Halloween sangriento

I was fortunate enough to see a screening at Frameline's Gay and Lesbian film festival, and the audience went nuts. From the moment the lights went down this film kept the sold out crowd on the edge of their seats.

The story follows a group of friends in West Hollywood at a Halloween gathering, and is well written with some predictable yet well executed plot twists. The expected gore is also well done - just enough to keep you clutching at the arm rests! You can really tell that the writer/director is an avid fan of the genre, and that is what makes it great for the rest of us as well.

More importantly, it gives the queer audiences something of our own to relate to, after years of watching "Jamie Lee Curtis" et-al running from the likes of Jason, Freddy and Mike Myers. All I can say is it's about time!

HELLBENT is a tough movie to classify. Yes, it is about a serial killer on one Halloween night in West Hollywood, but it also seems to be a light-hearted takeoff on all the silly teenage massacre horror films. Is it parody or was it meant to be a thriller? No matter, because what we get is an entertaining, well-paced, witty-scripted, full of tension foray through the clubs and alleyways of the very colorful West Hollywood Halloween atmosphere.

Don't search for story motivation: there doesn't seem to be one. A devil-garbed body builder beheads boys, leaving the corpses sans heads to the horror of the community just as Halloween festivities are beginning. Our main characters are four friends who are out for a good time, the leader of whom is costumed as a cop and in reality is a wannabe policeman who failed the course due the loss of an eye. His fellow friends are zippy, tight, and fun loving and along the way many of them fall victim to the 'devil's scythe' (and yes, that is shown in grisly detail!). There is a lot of chase action in dark rooms and darker woods and alleys and the fear quotient is pretty high. The problem is the ending, which doesn't answer any plot motivational questions and unfortunately leaves the door open for future follow-up adventures (or is this merely part of the parody of the multitudinous versions of Freddy, I Know What You Did Last Summer, etc teenie flicks?).

The cast is attractive and seems to be enjoying themselves as actors. The lighting and costuming and musical scoring are on a par with the best production values of films of this genre. In the end it is fun to see a thriller played solely in the gay community without preachy comparisons or strife with the straight folk. It is entertaining for everyone.

I rented this movie last night with friends and at first we were looking for a really bad movie with half naked men in it....actually looking for a homo-erotic horror by David DeCouteau.....what we found was Hellbent.....A really good horror movie....I got scared....it wasn't too campy it wasn't over the top gay....though as in most horror movies the characters sometimes do things...well quite often do things that make you say "why are you parking there?"...or .."Don't go near him."...it was just a group of gay guys ( very attractive gay guys) being stalked and I thought it was great. I'd recommend it to any horror fan looking for a good slasher flick....the acting is decent and the effects are very well done.

A gay "slasher"?? Well, what did you expect when West Hollywood's annual Halloween Carnival is the backdrop? HELLBENT is gay-themed "mainstream" horror (from the makers of HALLOWEEN and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET) that doesn't pander to a homosexual demographic and "fun for the whole family" despite its R-rating, if you know what I mean. A serial killer who collects heads is interrupted by a group of friends on their way to a Halloween parade and he relentlessly tracks them down one by one over the course of the night...

I was surprised to find myself actually caring who'd make it out alive but what's even more amazing is the potent blend of sex & death in the form of the supernatural (?) killer. Even behind his horned, three- quarter mask, "The Devil" is brutally handsome, the homo fatale embodiment of a demon lover one would surrender to willingly ("seasons don't fear the reaper -nor do the wind and the sun and the rain"). He also takes good head but be that as it may, this was wholesome entertainment compared to something like Peter de Rome's THE DESTROYING ANGEL.

Surely it couldn't be the first. But even if it is the "first gay slasher" it's just as bad as the last few slashers I saw for the breeder crowd. I hope the 2nd, 3rd and all subsequent gay slashers are better than this. I've seen better production values on an episode of "Degrassi Junior High." Not scary, suspenseful or even funny. And it seems that gay characters (even when created by gay men) can only be X-takin', circuit-party-frequentin', bathroom-stall-sex-havin' pretty boys. It's kinda tiresome. But hey - what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and if you're gonna have one-dimensional characters in a movie like "I Know What You Did Last Summer," why not have them in this one?