Hellions

Hellions is the latest film from Bruce McDonald who helmed Pontypool (2008), a film which showed that he was a director who was not afraid to approach old ideas in new ways. With Hellions, it could be said that he is adopting the same philosophy. Its story focuses on a teenage girl who lives in a town famed for its pumpkin crop. On Halloween night she discovers she is pregnant to her boyfriend and very soon finds herself home alone and terrorized by strange, costumed, demonic children who seem to be after her unborn child.

To be honest just going by the synopsis you could be forgiven for thinking this is going to be no more than a routine horror outing with little to differentiate itself from the pack. But in practice it's a whole lot better than that. This is mainly on account of the stylised manner in which its story has been brought to the screen. Once our heroine is in the midst of her struggles, lots of colour filters are used to create a weird Halloween fantasy land which creates quite a nice off-kilter atmosphere. Not only that but this is one of the few recent horror films that actually makes an effort with its soundtrack too; the score by Todor Kobakov and Ian LeFeuvre is a consistently inventive, layered and spooky concoction. Rounding things off there is a strong central performance from Chloe Rose and decent support work from Robert Patrick.

Content-wise, there's nothing especially new here but the manner in which it is brought to the screen shows considerable care and effort. There's quite a lot to appreciate in the visuals and soundtrack in particular, while the creepy kids are donned out in some imaginatively sinister costumes. This one successfully creates its own distinctive ambiance and that seems like a pretty good enough achievement to me.

Yours truly is a diehard horror fanatic, but also a sucker for mushy traditions. During the Christmas period I seek out holiday-horror with psychotic Santa's or demonic elves, and on All Hallows' Eve I like to stay in theme as well. And, since you can't watch John Carpenter's "Halloween" every year, it's good to have some alternatives. "Hellions" isn't nearly as good or entertaining as, say, "Trick 'r Treat" or "Tales of Halloween", but I'm nevertheless glad that I watched a genuine Halloween flick with spooky seasonal decoration, gruesome costumes and lots & lots of pumpkins! Perhaps I'm being too generous here, as I was in a festive mood, but I think "Hellions" is a solid film for a mere two-thirds of the running time. Bruce McDonald, director of the - in my humble opinion - heavily overrated "Pontypool", creates an ideally sinister atmosphere and comes up with an efficiently unsettling premise. The rebellious but troubled 16-year-old Dora Vogel finds out she's pregnant, so she's pondering alone at her house while the rest of her family goes out trick or treating. Eerie kids with seriously terrifying masks and outfits soon come knocking at her door, but these little monsters aren't satisfied with regular candy. They want Dora's unborn baby, and anyone who tries to protect her won't survive the night! The set-up of the plot is great, the little demon-kids look petrifying and Chloë Rose is a persuasive young actress. So far so good, but admittedly Bruce McDonald has no idea where his surreal storylines are going or how to lead everything towards a credible finale. The skies over Dora's isolated little town suddenly color purple and pink, along with various other surreal and inexplicably bizarre phenomena, which causes us to suspect that McDonald tries to cover for the lack of content and/or continuity with visual distractions. Nice try, but horror fans really aren't as dumb as some people think, you know! I'll remember it for the handful of authentic frights, but "Hellions" definitely won't become a cult classic.

To be honest I can't really say I'd recommend Hellions. I found merit in it being quite different, having a decent cast and having some cool effects and not a bad and relatively original premise. The Hellions themselves had great potential and really looked quite cool. The movie eschewed normality for quite a surreal atmosphere and visual palette, there was also some cool original music which was creepy. It all got very confusing however between what was dream, reality, supernatural or whatever. By the end I didn't really care anymore as the narrative was lost due to me being confused generally. Maybe some horror fans may appreciate this movie, do not however watch if expecting a child it was quite graphic in some brief scenes.

Boring, clichéd teen ghost story/slasher that is more of an exercise in how to recycle tired elements such as overused sound effects, children being creepy, and the whole unborn demon pregnancy angle.

What's worse is most of the movie is filmed in this gross purple-pink filter, which doesn't make sense... and as expected, the main character makes several unrealistic, irrational choices that help escalate the situation she's a victim of.

I feel for Robert Patrick, who now seems relegated to playing the generic role of a small town cop in lame horror movies. His minimal screen time suggests he probably did not earn much for this appearance, though he is or was always a relatively dignified actor.

This movie made me roll my eyes so hard that I could hear it, and incidentally it was the first time I jumped.

It's Halloween again and my thoughts about this film, which I saw at TIFF 2015, are as mixed as ever. Bruce McDonald's art-house take on Halloween horror is terrific until the frustrating non-ending. I was loving the eccentric direction, off-kilter cinematography, sympathetic performances, mysterious killer kids, end the whole dream-or-reality puzzle. But then...

I suppose the short run time should be a hint this is an unfinished movie, but honestly what were the producers thinking, letting this be released? Why not sit down with the director, point out this glaring problem, and offer to scare up funds for some additional writing and shooting to finish a potentially worthy follow-up to his great Pontypool.

All that said, I still can't recommend against watching it; you don't want to miss what there is, but be prepared to imagine a third act.