Hell Fest (Review)
Hell Fest is Worth the Price of Admission, but Not Worth the Wait in Line.
Hell Fest might only be as scary as your run of the mill haunted amusement park, but it is definitely just as fun. The entire movie takes place in a haunted attraction, which makes this the perfect flick to catch in theaters before heading out to catch a few scares IRL. The thing is that while it might not be great, it succeeds in a way that so many generic horror movies have failed over the years, and that’s because it actually puts some effort into its characters.
It’s only logical that something like Hell Fest would eventually be made. I’ve been to plenty of Halloween Horror Nights over the years and part of me always wondered what if one of the employees was a psycho killer. Thanks to Gregory Plotkin (who previously worked as an editor on films such as Happy Death Day before becoming a director) I no longer have to worry, because I got a chance to see it in theaters. While the concept might sound stupid in general, the film actually does a pretty good job of making it work, and that’s because it has some pretty spectacular production designs. Throughout the film, even as our heroes were picked off, I couldn’t help but wish I had my own tickets to Hell Fest. Maybe I’ll get lucky and life will imitate art one day… Except without all the murder.
The characters are where Hell Fest really shines, especially when it comes to Amy Forsyth and Roby Attal who play the lead and her love interest. There’s an undeniable chemistry between the two and they are absolutely adorable as in a sort of “baby-deer-standing-for-the-first-time” kind of way). Because of this when the blood starts flying it’s hard not to become emotionally invested in their well being. We want them to survive, which is more than I can say for so many horror films of yesteryear. Of course, there are a few generic auditions to the cast, including Bex Taylor-Klaus who plays a girl who embraces the extravagance of Hell Fest and is too cool to get scared by anything. I’ve enjoyed Taylor-Klaus in a lot of her work from the Scream series to Arrow to Voltron, but the role she has this time around feels identical to so many roles she’s had before. The rest of the actors in the film manage to do their job, but they’re nothing to write home about. Though they certainly do add a bit of ambiance to it.
The most disappointing aspect of Hell Fest is that the murders in the film lack the sort of creativity that we’ve come to see in so many torture porn films like Jigsaw. I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of that particular subsection of the genre, but I do admire the twisted creativity that we’ve come to know and love. Hell Fest has one or two brutal deaths, but overall there really aren’t any that stand out as memorable. Sure, the killer took advantage of a tool or two that were available on hand, but most of the deaths were your standard knife stabbing. Personally, I found it almost a little too tame for the modern face of the genre. That isn’t to say that gore is a necessity, but creativity is.
Casual fans of horror will probably get a lot more fun out of Hell Fest than the hardcore ones. That’s because Hell Fest is a film that might be a firm addition to the genre but puts emphasis on things like story, performances, and pacing. There are so many terrible horror films out there that it’s hard to gauge the quality of the genre. Is horror supposed to expose the artifice of the genre by being terrible in all aspects outside of screaming and spraying blood? Is quality faux pas? I certainly feel like Hell Fest is a much better addition to the genre as far as concept and quality goes, but it doesn’t have the splat/ scream factor so many people look to as stables of the genre.
Let’s get down to brass tacks. Hell Fest is much better than I would have thought it could have been. It doesn’t quite feel like it meets its potential though. My expectations though are because it has so many good elements to it. The actors are all much better than slasher movies deserve and do a damn good job at establishing themselves as characters that you should feel sympathy for. Plotkin is focused more on mood than gore and it pays off in a number of scenes. It’s just that Hell Fest plays it a little too safe at times and that’s it’s biggest fault. It should have reached for the stars because I think it could have made it. Either way, Plotkin has managed to capture my attention in Hell Fest and I hope he doesn’t stray far from the genre.
