Hellbent

Four gay men are out for a night of fun at the infamous West Hollywood Halloween Carnival but make the big mistake to moon at a muscular fella wearing a horny mask. Little do they know they just provoked a serial killer who can truly hold a grudge...

Make no mistake, this is classic slasher territory. The film opens with the murder of a couple making out in a car parked in the woods and from there, well I'm sure you can fill the gap.

The originality here of course lies in the characters and for once, thank God, they are not the clichés one could have expected and feared. They are fun loving young men celebrating who they are (as opposed to so many miserable gay characters of the past struggling with their sexuality) and witty as hell, which makes for some funny lines here and there.

Don't get me wrong though. "Hellbent" doesn't play the self referential game that most modern slashers do. At times, the movie is tense and, I must admit, the last part got me on the edge of my seat. The characters are sympathetic and humane, albeit not quite fleshed out. The movie is well shot, the acting is convincing and some death scenes are quite impressive.

Sure, the plot is a bit thin but then again: it's only a slasher (hardly rocket science). Far from redefining the genre or breaking new grounds, the movie is at least honest in its intentions.

"Hellbent" is actually less of a gay movie for a strictly gay audience than it is a pure pop-corn movie for any open-minded movie goer looking for a genuine good 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.

Some may feel that queer cinema was due for a slasher film. But what is the point really? It's no longer enough for me to see a film only because it features attractive men with hot bodies. What about story? Character development? Acting? Are these not important?

The premise of this film is as follows. A psycho killer stalks a group of gay friends on Halloween night. That's it. More frustrating is the fact that at the end, the audience is given no indication as to who the killer is or why he did what he did. Honestly, if these were straight characters, would such an unoriginal film get released or even made for that matter? There wasn't even much humor in the film to make the excessive gore easier to take. I especially disliked the scene in the bathroom where the most likable character was beheaded right after he expressed his happiness about getting a phone number from a guy he liked.

So now we have our gay slasher film. A step forward or a step backward?

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!

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?