Hell Fest: The Underrated Slasher That Actually Hits Hard
For me, Hell Fest is a slept on underrated gem that deserves a bit of rediscovery. It’s not perfect by any means, however it has a rare ingredient which is likeable teen characters with witty genuine sounding dialogue. When they die, it’s felt, unlike most movies where you chalk another one down and wait for the next. Saying that, this has some excellent kills.
The sets and location use is just the ultimate icing on the cake. A huge horror amusement park funfair and it has the late, great Tony Todd as the host and barker. His voice is heard throughout introducing the crowds to various rides, plus he appears briefly late on.
Anyhow, this ridiculously sized theme park travels the country setting up and is very popular with teens. As an intro segment we witness a girl being butchered in a dark section of the area by a hooded killer (played by stuntman actor Steve Conroy). Her corpse is hung up amongst fake ones to blend in giving him time to escape.
Anyhow, our central young lady is Natalie, who has been at college and returns to stay with her bestie, Brooke, with whom they’ve shared a strained relationship recently due to Natalie being away. Brooke has basically told everyone that she didn’t expect her to show up which is brought up by two people and Natalie finds this rather frustrating, obviously realising she’s neglected her pal.
Brooke’s roommate, Taylor, is a metal head looking chick who’s wise ass and quick witted. Taylor is doing the old side eye to Natalie, protecting Brooke — there’s a bit of animosity going on. Brooke and Taylor’s blokes arrive, both surprised to see Natalie, of course.
The big plan is Hell Fest and VIP tickets courtesy of the likeable Gavin, who has a thing for Natalie. Brooke is hell-bent on getting them together. This starts the first of some genuinely fun dialogue which embarrasses Natalie and Gavin as their friends push increasingly — including the reveal of Gavins paddle fetish.
They all wander the amusement park — Taylor is like a hyper sugar rush ADHD kid with all the horrors on show.
Meanwhile, a hooded figure wearing worn down steel toe cap boots enters the gates and slips on a mask.
Our Scooby Doo gang are all having a great time, winning prizes, etcetera — well apart from Gavin who totally sucks. He’s desperate to win something for Natalie. This comes into play soon.
The hooded brute nudges a random teen who gets in his face, “Oh, am I meant to be scared?!” This seems to be a trigger and reason for him to select his targets. Whilst Natalie and Brooke are dashing around inside one of the attractions filled with wax dummies and shock jump creatures, the girl runs past in terror screaming that he’s going to kill her. They all believe it’s part of the roleplay within the park, even revealing her hiding place. Natalie also accidentally winds him up thus becoming his next prey.
Gavin and Natalie go into a photo booth and end up kissing. Whilst they’re tongue fighting, the hooded figure snatches their pics from outside the booth and rushes off. Brooke sees this and gives chase, eventually quitting after getting a bit spooked out.
On their way to the big attraction which includes, The Deadlights where you sign a load of paperwork stating you’re ok for the masked players to actually touch you, Gavin doubles back with apologies to the gang. His plan is to secretly acquire a teddy thing for Natalie. Gavin decides to steal one from storage and is faced by the hooded masked killer.
Hell Fest is basically a cat and mouse chase but with some of the mice obviously thinking it’s all part of the attractions which adds volumes of tension to proceedings.
The kills are violent, nasty and at points delivered with pure adrenaline and rage — a huge FX team supplied the splatter and body destruction.
All against a well acted bunch of characters. Bex Taylor-Klaus as Taylor (lol) steals the show, they are entertaining and reflect most horror nerds who’d geek out within a real Hell Fest. Tony Todd drops by for about ten minutes and really makes the most of the money he’s been paid for his cameo.
Hell Fest director Gregory Plotkin and the team of writers bring out the best of the actors involved. Plus, the murderer wisely isn’t explained in any way, but not in a shit can’t be arsed having a proper ending kind of way, apart from a glaring error to do with the faceless killer which I’ll leave you to spot.
Gregory has been involved in movies since the late ‘80s taking on various behind the scenes rolls, but he’s also the director of Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension. We all must start somewhere…
I do hope Amy Forsyth gets involved in a few more horror flicks as she has that classic old school surviving girl boom style that isn’t around much these days. I do need to see We Summon the Darkness which was made straight after this one to see if her star quality is a one-off lucky shot or real.
Hell Fest is recommended for a switch off your brain fun romp throughout a quiet evening.
Directed by: Gregory Plotkin
Written by: Seth Sherwood, Blair Butler, Akela Cooper
Produced by: Tucker Tooley, Greg Renker
Special Effects by: Rachel Bongard, Mark Ross, Kyle Yaklin and loads more
Edited by: David Egan, Gregory Plotkin
Music by: Bear McReary
Cast: Amy Forsyth, Reign Edwards, Christian James, Roby Attal, Stephen Conroy, Tony Todd, Bex Taylor-Klaus
Year: 2018
Country: USA
Language: English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 1h 30min
Studio: CBS Films, Tucker Tooley Entertainment, Valhalla Entertainment
Distributor: Lionsgate
