100 Acres of Hell

Director - Hank Leigh Hump

Starring - Gene Snisky (Morning Star, The Adventures of Turkey Dude), Jeff Swanton (By the River Rye, Law and Order), and Jim Roof (Zombie Strippers!, Deathchair: The Chair that Eats)

Release Date - 2019

Genre - Horror

Format - Streaming (Online Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Several weeks ago I made a post in a few indie horror groups on Facebook looking for news, crowd funding links, and so on to post to the site.  My email is always open but new filmmakers and people I haven't been in contact with before don't know how to contact me for posts on the site.  A few people reached out with news but a handful of people asked me to check out their films.  One of those films was 2019's 100 Acres of Hell from first time director Hank Leigh Hump.  It looks like something I could really get behind so I jumped on it.

       The film follows a former professional wrestler and a group of friends who go out to an old preserve that has been abandoned for some time.  There is a local legend about the preserve but they disregard it and go camping anyway.  Soon they find themselves face to face with the disfigured maniac and his family of inbred women.  

     I'm not a wrestling fan.  I grew up during the Monday Night Wars and was a huge WCW fan but once that was over I found myself slipping away from it all.  I had no idea that Gene Snisky, the actor who played Buck in the film, was actually a professional wrestler that has worked for some of the biggest wrestling promotions in the world.  This really shocked me because he was the best actor in the film.  The acting in this one is extremely uneven and the best performance comes from the professional wrestler.  The supporting cast is a bit annoying and not really enjoyable.  I think they were written that way so the cast may have been doing what they were told to do but it made the scenes extremely difficult to sit through.  With that being said, Gene Snisky really did a fantastic job carrying the film on his shoulders.  As I stated earlier, I'm not a wrestling fan anymore so I had no idea who he was prior to this film.  In fact, I was thinking he looked a lot like David Denman which really confused me.  The story for this one is like so many other horror films before it.  It borrows heavily from films like Friday the 13th, Wrong Turn, and Hatchet.  We follow a group going to an abandoned area only to find themselves hunted down by a disfigured man.  This is literally the same premise as the films I mentioned before plus several others that's been released over the years.  Honestly, I don't mind this type of story with a slasher but the way this one was executed made for a bit of a dull watch.  The scenes are too drawn out and the unlikable characters makes a drawn out scene feel even longer.  Finally, this one has plenty of blood but the kills are pretty unforgettable.  I've been watching slashers for most of my life and the death scenes are what makes them so much fun.  Sadly, this one just doesn't deliver the fun kills that slasher fans are looking for.  Overall, 100 Acres of Hell is an interesting premise but it's unable to put a new spin on an old story.  The cast makes it a little difficult to follow and the fun deaths we are looking for just don't show up.  Honestly, this is one I cannot recommend.  Skip it.