Review of Hell Fest (2018) by Joseph D — 27 Sep 2018

As we kick off the Halloween season. Tonight's feature merges 2 classic aspects of this time of year: slasher flicks, & neon haunted attractions. Beware!!

HELL-FEST.

Let's start with the premise. Some friends head out to a haunted mini-theme park, expecting to be startled & thrilled by a bunch of fake scares, completely unaware that a deranged psycho, thirsty for the blood of the innocent, is on the prowl for young meat!

At about 90 minuets, the story moves along at a brusque pace while telling a coherent story. There were jump-scares that knew they were jump-scares & owned it, there were moments of real tension, many of which had a real payoff, & there were quiet moments that let you catch your breath, while still feeling a bit tense.

The cast was, IMHO, above average slasher bait. A decent Final Girl who showed the right amounts of brains, strength, weakness, guts, & fear. Supporting her were a quartet of red shirts, all of whom I was really rooting for, especially one who I would describe as a human cartoon, a real zany sidekick type, they were very entertaining...mostly. The villain, who was called The Other, but whom I call Weasel, for reasons you gotta see the film to know, did what most slashers manage to do; he took a cheap mask, a sharp pointy thing, & channeled his dark desire to take life into those things, making a fairly intimidating human monster. His only drawback was, he's probably gonna be labeled "Discount Micael Meyers", as this film came out not long before the new Halloween film, which will totally overshadow this one, which is a shame, 'cause The Other/Weasel has aspects to their character that set them apart from The Shape, as Meyers was once called. Also, Tony Todd FTW!!

The effects put the gore in glorious! It really looked like we were in a Rob Zombie styled theme park. And the gore came straight outta the Tom Savini handbook for good gore effects! There was no CGI, it was all practical!!! From the biggest mechanical monster to the smallest drop of blood, the attraction was a character unto itself! The atmosphere was palpable. The fake scares giving way to real dread! My complements to the set designers.

Overall, Hell-Fest was a welcome return to classic horror, such as The Funhouse, & yes, Halloween. It reminds us that when we go to Halloween attractions wishing to be scared, we may just get more than we bargained for. & when it's that time of year, you never know what kind've devils lurk just behind that thin. Rubber. Mask. I'm givin' this one 3 & 3/4 stars outta 5!