Horror
movies are supposed to be cathartic, but you wouldn’t want to be in one, unless
you already were. Take Natalie and her boring friends. They are characters in a
horror movie, so they might as well go to a special horror theme park, because
it will make it much easier for a serial killer to stalk them there. They
should know better, but they will break just about every rule of horror movie
survival in Gregory Plotkin’s Hell Fest (trailer here), which releases
today on DVD.
For
some reason, Natalie has been out of the picture for a while, but now she is
back. To celebrate, her bestie Brooke has organized a trip to Hell Fest with
her new roommate, Taylor (who Natalie never could stand) and their respective
guy pals. In Natalie’s case, she and Gavin are not quite together yet, but he
is hoping the VIP access he arranged at Hell Fest will duly impress. Unfortunately,
an unnamed serial killer who preys on patrons of haunted houses and creepy
theme parks also came to play. Typically, he can rack up a decent body count,
because potential witnesses usually assume it is all part of the show. This
time around, Natalie notices his first kill of the night looks a little too
real, so he starts stalking her group.
Hell Fest makes us wish we
had given Owen Egerton’s Blood Fest a
more enthusiast review, because it does so much more with precisely the same
premise. In Blood, the rules of
horror movies are important. Whenever somebody breaks them, they know they are
asking for trouble. In contrast, the stock characters of Hell Fest split up and wander off on their own all the time,
without giving it a second thought. Egerton also creates a richer backstory,
including scores of fictional horror franchises that are incorporated into the
Blood Fest park attractions. Horror fest keeps everything generic and therefore
indistinguishable from dozens of previous horror flicks (like The Funhouse Massacre, which is probably
even better than Blood Fest).
The
characterization is minimal, but the cast is not bad. Amy Forsythe’s Natalie is
relatively intuitive and assertive, especially by genre standards. Bex
Taylor-Klaus scratches out a few laughs as the snarky frienemy. Fans will also
be psyched to see the name of genre legend Tony Todd in the credits, but he is
mostly heard as the official voice of Hell Fest—and only briefly seen as “the
Barker” in one of park’s gruesome stage shows.
Speaking
of genre legends, super-producer Gale Anne Hurd (The Terminator, Aliens, The Walking Dead) lent the film her
prestige and organizational talents, but it is hard to understand why, judging
from thee final product. To put it plainly, this general concept has been done
better in at least two vastly superior films that arguably have more respect
for the fans and conventions of the horror genre. So, what’s the point of Hell Fest? Not recommended, it is now available
on DVD and BluRay.