Review of Hell Fest (2018) by Kj P — 02 Oct 2018

I'm honestly not a huge fan of the horror genre, so take this review with a grain of salt if you're someone who loves that particular genre, but I will always recognize and sometimes love one that deserves it. While Hell Fest isn't something I walked out of the theatre raving about, it serves as a fine film to watch throughout the course of this Halloween season. The most frustrating thing about this film is that it had the potential to be so much more than what it turned out to be. Based on the premise alone, this movie is fantastic, but I don't believe many people will feel that way about the movie as a whole. Here's why, even though I had a good time watching Hell Fest, it's not a must-see.

Hell Fest follows a group of teenagers who venture into the biggest theme park in town on Halloween night. Hoping for a night of fun and terror, what they don't realize is that a killer has disguised himself as an employee of one of the haunted houses and decides to stalk this group around the park in hopes of killing them all. The premise alone of this film is very creepy and gave me chills when comparing it to reality and whether or not someone could actually pull something like this off. In that regard, it's absolutely terrifying. That being said, this movie, although enjoyable, is very far from being terrifying.

The biggest detriment this movie has is the fact that the entire movie revolves around haunted houses that our main characters go through, which makes for some fantastic set pieces and visual style, but you can't help but wish it was you in the haunted houses getting scared. This specific feeling came across my mind on multiple occasions while watching this movie. It was the same feeling I have when watching most movies based on a video game. I would just rather be playing the game myself. Where the movie excels, though, is making you never want to attend an event like this ever again.

This is a film that tries very hard to scare audiences into never wanting to go to a haunted house again and with the way this film cleverly sets up certain sequences, it makes it seem possible, which was bone-chilling. Speaking of chilling, the final moment of this film alone was worth the wait if you're a fan of images that make your skin crawl. Personally, the final shot of this film disgusted me, but in terms of horror movies, that was a good thing.

Hell Fest was made to give horror fans what they want from a slasher film during this time of year. If you go into this film hoping for something deeper than a movie like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or even the best parts of The Final Destination franchise, then I think you'll be disappointed. This is about a killer who disguises himself in a theme park and murders people. There's really not much more to it, due to the fact that the characters in this film are not very memorable, so you'll find yourself sitting back and enjoying a fictional killing spree.

Overall, I seem to have a lot of negative things to say about this film, but I truly just wanted to get a little horror/slasher film kick at the movies, and Hell Fest delivered that for me. It's daily devoid of character development and it's about as by-the-numbers as slasher films get, but the setting, the sense of terror, and the overall scope of the movie was quite a fun viewing experience. If you can sit back and just enjoy a mediocre horror flick with a promising concept, then you may find something to like about Hell Fest. For myself, it's a fine slasher flick if you've already seen the great ones.