Hell Fest

 



Director - Gregory Plotkin (Black Mass, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension)
Starring - Amy Forsyth (Robot Chicken, A Christmas Horror Story), Reign Edwards (Snowfall, MacGyver), and Stephen Conroy (Stranger Things, The Host)
Release Date - 2018
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Fun going in.  Hell getting out"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

 



    Horror is a popular genre nowadays.  Once The Walking Dead hit television several production companies were scattering to grab up the next big horror hit like Bates' Motel, American Horror Story, and so on.  Horror started getting some hits at the theater within this time as well.  We have The Conjuring, Insidious, and several more that were not only fan favorites but received well among critics.  This opened the door for more horror with the likes of slashers, paranormal, and even more zombie flicks.  One film that received the theatrical treatment that I was actually excited for was the slasher Hell Fest.  I was not able to catch the theatrical release but I was lucky enough to get a copy for review when it his a physical release.
     The film follows a group of friends who visit an amusement park known as Hell Fest where each attraction is more extreme than the other.  While there they encounter a masked man who they think works for the park but they will soon discover that he is not employed there and his intentions for them will turn deadly.



     I went into this one very excited but I quickly realized that this film was not what I had hoped for.  In fact, I was extremely disappointed with it and how the team behind it approached it.  The acting in this one wasn't bad.  The cast worked with what they had but the characters were so unlikable.  They are so clichéd that they almost felt like a parody of horror characters but lacked the humor to make them fun.  This resulted in what most would consider stale performances when it was actually forgettable characters.  The story for this one is slow moving but borrows heavily from the indie Halloween hit The House That October Built which is set against haunted house attractions and the recent obsession with extreme haunts.  I was not a fan of that film and Hell Fest was just mind numbingly boring.  You can see the scares coming a mile away and the story is nothing we haven't seen before.  Finally, there is a few on screen kills.  One or two were extremely fun to watch with great practical effects but the writing got lazy as the film progressed and we get extremely lackluster kills with minimal effects.  Overall, Hell Fest is the biggest disappointment of 2019.  It took me almost 2 days to finish the film and I can't recommend this to anyone else.  Skip it.