Hatchetfield

Hatchetfield is a franchise from the American theater troupe Team Starkid. It covers strange happenings in a mysterious Midwest town, with alternate timelines, musical numbers and a lot of f-bombs to boot.

Nothing should happen in Hatchetfield. All it has is the Starlight Theater, a Beanie's Coffee with singing baristas, and a mall with the hottest toys in town. For some reason, however, Hatchetfield attracts several supernatural creatures, and apocalypses. Whether it's a Hive Mind turning people into singing zombies, or a persuasive Eldritch Abomination posing as a plush toy, you can bet that the world will end thanks to what starts in this town. Expect your favorite characters to die. A lot. But that's okay, because a new timeline or continuity starts in each show! And maybe, one day, the characters will find their happy ending or save the multiverse. Both would be ideal, to save everyone regardless of the timeline.

The franchise has several works: stage musicals The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, Black Friday, and the musical web series Nightmare Time. Nerdy Prudes Must Die is a work-in-progress, meant to close out the stage musical trilogy. Thanks to the pandemic, however, it is TBD when Nerdy Prudes will come out depending on theaters reopening.


 * Adult Fear:
 * Bill, no matter the timeline, is shown to be in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife over his teenage daughter Alice. Seventeen-year-old Alice, college-bound in a year, seeks a career in the arts and resents that Bill keeps trying to be a goofy Bumbling Dad when she needs someone to support her wholeheartedly. She also hates that Bill is right that her girlfriend Deb is not good enough for her, as Deb is a stoner who encourages Alice to play hooky and . Fortunately in "Watcher World,".
 * Charlotte Sweetly's in a loveless marriage with her husband Sam, who is a Dirty Cop that she knows is cheating on her. Sam refuses to comply with couples counseling and rarely comes home. She's cheating on him in turn, because Ted is the only source of comfort that she can find, and Black Friday hints that Ted really does have feelings for her but is too insecure to admit them..
 * Black Friday would run on this trope if not for the supernatural threat. A mall riot breaks out on the titular day, because every adult in line at the toy store wants the Tickle-Me-Wiggly.
 * "Honey Queen" has the villainous Linda and Gerald Monroe react this way when.
 * Asshole Victim: While not everyone in Hatchetfield deserves the multiple times they get killed on or offscreen, quite a few show it's hard to mourn for them:
 * Emma's boss Zoey is a diva actress and Mean Boss to her, while carrying on an affair with the married Sam Sweetly. While Emma is a crappy employee, complete with Flipping the Bird at customers and slacking off at work, Zoey is just as much of a slacker as shown in Nightmare Time. Emma also has a point that singing for tips means it's not really a tip, but earning twenty-five cents per song. "Honey Queen" goes further in showing that she.
 * Sam Sweetly is a Dirty Cop that cheats on his long-suffering wife Charlotte who knows that he's scum and cheating on him as well, but trying to make their marriage work. The Hive gets him early in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, owing to the fact that he was with Zoey at the Starlight Theater when the meteor hit. You're in fact cheering when sleazeball Ted bangs him with a traschan lid as a brainwashed Sam chases around a screaming Charlotte while brandishing a gun.
 * No one likes Linda Monroe or her husband Gerald, regardless of the timeline. She's snotty, controlling of her family, and implied to be a sociopath who buys her influence. Therefore, it's hard to mourn when . "Hive Queen" zigzags this when . Despite that, because.
 * It's zigzagged with in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals. Sure neither of them are nice, per se, but
 * A Day in the Limelight: Nightmare Time gets to focus on different characters featured in the musical:
 * "Watcher's World" narrows its focus to Bill and Alice as he drags his daughter to a theme park for a father-daughter bonding trip.
 * "Honey Queen" gives more insight into Linda and Gerald Munroe and their Unholy Matrimony. We also see that Zoey is more than just a Mean Boss to Emma.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Linda's dad is not a nice guy who constantly belittles her and turned her into the monster she is, but when he gets wind of the fact that she and Gerald have been sabotaging the competition to help her win the Honey Queen title. He warns Gerald that he does not want either his daughter or son-in-law to embarrass them..
 * Evil vs. Evil: "Honey Queen" pits Emma's Beanies boss Zoey against Linda Monroe as they try to get the namesake title from the Hatchetfield Honey Queen pageant. Both are revealed to fight dirty to get what they want, and at certain points, it's hard to know who to support..
 * Kick the Son of a Bitch: In "Honey Queen," it should be cruel about the way that the senior Munroe . Thing is, it's Linda.
 * Mama Bear: It only shows up in the second season of Nightmare Time, but.
 * Out-of-Genre Experience: "The Hatchetfield Ape-Man" compared to most of the urban horror of "Nightmare Time" plays out like a love letter to Gothic literature. You have a British heiress investigating a beast with a Mad Scientist manipulating her, and an aura of mystery about the woods around the manor.
 * Papa Wolf:
 * Bill will defend his daughter Alice snd face monsters to save her.
 * Gerald in "Honey Queen".
 * Pet the Dog: At the end of "Honey Queen," Linda leaves a heartfelt voicemail on her husband's phone, saying she loves him and thanks to him for believing in her.