Hell Fest (2018) [Blu-ray]
Horror

Tagline: Fun Getting In. Hell Getting Out.

A masked serial killer turns a horror-themed amusement park into his own personal playground, terrorizing a group of friends while the rest of the patrons believe that it is all part of the show.

Storyline: Hell Fest is introduced as a horror theme park which travels across the country during the Halloween season. A young girl from Cincinnati is shown to be separated from her group during one of the mazes. There she is confronted by a masked figure known as "The Other". She recognizes The Other as a man who had been following her and her group of friends the entire night. The Other attacks the girl, stabbing her in the gut before hanging her. The young girl's corpse appears to blend in with the other prop bodies as The Other leaves the scene. Natalie is shown to be arriving at her former apartment where her best friend, Brooke, still resides. She greets her old friend but is disappointed to learn that a former classmate, Taylor, whom Natalie does not get along with is living with her. Though Natalie's visit was planned, Brooke is shown to have been uncertain that Natalie would actually arrive as she had been distant of late due to school and work. As such Brooke and Taylor arranged a visit to Hell Fest with Quinn, Brooke's boyfriend, Taylor's boyfriend Asher, and their respective friend Gavin who is attracted to Natalie.

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, January 2, 2019 Chances are very few if any of you coming to this review have heard of, let alone actually seen, a couple of films I reviewed over the past couple of years, but I couldn't help but think that someone associated with Hell Fest may have stumbled across either The Devil's Carnival or its kinda sorta follow up Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival somewhere along the line, since Hell Fest has more than a few elements in common with those two films. All three films feature what amount to theme parks inhabited by what appear to be denizens of "down under" (not that one, the place with the big horned guy), and all three feature a somewhat lurid lighting design that tends to bathe things in weird, almost hallucinogenic, tones of orange, blue, green and red. All three films also offer a glut of characters in outlandish makeup and/or costumes, often as "employees" of their respective parks. Hell Fest is more in the "slasher" mode (rut?) than either of The Devil's Carnival films, but for those who are fans of this particular film, I suggest checking out the two previous outings to see if you can see the same similarities that I did. Hell Fest has some undeniable scares, and it's frequently kind of unsettlingly moodly, but it's also awfully formulaic a lot of the time, including its proffering of a masked slayer whose real face is never seen and who is known as The Other (not this one, and, yes, I'm joking).

Both of The Devil's Carnival films admittedly offer a more literal interpretation of "good vs. evil", including the longstanding struggle between the ruler of heaven and his recalcitrant fallen angel far, far below, but in terms of presentational style and even some of the interchanges between theme park visitors and employees, Hell Fest is surprisingly in league with that particular devil. The film begins with a brief vignette documenting some girls making (or attempting to make) their way through some kind of scary labyrinth at a theme park, with one of the girls mentioning how freaked out she is that some guy has been following her the entire time they've been there. Unless you've never seen a horror film before in your entire life, you can probably guess what happens next — that particular female is separated from her friends and is almost immediately accosted by the masked culprit, who summarily stabs her and then hangs her from the ceiling in what almost appears to be a "trophy room" of his previous victims— or are the other hanging bodies merely dummy props? Oooh — scary! .

The film then predictably segues to a brightly lit outdoor moment where Natalie (Amy Forsyth) is shown arriving at the apartment of her BFF Brooke (Reign Edwards). Stabs (sorry) at character development are offered here, with Natalie being presented as someone in the throes of uncertainty, and furthermore distressed to find out that she may be the third wheel in this get together, since Brooke is rooming with Taylor (Bex Taylor-Klaus), a kind of abrasive girl whom Natalie definitely does not consider a BFF. Add in three males as partners for these women, and you have your basic teen sextet (emphasis kind of surprisingly not on the sex in this horror outing, but I digress) who decide to visit Hell Fest and some of whom of course are going to be picked off one by one as the film progresses.

Now one place where Hell Fest actually achieves some viscerally frightening aspects is in one of the first kills, which (again, kind of surprisingly) is not one of the six focal characters. Instead, Natalie, Brooke and Taylor do indeed run across The Other (Stephen Conroy), but almost tangentially, as he's already on the hunt for another girl. That unfortunate victim is slain right before Natalie's eyes, but she thinks it's just an extremely realistic part of the theme park experience. Hell Fest repeatedly tries to play off of this "what is really threatening and what isn't" ambience, but unfortunately it falls victim to the law of diminishing returns.

Probably needless to say, there are ultimately victims among the six main characters, and admittedly the kill scenes will probably satisfy gore hounds who like things violent and bloody. There seems to be genuine camaraderie among the cast (as also evidenced by the brief EPK included as a supplement), and the film is generally well staged and stylishly shot, but this is one theme park that many will probably feel like they've visited before, whether or not they've seen either of The Devil's Carnival films.

One thing I didn't mention about either of The Devil's Carnival films is that they both are ostensibly musicals, though my hunch is very few are going to come away from either film humming any tunes from them. While Hell Fest obviously doesn't go that particular route, I couldn't help but wonder if it had featured a little bit more of a winking attitude, especially since it wants to play on the whole dialectic between "real" and "fake" scares, it might have achieved a little bit more distinction. It's obvious the filmmakers are attempting to create a new franchise villain with The Other. He's seen in one mask in the opening vignette, and another one for the bulk of the film, and toward the end a little cabinet containing a whole host of other Other masks is displayed, but unless you're instinctively frightened by a menacing guy in a blue hoody, The Other may not have horror film legs, as they say. This is an okay enough time killer (slashed or otherwise), but it never really amounts to more than a passable diversion. Technical merits are first rate for those considering a purchase.

[CSW] -1.3- If I had only been able to care about any of the characters then maybe...but I was ready for all of them to go. Add that to the fact that it was PG-13 so you didn't get the real gore and all you're left with is jump scares. Although the sets and makeup might be nice for an actual haunt, it pales in comparison to all of the recent living dead TV shows. Using 30 somethings playing teens or 20 year old's didn't cut it either. I'll stick with my belief that a good horror movie cannot be rated PG-13 without also marking it a thriller and/or mystery and this didn't include either.
[V4.5-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box


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