Hell Fest

Well Kiddies it’s that time of year where the leaves are about to change color and we all enjoy Pumpkin Spiced…Everything!

Two things that I love the most about this time of year is the massive amounts of Horror programming and the openings of Haunted Attractions that I will spend most of the season filming for HauntShooter.

Now in the past couple of years we have seen a strange amount of genre films that contain the premise of a Haunted House, and I have to say that I like this.

It is no secret that Haunts are a personal passion of mine and one of the advantages of running a show is that I get to attend attractions all over the place during the Halloween season. Not to mention others hat are open during different times of the year.

Needless to say this past Thursday I fired up The Regal and headed over to The Alamo Drafthouse in Irving, used my Victory coupon to order myself a Carnivore Pizza and a Shiner Bock, and caught an advance screening of Hell Fest to officially kick off the 2018 Halloween season.

Okay Kiddies I want to say that this flick is the “Basic Slice and Dice” but it feels like a batter flick than the common Slasher flick.

Our plot follows a pair of reunited best friends, who along with another former classmate and their boyfriends attend a traveling Haunted Park while Unknown to them a masked killer is stalking them while blending in with the employees of the park.

While following the typical tropes of the slasher the reason that I compare it to some of the originals is we have the setting of the Haunted attraction, The randomness of the killer, and the Typical “Final Girl” with the other characters being systematically taken out however they do not follow the typical order.

I would be willing to say that this flick is a combination of John Carpenter’s  Halloween, The Strangers, Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse and The Town That Dreaded Sundown.

Both the acting and camerawork in the film also combines well and the location and the lighting works, especially for those of us that are familiar with Haunts. That also has it’s drawbacks as we obviously will know where to escape and must remind ourselves that the characters are not there as employees but as patrons.

All in all this flick was enjoyable and we may see it appearing on lists of the better flicks of this time in the future or on lists of the great flicks that you have not seen. This will either be a hit or will find it’s audience on the streaming services.

6 Dead Bodies
0 Breasts
1 Beast
1 Dull Guillotine
Multiple Stabbings
Head Crushing
Photo Stealing
Eyeball Fu
Kudos to Bex Taylor-Klaus as the Haunt enthusiast and to Candyman himself Tony Todd for Cameo of the month.

3 Stars

Check it out!