Hellbent: Halloween Sangrento

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.

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.

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?

As a longtime slasher fan, I'm always looking forward to a new entry in one of my favorite sub-genres. When I first heard about this one, I was wary. Not because it was a gay slasher film, but because I was worried that the characters weren't going to be portrayed as real people, but rather caricatures of gay stereotypes. In order for a slasher film to succeed, you need to believe the victims... and thankfully, with Hellbent, I did.

What I got in this film was a really solid slasher flick that was really fun from beginning to end, with beautiful cinematography, plentiful gore, and a very fun locale. While the killer has no direct motive, it works within the context of the story and the movie never gets bogged down with pacing problems.

The characters, while an eclectic bunch, are all believable and keep the story moving along. While the occasional stereotype shows up, one gets the feeling that these are real people in a real situation, which is refreshing. The fact that the central characters are gay quits being a gimmick after the opening scene.

Judging from other reviews here, it appears as though a lot of people didn't care for this film, but I really did have a good time with it. Its funny, gory, and entertaining - which is all I ever ask of my slasher movies. People wanting high cinema should look somewhere else... but if you want high cinema, you probably aren't a slasher fan anyways.

Hellbent is the first gay slasher movie and it's great fun. The guys look great, there's a cute love story, the killer looks extremely sexy and there are some really gory scenes. The characters are nicely developed before some of them are killed. So you really care a bit about them, and that's more than you can say of most horror movies. Evidently it follows the rules of the slasher movie (the ten little Indians-scenario, the killer-behind-the door, etc.), but still it works. Sometimes the characters act just a bit too stupid, but that's just a minor point. I think that the ratings are really much too low, it's just a good slasher with some genuine scary moments. A great movie for a Saturday night.