while I liked some of Cassie's snappy repartee, some of it is groan-inducing, and not in a good way.
The largest problem that Hack/Slash has is the artwork. The shame of the thing is that Stefano Caselli has done a good job here, creating some very nice visuals for the monstrous Vlad or the main killer of the story and doing some really creepy work on the zombified animals. Unfortunately, some of the storytelling is a bit on the weak side, with the action in particular needing some opening up and some of the backgrounds being very sparse. Even those problems, however, come down more to the decision to color directly from Caselli's pencils instead of using inks. While some of the book looks shiny and faux-painted as a result, the overall result is that the whole thing is far too dark, and given that the main characters wear a lot of black and dark blue, they tend to become amorphous dark blobs instead of more detailed characters.
