History WebVideo / Hatchetfield

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Words and names beginning with the letter "W" are bizarrely common in relation to the paranormal phenomena throughout the series: the BigBad Wiggly, his nemesis Webby, his servant Wiley, the Waylon family who founded his religion; the Witchwood Forest, the amusement park Watcher World, the evil Witch in the Web, and the ape-man Wooly-Foot.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Hatchetfield in general is one of the TownWithADarkSecret, and seems to be an answer to ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale''. The latter podcast talks about the unnatural oddities as normal, with radio host Cecil Baldwin reassuring listeners that everyone can handle the horror, along with their mundane lives, if they know what they're facing. As we see in ''Theatre/BlackFriday'', regular people acknowledge that these horrors shouldn't be happening; far from ConditionedToAcceptHorror, the protagonists have a LogicalLatecomer response to finding out they're trapped with an EldritchAbomination in the form of a CreepyCute doll. Case in point, Lex is worried about getting her little sister to safety, as TheCassandra Hannah is in a TroubledFetalPosition and crying [[spoiler:after watching Ethan die]], while Becky and Tom hide out from the cultists in the movie theater and wonder how their lives led to such pointless violence. They acknowledge at the end of the show that none of them signed up for being survivors of a horror scenario.

* HorrorComedy: The genre of the series as a whole. [=StarKid=]'s signature crass humor, heartwarming relationships, and excellent music remain ever-present, but now exist underneath a constant atmosphere of unease and suspense. The paranormal threats appearing in each story run heavily on {{Bathos}}, as they're largely ridiculous concepts which nonetheless manage to be genuinely scary in their presentation.

** ''WebVideo/NightmareTime'' Episode 1 gives us what may be a RetCon that Hatchetfield is in fact a well-known tourist destination -- to the point where the island is served by its own small airport -- and is the kind of "tiny town" that's only "tiny" because the permanent population is greatly outnumbered by transients. (We hear the pejorative word "townies" for permanent residents of such a town used a couple of times for Hatchetfielders later in the series.) "The Hatchetfield Ape-Man" reveals that the Duchess of Stockworth's family used to travel all the way from the UK to take their holidays in Hatchetfield for the beaches and the wildlife, and "Watcher World" reveals that Hatchetfield Island is home to the eponymous AmusementParkOfDoom, which seems to be a major regional attraction akin to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_point Cedar Point]] (with "the tallest rollercoaster in the Midwest"). This is TruthInTelevision for a Michigan island community -- Mackinac Island in Lake Huron is known as the most popular tourist destination in the state, where the Michigan Governor's official summer residence is located -- but most of these towns are ''way'' too small to be a RealLife version of Hatchetfield. (Mackinac Island has a permanent population of less than 500.)

* LovecraftLite: Hatchetfield dips into various different genres of horror, but the overarching MythArc is very much inspired by the Franchise/CthulhuMythos. Qualifies as "Lite" because we're clearly shown beacons of hope: while the eldritch horrors are immensely powerful, it's possible to trick them, to foil their plans, and to throw off their control with ThePowerOfLove.

* MusicalWorldHypothesis: Each work in the series utilizes its songs in a unique way:

* WeirdnessCensor: ''Theatre/NerdyPrudesMustDie'' indicates that, like [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Sunnydale]] and [[Film/HotFuzz Sandford]], mysterious deaths and disappearances are commonplace in Hatchetfield and the locals tend to tune them out. Most of what we see in Hatchetfield seems to be a thorough deconstruction, as our protagonists tend to have realistically horrified reactions to the slightly-comical paranormal events they find themselves in.

* GenreRoulette: As of ''WebVideo/NightmareTime'' [[WordOfGod Nick Lang]] has admitted he and Matt are throwing in everything including the kitchen sink in terms of story ideas into Hatchetfield, resulting in some entertaining MoodWhiplash; Episode Two of ''WebVideo/NightmareTime'' is using ideas that were clearly originally in the ScienceFiction genre adapted to fit a HorrorComedy franchise. The fact that the series runs on multiple AlternateTimelines means that if there's an element that doesn't seem to fit in the over Hatchetfield mythos, it can easily be said to only exist in that one timeline.

[[caption-width-right:350:'''Paul:''' Could be worse. You could be dying in Clivesdale.]]

'''Hatchetfield''' is a SharedUniverse of HorrorComedy stories created by the Creator/LangBrothers, set in the small fictional town of Hatchetfield, Michigan, a TownWithADarkSecret haunted, in many different realities, by all sorts of paranormal, extraterrestrial, and interdimensional phenomena. Written by the Lang brothers with music by Creator/JeffBlim, the Hatchetfield saga has been the main focus of Creator/TeamStarKid ever since they moved their operation from Chicago to Los Angeles in 2018.

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Words and names beginning with the letter "W" are bizarrely common in relation to the paranormal phenomena throughout the series: the BigBad Wiggly, his nemesis Webby, and his servant Wiley; the Witchwood Forest, the amusement park Watcher World, the evil Witch in the Web, and the ape-man Wooly-Foot.

** ''WebVideo/NightmareTime'' gives every story a ThemeTune that plays at the beginning or end, but any time a song is performed ''during'' a story -- which happened in only one story in the first season but became more commonplace in the second -- it is 100% diegetic, with the characters very explicitly setting themselves up for a rehearsed public performance before every song begins.

** The [[EldritchAbomination Lords in Black]] of WebVideo/{{Hatchetfield}}, present as this, manifesting directly from [[EldritchLocation The Black and White]] and can pull folks back and forth between dimensions. This happens multiple times in the anthology.

->''Man down, down, down, down\\
Who's swinging the hatchet now, in Hatchet Town?''

->''You’re better on the run from this bloody letting''\\
''Suddenly this show is real upsetting''\\
''It’s looking like the Hatchet sun is setting on us''\\
''Who can we trust?''\\

->'''Emma:''' Man... my whole life, my one goal was to avoid dying in Hatchetfield. But... here we are.\\
'''Paul:''' Hey, could be worse. You could be dying in Clivesdale.

* SmallTownRivalry: A RunningGag throughout the series is the town of Hatchetfield having a fierce rivalry with the town of Clivesdale, the neighboring town just across the bridge on the mainland. Hatchetfield's unofficial town motto seems to be "Fuck Clivesdale!" Guess who is stated to be the Hatchetfield Nighthawks’ football rivals happen to be in ''Theater/NerdyPrudesMustDie''? The Clivesdale Chemists.

* WeirdnessCensor: ''Theatre/NerdyPrudesMustDie'' indicates that, like [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Sunnydale]] and [[Film/HotFuzz Sandford]], mysterious disappearances are commonplace in Hatchetfield and the locals tend to tune them out. Most of what we see in Hatchetfield seems to be a thorough disconstruction, as our protagonists tend to have realistically horrified reactions to the slightly-comical paranormal events they find themselves in.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Hatchetfield in general is one of the TownWithADarkSecret, and seems to be an answer to ''Welcome to Nightvale''. The latter podcast talks about the unnatural oddities as normal, with radio host Cecil Baldwin reassuring listeners that everyone can handle the horror, along with their mundane lives, if they know what they're facing. As we see in ''Theatre/BlackFriday'', regular people acknowledge that these horrors shouldn't be happening; far from ConditionedToAcceptHorror, the protagonists have a LogicalLatecomer response to finding out they're trapped with an EldritchAbomination in the form of a CreepyCute doll. Case in point, Lex is worried about getting her little sister to safety, as TheCassandra Hannah is in a TroubledFetalPosition and crying [[spoiler:after watching Ethan die]], while Becky and Tom hide out from the cultists in the movie theater and wonder how their lives led to such pointless violence. They acknowledge at the end of the show that none of them signed up for being survivors of a horror scenario.

* EverytownAmerica: Hatchetfield was initially designed to be this stereotype in ''Theatre/TheGuyWhoDidntLikeMusicals, although even then it had a few traits peculiar to it, like being an island community to enable the ClosedCircle of the plot. There's been more stuff since then fleshing out the specific kind of community Hatchetfield is, mostly revolving around Hatchetfield being a resort community with a lot of tourist traffic.
* ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter: Alice would never admit it, but Bill's assessment of her choice of girlfriend is absolutely correct. He says that Deb is not worth Alice's time and that she could do better. He's fine with her being queer, but he wants her to date someone who will treat her well. Considering that Alice stayed in Hatchetfield rather than go to Clivesdale to spend an extra day with Deb, that [[spoiler:gets her killed]], she might have listened to her father. [[spoiler:The ''Nightmare Time'' timeline has Alice worrying that Deb will hook up with someone else behind her back, and is [[GutPunch heartbroken to see that her worries were true]] after checking Instagram]].

** ''Theatre/BlackFriday'' falls firmly under the Adaptation hypothesis; the songs are a dramatic reconstruction of the characters' thoughts, speeches being made, or events such as a riot.
** ''WebVideo/NightmareTime'' generally does not employ songs in its storytelling at all, instead merely giving every story a ThemeTune or two. The only story in the series to have musical numbers within it is ''Watcher World'', whose songs are performed diegetically by the Sniggles, but with music videos for the audience's benefit.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The third stage show in the Hatchetfield trilogy, ''Nerdy Prudes Must Die!'', was put on indefinite hiatus by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, as was the production of ''Workin' Boys'' or any other planned conventional short films and {{Web Video}}s. The Zoom-based script-reading show ''WebVideo/NightmareTime'' was conceived as a replacement, both with new stories being written for it and older ideas being recycled into ''Nightmare Time'' scripts. Creator/NickLang has brought up that this may lead to ''Nerdy Prudes Must Die!'' being scrapped, both because bits and pieces of it are being cannibalized for ''Nightmare Time'' and because of timeline issues -- thanks to DawsonCasting being averted for Hannah Foster, who's played by Kendall Nicole, an actual teenager, Hannah is aging in real time along with Kendall, meaning there's a "time limit" on telling Hatchetfield stories. As the ChosenOne whose ComingOfAgeStory is deeply tied to the Hatchetfield MythArc, Hannah's age in each story is very important for the Hatchetfield timeline -- and Creator/NickLang has said that if "time runs out" and Hannah catches up and overtakes the age of the high school characters of ''Nerdy Prudes Must Die!'' then it might be necessary to scrap the show completely. (He hasn't given details of exactly why this is necessary, but it can be inferred that the plot of ''NPMD'' probably has to take place before the Hatchetfield GrandFinale, and that the teenage characters of ''NPMD'' are tied to existing characters in such a way that they have to be older than Hannah-- and interact with Hannah -- when ''NPMD'' happens.)

* SpiritualSuccessor: Despite the massive difference in tone and style, the Hatchetfield series has been said to be one for ''Theatre/TheTrailToOregon'' -- the Creator/LangBrothers describe the decision to do ''Theatre/TheGuyWhoDidntLikeMusicals'' as driven by the desire to reunite the same ProductionPosse who did ''TTO'' in 2014, saying it was the most fun and the easiest experience they'd had doing a show in the past and wanted to keep this same team going in the future. The Hatchetfield series has the same songwriter as ''The Trail to Oregon'', Creator/JeffBlim, and a similar MoodWhiplash-based comedic sensibility. There's even a explicit CallBack to a concept from ''TTO'' with Blinky's title "The Watcher with a Thousand Eyes", referencing the "horror" sequence in ''TTO'' leading into the song "Dysentery World".

* TownWithADarkSecret: What the secret ''is'' depends on the story, but all is clearly not what it seems in Hatchetfield.

* * The [[EldritchAbomination Lords in Black]] of WebVideo/{{Hatchetfield}}, present as this, manifesting directly from [[EldritchLocation The Black and White]] and can pull folks back and forth between dimensions. This happens multiple times in the anthology.
* SmallTownRivalry: A RunningGag throughout the series is the town of Hatchetfield having a fierce rivalry with the town of Clivesdale, the neighboring town just across the bridge on the mainland. Hatchetfield's unofficial town motto seems to be "Fuck Clivesdale!" Guess who is stated to be the Hatchetfield Nighthawks’ football rivals happen to be in WebVideo/NerdyPrudesMustDie? The Clivesdale Chemists.

* SmallTownRivalry: A RunningGag throughout the series is the town of Hatchetfield having a fierce rivalry with the town of Clivesdale, the neighboring town just across the bridge on the mainland. Hatchetfield's unofficial town motto seems to be "Fuck Clivesdale!"

The originally planned third installment of the series was meant to be the stage musical ''Nerdy Prudes Must Die'', but that was put on hold due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and replaced with ''Nightmare Time'', a series of Hatchetfield mini-stories told via Zoomcast. With the three-episode, six-story series of ''Nightmare Time'' having been revealed near the end of its run to in fact be ''Nightmare Time'' season 1, and Nick Lang having established that ''Nerdy Prudes Must Die'' is not, as many have assumed, the third installment of a trilogy, it is clear that many more Hatchetfield stories are planned for the future.

'''Please keep all Hatchetfield pages free of spoilers for ''Theatre/NerdyPrudesMustDie'' until the show is released to the general public.'''

* LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles:
** Said dozens of characters have been portrayed by a mere fourteen actors -- sixteen if you count Nick Lang, who has served as a stand-in for both Emma and Wiggly and plays TheNarrator of ''WebVideo/NightmareTime'' (which included, on two occasions, taking over for certain minor characters when the assigned actor's mic was off), and Matt Dahan, who "portrays" the leader of the Hatchetfield High School band. This is especially impressive in ''Theatre/TheGuyWhoDidntLikeMusicals''; being the first [=StarKid=] production after they left Chicago, they only managed to get eight actors; they nevertheless managed to populate Hatchetfield via constant costume changes.
** Six more actors debuted in ''Theatre/BlackFriday''. ''WebVideo/NightmareTime'', as of its first season, has introduced a handful of characters to the cast without introducing any new actors. As of ''Black Friday'', Creator/DylanSaunders was the only actor in the series to have only one character, and the first season of ''Nightmare Time'' left him still the only one to have played only one ''major'' character.
** ''Nightmare Time 2'', in addition to adding Jae Hughes and Bryce Charles to the [=StarKid=] family, finally gave Saunders more major characters, and also featured Nick Lang as a prominent actor for the first time in the series, as he had to quickly take over all the roles assigned to Robert Manion, who was asked to temporarily step away from [=StarKid=] following a controversy mere weeks before the season premiered.

-->'''Emma:''' Man... my whole life, my one goal was to avoid dying in Hatchetfield. But... here we are.\\