Hell Fest

The synopsis for 'Hell Fest' is one of the best I've read in a long time. "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." If that doesn't sound like a fun horror movie to you then I don't know what will. Sadly though, the actual film can't live up to the expectations. The actual product is a rather dull, "seen it all before", snoozefest if I'm perfectly honest.

The entire film takes place in a horror amusement park where characters jump out at people constantly. At first this is mildly amusing, however very quickly it becomes tedious and annoying. It is simply an easy cop-out for the director to find a jump-scare every couple of minutes. None of which are in any way effective. Then there's the actual masked killer. He really didn't do a lot for me. The mask wasn't that intimidating and I didn't like any of the characters enough to care about their fate.

What could have a been a claustrophobic, clever and original horror movie turned out to be quite the opposite on all three fronts sadly. You won't find anything in 'Hell Fest' you haven't seen a thousand times before. It's not an unwatchable movie by any means. It tries its best from start to finish, but it just never really finds its niche. Look elsewhere for a better horror film.

First let me start off, the set design and costumes were amazing. Some of the horror mazes in Hell Fest were extremely creepy. Unfortunately, the plot is a typical generic slasher movie, full of cliches. Nothing really original about this movie. I found two of the characters to be obnoxious and I was waiting for them to be dispatched by the killer. This is the kind of movie where you just turn off your brain and just go with it.

I felt like this film should have came out in October but close enough I guess. I actually really liked the trailer for this. Amusement park themed horrors have a lot of potential. They don't happen that often but they can be so much fun. Look at The Funhouse, that's a solid horror film. Anyways, I wanted to satisfy the horror itch with this slasher. Overall, its not the greatest thing ever but it was a fun flick. It shows off the horror themed park very well and has enough action to keep it afloat for an hour an a half.

The film is about a group of friends who get VIP tickets to a traveling amusement park named Hell Fest. The horror theme park has levels of madness where the scares increase if the visitor dares to go there. Unbeknownst to the group a deranged masked killer sneaks into the park and starts stalking the group namely the lead character, Natalie. Its hard for the group to decipher what is real and what isn't as everything in the park is filled with scares and attacks.

I thought the visuals of the park were nice. You feel like you are actually vicariously living through the park and the scares. There are bright lights, creative monsters, and rides, its all very atmospheric. The character's are terrible. Some are underdeveloped and others are just super annoying. You root for the killer in all honesty. The film has a lot of cheap expected scares and at times skimps on the gore. I was okay with that because slasher's of the past sometimes feel that way.

This is not going to be a super memorable slasher film but I do appreciate the theme of the film and was satisfied enough with the end product. The Hell Fest slasher killer doesn't exactly have a great presence and he falls into regular horror killer tropes but I was entertained with this mindless flick. Its what was needed. A decent enough intro into this upcoming month of horror.

6.5/10

Honestly enjoyable. The premise isn't wholly unique, and eventually you just want the killer to hurry up and start piling up the bodies, but it was fun watching the main characters go through the theme park and at many time you may feel that you're actually going through a haunted house/maze as well.

But the movie is almost exclusively just jump scares, with little tense or suspenseful moments, and towards the end it falls into the pitfalls/tropes of the genre (he killed our friends so let's just give him a quick tap on the head and keep on running!) You can't help but shake your head and reminisce about the first Scary Movie while watching this.

Overall, it did surpass expectations and was entertaining.

Okay, when you do have teens as leading role then this flick is supposed to be for teens. When I look at it from their point then this is to notch. Story is recognizable for them, it contains falling in love, it contains suspense and it contains horror.

As an adult I look at it in some other way. The story do looks great and it should be watched around Halloween. I was into it from the first moment, which had a great opening, until the end. It never bored me and the suspense was all over the movie. Naturally as a horror geek I do look from that point. It do has one gory killing. It's a bit of a slasher, open ending. Was it good, yes, I enjoyed it. Was it bad, not at all, maybe their could have been more killings or red stuff. Is this it, well, it's above mediocre but one that you will forget shortly after seeing. Not for the gorehounds but for those easily being scared.

Gore 0,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5